Principal Software Engineer

Company Description

Dropbox isn’t just a workplace—it’s a living lab for more enlightened ways of working. We're a global community of more than 2,000 bold visionaries and resourceful doers who are shaping the future of Dropbox—and with it the future of work. Our Virtual First model combines the flexibility of a distributed workplace with the power of human connection, making space for both meaningful work and meaningful relationships. With our start-up mindset and enterprise-level opportunities, you can be who you are and grow into who you’re meant to be. Here, you can own your impact to make work more intuitive, joyful, and human—for you as a Dropboxer and for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If you're ready to push boundaries—and yourself— Dropbox is ready for you.

Team Description

The Dropbox Engineering Team builds the technology that creates more enlightened ways of working for hundreds of millions of people. Every day, our platforms—including Dropbox Dash, Dropbox Sign, and our core sync engine—handle over a billion files for users worldwide, creating engineering challenges as great as the opportunity for impact. Our software engineering team uses a range of technologies to solve interesting problems, including Python, React, Node.js, JavaScript, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and Android development. We think like a startup but build for an enterprise, exploring new possibilities that transform how people work. If you're excited about turning complex technical challenges into intuitive solutions at scale, join our Engineering team. Areas of work include Machine Learning Engineers, Infrastructure Engineer, Product SWE Frontend and Backend, Mobile Software Engineers (iOS and Android), Engineering Manager, Data Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Security Engineering, Site Reliability Engineer, Technical Program Managers, Network Engineer, Datacenter Engineer, Technical Supply Chain Manager and more.

Role Description

We are seeking a highly skilled and visionary Principal Engineer to play a central role in shaping the data infrastructure and strategy within our Business Platform organization. As a Data Architect, you will be responsible for driving the strategic direction, development, and optimization of our data platforms. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders across engineering, data science, product, marketing, and finance to ensure that data is reliable, secure, and serves as a cornerstone of our company’s decision-making.

Our mission is to deliver the right data with the right controls through best-in-class data management, ensuring data quality, discoverability, and availability across the organization. This involves architecting scalable, efficient data solutions, building schemas, designing and optimizing transformation pipelines, and maintaining data marts and dashboards. Your work will enable teams to derive valuable insights and achieve ambitious business objectives.

As a strategic leader, you’ll align key initiatives with broader organizational goals and communicate priorities effectively across multiple leadership teams. You’ll have the unique opportunity to define the long-term data vision for the organization, influencing how teams across the company leverage data to innovate and excel. By leading through technical excellence, you will ensure that the data ecosystem supports business growth and operational excellence while serving as a trusted partner and technical mentor within the organization.

This role offers the chance to make a profound impact by enabling data-driven decision-making and shaping the future of our business platform while working with a talented and passionate team of engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a data strategy aligned with the company’s objectives, ensuring scalability, security, and performance.
• Drive the adoption of best practices in data architecture, engineering, and governance across the organization.
• Oversee the development of tools and frameworks for efficient and secure data access, analysis, and processing.
• Ensure high availability and reliability of data systems, focusing on real-time, streaming, and batch processing capabilities.
• Design and implement the long-term vision and architecture for data and analytics to support growth and multi-product efforts.
• Partner with cross-functional teams (Data Science, Engineering, Product, and others) to understand and deliver on their data needs.
• Define and design data integrations, data quality frameworks, and evaluate open-source or vendor tools for data lineage.
• Establish and manage processes to achieve operational excellence, including defining SLAs for production data sets and processes.
• Develop a data aggregation and reporting strategy, including delivering high-impact dashboards, data sets, and visualizations to inform key decisions.
• Train and assist users in transforming data into actionable insights, fostering self-sufficiency in data usage.
• Define and enforce data governance policies to ensure data quality, security, privacy, and compliance across platforms.
• Collaborate with security and compliance teams to manage risks associated with data usage and storage.
• Mentor and grow the team, supporting the development of talented data and platform engineers.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors’ or above in quantitative discipline: Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering preferably in a tech company
• Proven track record in architecting and building large-scale, high-performance data platforms and pipelines in a cloud environment (e.g., AWS).
• Strong experience with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Kafka) and data warehousing solutions (e.g., Databricks).
• Solid understanding of data modeling, ETL processes, and real-time data processing.
• Expertise in leading enterprise business intelligence tools to support development of automated dashboards
• Ability to influence prioritization and execution of high impact data initiatives
• Proven ability in regards to managing and communicating data warehouse plans to internal clients.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Translate business requirements into technical requirements and vice versa.

Dropbox is an equal opportunity employer. We are a welcoming place for everyone, and we do our best to make sure all people feel supported and connected at work.