Principal Platform Engineer (m/w/d)

About the Position

Principal Platform Engineer (m/w/d)

• Homeoffice
• Schöppingen, Deutschland
• Product

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Shopware is a leading E-Commerce system that enables companies worldwide to scale quickly and efficiently in digital commerce. As a forward-looking open-source solution, Shopware is already used by some of the largest European brands, retailers, and manufacturers in the B2C and B2B sectors.

We are looking for a Principal Platform Engineer (m/w/d) to build and operate our Data Platform – the infrastructure for data ingestion, storage, and runtime environments, on which all data pipelines at Shopware run. You will be responsible for its architecture and reliability: from CDC data ingestion through a three-tier data lake to the orchestration platform.

Your work will enable service teams and management to better understand our customers and products. At the same time, you will create the technical foundation to enforce data governance and compliance requirements.

You will work closely with Data & AI, who develop data pipelines on the platform you operate. In the Service Enablement Team, you will ensure that the same golden paths and quality standards apply to the Data Platform as to the rest of the Service Platform. This position is an experienced professional role without direct personnel responsibility. It is important that you enjoy working with many stakeholders, colleagues, and partners.

Responsibilities

• Data Ingestion: CDC ingestion via DMS/Lambda into the raw area of S3, as well as responsibility for raw schema and data contracts. The platform currently includes 13 domains and around 180 schemas across three levels. 11 CDC sources are already in production, with more to come.
• Storage and Orchestration: Responsibility for the orchestration platform provided with Terraform based on Step Functions, EventBridge, and Glue across all three lake levels (Raw, Curated, and Aggregated), as well as the associated CDC Terraform modules.
• Data Catalog Infrastructure: Operation and provision of OpenMetadata. This includes the catalog infrastructure and the separation between operation and use as with the lake levels. Data & AI adds dataset descriptions, glossary, and stewardship content on this basis.
• Tooling Infrastructure: Provision and operation of Superset, the tool for data queries and visualizations for the teams.
• Separation of Pipelines: Clear code boundaries, a merge-blocking contract check, and a clear rule for forwarding incidents: In the event of infrastructure problems, you will be notified or alerted, not for errors in pipeline logic.
• Reliability: Building observability and operational excellence for the Data Platform, including Datadog, incident response, and SLOs and SLIs. You will take on the on-call service; the compensation for this corresponds from the first day to the regulations of other teams.
• Governance and Compliance Mechanisms: The guidelines themselves – such as classification standards, retention rules, and handling of GDPR and data protection requests – are managed outside of SET and Data & AI by Legal/Compliance or a data protection-related function. You do not set these guidelines but implement the required architecture: retention periods, access controls, classification metadata, and the forwarding of deletion requests.
• Cross-Platform Consistency: Collaboration with the Principal Platform Engineer for infrastructure to ensure that the Data Platform achieves the same self-service philosophy and maturity as the rest of the platform.

Requirements

• Core Skills:

  • Proven practical AWS experience with Glue, Athena, Step Functions, EventBridge, Lake Formation, and S3, as well as extensive Terraform experience in creating and further developing shared modules.
  • Hands-on experience with CDC pipelines and an Iceberg-based lakehouse architecture with raw, curated, and aggregated levels. This format is currently in production.
  • Familiarity with Kafka-based event streaming (MSK, Glue Schema Registry) for application-level events that land in the platform alongside CDC data.
  • Security in operating a platform that other teams rely on: Experience with incident response and SLOs, as well as the judgment to include individual requirements in the backlog instead of implementing them ad hoc.
  • Strong cross-team communication: You work directly with Data & AI to keep the boundaries between infrastructure and pipeline logic clear and coordinate with the Principal Platform Engineer for Infrastructure on overarching standards. Neither of these relationships is a reporting line.
  • A deep understanding of what sustainably anchors a data-driven culture: Leaders who act on the basis of key figures, organization-wide data competence, an infrastructure accessible to all target groups, and data as a communal resource.
  • You communicate confidently with the management level and proactively address conflicts of interest and risks instead of waiting to be asked.
  • You communicate clearly and directly in writing and can represent and justify technical positions to engineering colleagues as well as to non-technical stakeholders.

• Nice to Have:

  • Familiarity with dbt (dbt-athena) or Spark/pySpark – enough to constructively discuss where the boundary between infrastructure and pipeline logic should run in the future.
  • Experience in setting up an on-call service for a team that has not had one before.
  • Experience in working directly with legal and compliance stakeholders: Translating retention period requirements or data classification into concrete infrastructure decisions – and not just knowing that such requirements exist.

We Offer

• Company Culture: Open culture, flat hierarchies, initiative is encouraged.
• Employment Contracts: Unlimited contracts offer long-term security.
• Flexibility: Flexible working hours and options for mobile working and full remote contracts.
• Equipment: Free choice of work hardware.
• Onboarding: Well-structured onboarding with support from a personal "buddy".
• Work Environment: Inspiring environment with committed colleagues and a dynamic community.
• Development Opportunities: Numerous opportunities for personal growth and development.
• Benefits: Attractive benefits such as company pension scheme, health programs, and regular team events.

... and much more!

You can get a detailed insight on our careers page.

Your contact person for this position is Yanina Schröer and they are happy to answer any questions you may have!

The protection of your personal data is our top priority. You can find our applicant information here.

About the Company

Josephine Scheffler

Yanina Schröer

Lena Holters

Have you any questions?

We will answer them!

[email protected]

Please submit your application exclusively digitally via our online application form. Simply click on the "Apply" button.