Data Platform Engineer

At Damia (Permanent), in
Expires at: 2027-05-12
Remote policy: Full remote

About Damia:

Damia is a specialist tech recruitment agency in Portugal, focused on technology, product, and engineering roles. We work with funded scaleups, international companies building teams in Portugal, and established tech organisations scaling critical hires.

Our approach is consultative, not transactional. Every mandate runs through a structured methodology, from strategic discovery and talent mapping to curated shortlists and post-hire follow-up, led by senior recruiters who understand the market and the roles they recruit for.

We are part of the Triveris Group ecosystem alongside We Are META and Landing.Jobs, giving us reach across the full spectrum of tech talent in Portugal.

Role OverviewThis is a senior, hands-on role for someone who views Data Infrastructure as a product.You will define how billions of records are structured, indexed, and exposed to the rest of the company. Ideal for someone who combines strong backend engineering skills with deep expertise in data platforms, data lakes, and large-scale data systems.

Main requirements

Key Responsibilities

• Database Reliability & Scaling:
  • Own the health and performance of their core databases.
  • Own and optimize their MongoDB clusters and OpenSearch indexes, which houses billions of documents. You will design sharding strategies and indexing patterns to ensure search performance
  • Design and implement a multi-tier storage strategy. You will determine which data remains "hot" in production databases for their Product team and which data is offloaded to "cold/analytical" storage for AI and R&D
• Data Access Layer:
  • Build and maintain internal APIs that allow internal teams to build features without worrying about the underlying database complexities
• Schema Evolution & Migrations:
  • Lead the strategy for updating data structures across billions of records. You will design "no-downtime" migration paths for their production MongoDB and OpenSearch environments
• Data Platform & Architecture
  • Own and evolve their Core Data Architecture, ensuring it supports analytics, product features, AI workflows, and internal consumption
  • Evaluate the feasibility and ROI of introducing a Data Lakehouse architecture for long-term storage and AI training.
  • Define standards for how data is ingested, stored, versioned, and exposed to downstream systems.
• Data Quality & Documentation:
  • Ensure data accuracy, freshness, and consistency through validation and testing.
  • Maintain clear, up-to-date documentation of pipelines, schemas, and data assets to enable internal adoption.
• Collaboration:
  • Act as a bridge between Core, Product, and R&D, ensuring research initiatives (e.g. data enrichment) are integrated into the Core platform.
  • Translate business and product needs into scalable, maintainable data solutions.
  • Comfortable working in async-first environments, keeping task statuses and documentation up to date for full team visibility.

What They’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in Backend, Data Engineering and/or Data Platform roles, specifically within high-concurrency/high-volume environments.
• NoSQL & Search Expert. Professional experience tuning MongoDB and OpenSearch/Elasticsearch at massive scale (sharding, cluster topology, query optimization).
• Strong Python Skills. Proficiency in writing production-grade, highly efficient Python. Experience with asynchronous programming (FastAPI, etc.) for building high-performance Internal APIs is essential.
• System Design & Architecture. A strong grasp of distributed systems, including eventual consistency, message queues (Kafka/RabbitMQ), and caching strategies to protect production databases.
• Strategic Storage Thinking. Familiarity with Data Lakehouse concepts (e.g., Parquet, Delta Lake, Iceberg). Proven experience building one.
• Excellent communication skills and attention to documentation.
• Self-managed and comfortable working cross-functionally.
  

Nice to have

Bonus Points

• Experience with Azure Cloud services or equivalent.
• Experience with orchestration tools like Airflow, Prefect, or similar.
• Exposure to AI/ML workflows or supporting AI teams with data pipelines.
• Knowledge of Data Observability tools to monitor data quality and indexing lag at scale.
• Interest or experience in influencer marketing or social media analytics.

Benefits & Perks

• Competitive salary and other social benefits
• Opportunities for growth and professional development
• Workplace: Remote, with the possibility of using their Nomad Offices (their next location is in Greece)
• Schedule: Flexible, with the requirement to ensure a minimum of 4 hours of overlap with the normal working hours in Portugal (9 am-6 pm)
• A curious, collaborative, and forward-thinking team.
• They are equal opportunity employer. They celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.