technical lead, data platform & digital fraud prevention (Seattle - US)

Now Brewing – Technical Lead! #tobeapartner

From the beginning, Starbucks set out to be a different kind of company. One that not only celebrated coffee and its rich tradition, but that also brought a feeling of connection. We are known for developing and supporting partners who share this passion and are guided by their service to others.

“We built the Starbucks brand first with our people, not with consumers. Because we believed the best way to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers was to hire and train great people,

we invested in employees.”

– Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks Coffee Company

We are seeking a versatile Technical Lead to support and scale our team’s delivery across engineering operations and data platform development. This role combines operational leadership—keeping the team aligned and accelerating execution—with deep technical engagement in our next-generation ETL framework. The ideal candidate thrives at the intersection of delivery excellence and data engineering, bringing the expertise to guide scalable, maintainable systems while fostering a highly collaborative and productive team environment.

As a Technical Lead, you will…

Engineering Leadership

• Partner with product and technical leaders to translate business requirements into secure, scalable technical solutions.
• Collaborate with data scientists, ML engineers, and product teams to design and implement robust data pipelines that adapt to evolving business needs.
• Lead the architecture and development of data pipelines leveraging tools such as Airflow, Databricks, and Spark.
• Own and enhance our ETL framework and data models for maintainability and scalability.
• Optimize compute and storage using Databricks and Unity Catalog to ensure reliable, high-performance data access.
• Establish and maintain CI/CD workflows for data and ML pipelines, ensuring automation and reproducibility.
• Enforce best practices for environment separation (development, staging, production) and promote observability, integrity, and quality across all components.
• Mentor engineers to elevate technical capabilities and foster a culture of engineering excellence.

Delivery & Engineering Operations

• Facilitate core agile ceremonies including sprint planning, grooming, and daily stand-ups.
• Track and report team progress toward goals; escalate risks or blockers as needed.
• Partner with engineering leadership to surface delivery updates and team dynamics.
• Proactively identify and clear blockers via internal or cross-functional collaboration.
• Coordinate with peer teams to manage dependencies and align on shared outcomes.
• Monitor and help complete operational items like security patching and compliance work.
• Ensure alignment between team goals and backlog prioritization.
• Support a culture of continuous improvement through process iteration and refinement.
• Maintain visibility into team bandwidth and inform realistic capacity planning.

We’d love to hear from people with

• 8-10 years of professional industry experience with software development
• 2 years of leading teams of four or more software developers
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

We’d especially love to hear from people with

• Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL, with hands-on experience developing data pipelines, performing complex data transformations, and optimizing queries for large-scale datasets.
• Deep expertise in Databricks, Apache Spark, and modern data lake architectures, with hands-on experience designing and optimizing large-scale data processing solutions.
• Strong experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes), including deploying and managing scalable applications in production environments.
• Solid understanding and practical experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure for data and ML workflows, ensuring automated, reliable, and reproducible deployments.
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with a proven ability to align technical teams, product managers, and stakeholders to deliver complex projects successfully.
• Experience architecting and implementing production systems for high resiliency, availability, and performance at scale, leveraging best practices in distributed systems design.
• Demonstrated ability to manage and deliver multiple concurrent technical projects, providing technical guidance, coordinating cross-functional teams, and driving successful outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and resolve cross-team dependencies, remove delivery blockers, and drive alignment across multiple stakeholders to ensure timely project completion.
• Highly detail-oriented and proactive, with a strong focus on execution and delivering high-quality outcomes in fast-paced, dynamic environments.

/div>

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

We are committed to creating a diverse and welcoming workplace that includes partners with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We believe that enables us to better meet our mission and values while serving customers throughout our global communities. People of color, women, LGBTQIA+, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal state and local ordinances. Starbucks Corporation is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected].

As a Starbucks partner, you (and your family) will have access to medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, and other voluntary insurance benefits. Partners have access to short-term and long-term disability, paid parental leave, family expansion reimbursement, paid vacation from date of hire*, sick time (accrued at 1 hour for every 25 hours worked), eight paid holidays, and two personal days per year. Starbucks also offers eligible partners participation in a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match, a discounted company stock program (S.I.P.), Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock), incentivized emergency savings, and financial well-being tools. Additionally, Starbucks offers 100% upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, student loan management resources, and access to other educational opportunities. You will also have access to backup care and DACA reimbursement. Starbucks will comply with any applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, and in accordance with its plans and policies. This list is subject to change depending on collective bargaining in locations where partners have a certified bargaining representative. For additional information regarding partner perks and more detailed information about benefits, go to starbucksbenefits.com.

• If you are working in CA, CO, IL, LA, ME, MA, NE, ND or RI, you will accrue vacation up to a maximum of 120 hours (190 in CA) for roles below director and 200 hours (316 in CA) for roles at director or above. For roles in other states, you will be granted vacation time starting at 120 hours annually for roles below director and 200 hours annually for roles director and above.

The actual base pay offered to the successful candidate will be based on multiple factors, including but not limited to job-related knowledge/skills, experience, geographical location, and internal equity. At Starbucks, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the high end of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each position and candidate.