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Fivetran

Principal Software Engineer

Oakland, California, United States, AMER
Salary
$225,813 - $282,266
Level
Principal
Work type
Hybrid · Oakland

Not stated in the posting: visa.

Open. First seen 8 May 2026.

Apply on www.fivetran.com →

About the role

From Fivetran’s founding until now, our mission has remained the same: to make access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. With Fivetran, customer data arrives in their warehouses, canonical and ready to query, with no engineering or maintenance required. We’re proud that more organizations continue to leverage our technology every day to become truly data-driven.

Fivetran's standard text

About Us

Fivetran and dbt Labs are bringing together two industry-leading companies with a shared mission: helping organizations unlock the full value of their data. Together, we’re delivering the data infrastructure layer that helps organizations move, transform, and trust their data — from the moment data moves, through every transformation, to the context teams and AI systems rely on. Fivetran helps organizations automate data movement across the systems, clouds, engines, and tools they rely on. dbt Labs pioneered analytics engineering, helping teams transform data into reliable, governed insights.

Together, we support thousands of organizations as they build a trusted foundation for analytics, AI, and better business decisions. As we bring our teams and technology together, we’re building on the strengths of both companies while continuing to deliver the products and experiences our customers know and trust. It’s an exciting time to join us: we’re creating a company with the scale, talent, and technology to help more organizations put their data to work with greater speed, confidence, and impact.

During this transition period, you may see references to both Fivetran and dbt Labs throughout our recruiting process as we integrate our teams, systems, and career sites.

About the Role

Fivetran and dbt Labs are building data pipelines to power the modern data stack for thousands of companies.

Fivetran is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join our Platform Engineering Group, focused on building and evolving the core systems that power our data movement platform.

In this role, you will define and drive the long-term technical vision for critical platform components that enable Fivetran to scale from thousands to tens of thousands of customers. You will operate at the intersection of architecture, execution, and organizational influence — solving deeply complex distributed systems challenges while shaping engineering direction across multiple teams.

If you are passionate about building highly reliable, scalable systems and influencing engineering excellence at scale, this role is a strong fit.

This is a full-time position based out of our Oakland office. Our hybrid work model offers a blend of remote flexibility and in-person collaboration, including two days in the office each week to connect and build as a team.

Technologies You’ll Use

Java (JVM, JIT, GC tuning, thread management), JUnit

Claude Code

Docker and Kubernetes

AWS, GCP

Bazel, BuildKite

Observability tools (Datadog, Grafana)

What You’ll Do

Define Technical Strategy: Set the long-term architectural vision for core platform systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and efficiency.

Lead Complex System Design: Drive the design and evolution of large-scale distributed systems that power Fivetran’s data movement platform.

Drive Cross-Team Initiatives: Lead high-impact projects spanning multiple teams, align stakeholders, and ensure successful execution.

Raise the Engineering Bar: Establish best practices for system design, code quality, and operational excellence across the organization.

Mentor and Influence: Guide and mentor senior and staff engineers, shaping technical decision-making beyond your immediate team.

Improve Platform Performance: Identify and lead efforts to optimize system performance, reliability, and cost at scale.

Champion Innovation: Evaluate and introduce new technologies and approaches to improve developer experience and platform capabilities

Skills We’re Looking For

Extensive Experience: 12+ years of software engineering experience, with deep expertise in building and operating large-scale distributed systems.

System Design Mastery: Proven ability to design and evolve complex, scalable, and reliable platform architectures.

Technical Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading cross-team technical initiatives and influencing engineering direction.

Strong Programming Skills: Expertise in backend development (Java preferred) with a solid foundation in data structures and system fundamentals.

Performance & Reliability: Experience optimizing system performance, scalability, and cost in high-throughput systems.

Communication & Influence: Strong ability to communicate complex technical ideas and influence senior stakeholders.

Ownership & Ambiguity: Track record of driving ambiguous, high-impact problems from definition to execution.

Bonus Skills​

Experience in data processing (ETL, ELT) and/or cloud-based platforms

Experience working in startup environments.

#LI-HYBRID #LI-EM1

The compensation range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire compensation for the target position and level, and may include sales incentives or target bonuses depending on the role. Our compensation ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Our job titles may span more than one career level.

Within the range, individual compensation is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, relevant education or training, business need, market demands. The compensation range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. Your recruiter can share more about the specific compensation range for your location during the hiring process.

Oakland Pay Range

$225,813—$282,266 USD

Perks and Benefits

Fivetran's standard text
  • 100% employer-paid medical insurance*
  • Generous paid time away from work, including paid vacation or flexible/unlimited vacation depending on role and country, plus paid sick time, inclusive parental leave, paid holidays, including a year-end Global Week of Rest, and volunteer days off.
  • RSU stock grants*
  • Professional development and training opportunities
  • Company virtual happy hours, free food, and fun team-building activities
  • Monthly cell phone stipend
  • Access to an innovative mental health support platform that offers personalized care and resources in areas such as: therapy, coaching, and self-guided mindfulness exercises for all covered employees and their covered dependents.

*May vary by country and worker type - please reach out to your recruiter for more information

Click here to learn more about Fivetran's Benefits by Region.

We’re honored to be valued at over $5.6 billion, but more importantly, we’re proud of our core values of Get Stuck In, Do the Right Thing, and One Team, One Dream. Read about us in Forbes.

Fivetran's standard text

Fivetran brings together high-quality talent across the globe to make data access as easy and reliable as electricity for our customers. We value and recognize that our customers benefit from having innovative teams made of people from many backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Fivetran promotes diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging through attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it helps us build a world-class company to better serve our customers, our people and our communities.

To learn more about Fivetran’s culture and what it’s like to be part of the team, click here and enjoy our video.

To learn more about our candidate privacy policy, you can read our statement here.

We are committed to ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to participate in our interview process. If you require accommodations at any stage of the process due to a disability, medical condition, or any other circumstance, please don't hesitate to submit your request by filling out this form. We will work with you to provide reasonable accommodations to facilitate your participation and ensure a fair and accessible interview experience.

Your request and any information provided will be kept confidential and will not impact your candidacy. We look forward to hearing from you and accommodating your needs to the best of our ability.

What this role asks for

Particular to this role

Bazel · Datadog · JUnit

Rare in Fivetran's other 116 open postings.

In most of Fivetran's ads

dbt

Named in most of its open postings, whatever the role.

54% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Fivetran's standard text, folded away below.

Compared with Fivetran's other open jobs.

The team: Engineering Department HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 50 open in Engineering Department. 11 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in March: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

dbt (50 of 50), Fivetran (50 of 50), AWS (42 of 50), GCP (42 of 50), Azure (37 of 50), Kubernetes (37 of 50), Java (33 of 50)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Fivetran's own job board.

Salary context

49 other open postings titled Principal Software Engineer state a salary: median USD 200,000 to USD 250,000 a year.

See Software Engineer salaries in the United States →

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