Senior Software Engineering Manager, Data Platform

We're transforming the grocery industry

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.

Overview

Instacart is a leading online grocery platform in North America, enabling customers to order from their favorite retailers and have their groceries delivered directly to their doorsteps. We are dedicated to transforming the way people shop for groceries by providing convenient and innovative solutions.

About the Team

The Data Platform team at Instacart is responsible for building and maintaining a robust, cutting-edge platform that processes petabytes of data daily. We collaborate closely with Product, Data Science, and Machine Learning teams to understand their needs and provide high-quality, scalable solutions. As we continue to grow, we're looking for a seasoned Engineering Manager to lead this team and drive our data strategy forward.

About the Job

As a Senior Engineering Manager for the Data Platform team, you will:

• Lead and Mentor: Manage a team of 10+ talented engineers, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Drive Data Strategy: Shape the direction of Instacart's data infrastructure, ensuring it meets the needs of various stakeholders and supports our rapidly growing data lake.
• Collaborate Cross-functionally: Work closely with other teams (Product, Infrastructure, Data Science, ML, etc.) to identify pain points and translate them into self-service, reliable solutions.
• Champion Engineering Excellence: Promote best practices in engineering and data processing, ensuring high-quality and scalable solutions.
• Own Projects End-to-End: Oversee projects from design and technical decisions to execution and delivery, managing timelines and resources effectively.
• Innovate and Influence: Suggest and drive organization-wide initiatives that improve our data platform and overall engineering processes.

About you

Minimum Qualifications:

• Experience: 10+ years in software engineering, with significant experience in data infrastructure and at least 3+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Technical Expertise: Strong knowledge of data infrastructure technologies such as Python, Scala, Kafka, Airflow, Spark, Iceberg, Delta Lake.
• Datastores and Warehouses: Proficiency with industry-standard databases and warehouses like Postgres, Elasticsearch, Cassandra, DynamoDB, Snowflake.
• SQL Skills: Strong command of SQL and experience with large codebases.
• Leadership Abilities: Proven track record of mentoring team members and fostering an environment of engineering excellence.
• Ownership and Drive: A strong sense of ownership with self-motivation and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment.
• Collaboration: Excellent communication skills with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams.
• Problem-Solving: Ability to balance urgency with delivering high-quality, pragmatic solutions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
• Large-Scale Data Handling: Experience working with petabyte-scale data and optimizing data processing pipelines.
• Machine Learning and Data Science: Familiarity with data science and machine learning workflows and requirements.
• Strategic Influence: Experience driving organization-wide initiatives and influencing technical strategies.

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.

For US based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CA, NY, CT, NJ

$260,000—$289,000 USD

WA

$249,000—$277,000 USD

OR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL, HI

$239,000—$266,000 USD

All other states

$216,000—$240,000 USD