OPEN ROLE / SIMLABS DATA / 02 OF 05

Lead Data Engineer

Build the pipelines that turn terminal interactions into governed datasets, experience intelligence and fleet learning customers can own.

AMSTERDAM / HYBRIDFULL-TIME€7,500 TO €11,000 / MONTHEQUITY + PROFIT SHARING

THE ROLE / WHAT YOU OWN

About this role.

Every conversation on a terminal produces data a customer can own: questions, routes, resolutions, demand. As Lead Data Engineer you build the platform that turns a fleet of terminals into governed datasets, analytics products and a learning loop, without ever turning the venue into a surveillance system.

You own the pipelines end to end across AWS, Google Cloud and Azure, and you sit at the junction of three consumers: research needs training data, customers need governed exports, and the fleet needs to learn from itself.

THE RAMP / NO WARM-UP LAPS

Your first 90 days.

Every role here starts with real work on the live product. This is the ramp we will agree on together, and the pace we hire for.

FIRST 30 DAYS

Map every data flow we have today and publish the platform design you intend to build.

BY DAY 60

Put the first streaming pipeline in production: terminal interactions landing governed, observable and replayable.

BY DAY 90

Ship the first customer-facing dataset with access, retention and export contracts a customer can sign.

RESPONSIBILITIES / THE WORK

What you will do.

  1. 01

    Design the multi-cloud data platform for interaction, spatial and inventory data across AWS, Google Cloud and Azure

  2. 02

    Build streaming and batch pipelines from the terminal fleet: ingestion, processing, storage and serving

  3. 03

    Ship governed datasets customers own: access contracts, retention rules, export paths and audit trails

  4. 04

    Engineer privacy by design: data minimization, pseudonymization and GDPR-compliant flows

  5. 05

    Deliver the data pipelines behind model training and evaluation with the research team

  6. 06

    Build experience-intelligence products: demand patterns, route friction and unresolved-intent analytics

  7. 07

    Own data quality, lineage and observability across the platform

TECH / THE STACK

What you will work with.

We run across AWS, Google Cloud and Azure in the cloud, and on our own terminal hardware on the floor.

Pipelines

  • Python and SQL
  • Spark or an equivalent engine
  • Streaming with Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub or Event Hubs
  • Airflow or Dagster orchestration

Storage and modeling

  • Lakehouse formats: Parquet, Iceberg or Delta
  • Cloud warehouses on all three clouds
  • dbt-style transformation layers

Platform

  • Terraform and infrastructure as code
  • Kubernetes and containers
  • CI/CD for data systems

Governance

  • Lineage and cataloging
  • Access control and audit trails
  • GDPR tooling and retention automation

QUALIFICATIONS / THE BAR

What you bring.

Must have

  • 6+ years of data engineering with production ownership of streaming systems
  • Deep on at least one major cloud and unafraid of the other two; we run AWS, Google Cloud and Azure
  • You have built governed data products for external consumers, not only internal dashboards
  • Privacy and compliance are design inputs for you, not afterthoughts
  • Strong software engineering habits: testing, review, observability

Bonus points

  • Data pipelines for machine learning
  • Spatial or geodata experience
  • IoT or edge fleet telemetry
  • Early data hire experience: you have built a platform from zero

THE CULTURE / DAY TO DAY

How we work.

EVIDENCE OVER OPINION

Demos, harnesses and floor tests settle debates. The best argument in the room is a measurement.

WEEKS, NOT QUARTERS

Work ships to a real floor fast. You will watch a stranger use what you built this month.

SMALL AND SENIOR

No layers, no committees. Five hires, two founders, one room when it matters.

REAL FLOORS

We test in public: noise, glare, hurry and all. If it works there, it works.

WHAT WE OFFER / STRAIGHT TERMS

€7,500 to €11,000 per month.

Depending on experience, with founding-team equity and profit sharing on top. We are a startup: the band is transparent, the upside is real and the ownership is yours.

  • €7,500 to €11,000 per month, depending on experience, the same transparent band for every open role
  • Founding-team equity: you own a piece of what you build
  • Profit sharing once the machines are earning
  • Senior ownership of a whole layer of the product, with direct access to both founders
  • Amsterdam base with hybrid flexibility, plus time on real venue floors
  • The hardware and tools you need, without a procurement fight

APPLY / SIMLABS DATA

Tell us what you would build first.

Twelve months from now, a venue signs partly because of the data product you built. Send a short note with the platform you are proudest of and the messiest data problem you have made boring. A conversation with a founder follows within days.

Apply as Lead Data Engineer