Staff Software Engineer, Data

About OWL

Old Well Labs is a financial intelligence startup in South End, Charlotte, building the institutional investment industry’s next generation of analytics tools. Our platform centralizes billions of data points on fund managers globally and leverages AI to bring clarity to complex data.

About the Role

We’re hiring a Staff Software Engineer / Team Lead to own and evolve the foundation of OWL’s data platform. You’ll be responsible for designing and scaling our data pipelines, guiding the team’s modeling and architecture decisions, and driving technical execution across the full data lifecycle—from ingestion to delivery.

This is a high-impact, hands-on role where you’ll lead by doing, set the standard for engineering excellence, and shape the systems that power our products. You’ll also contribute to our long-term strategy around enrichment and LLM-based integrations, helping us unlock new value from the data we serve.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the Data Platform: Architect, build, and maintain core pipelines and modeling layers using Python, SQL, and dbt. Own the full “data assembly line,” including sourcing, staging, transformation, enrichment, replication, and operations.
• Drive Continuous Improvement: Optimize and evolve our dbt models and overall data architecture to improve performance, clarity, and maintainability.
• Collaborate Across Functions: Partner closely with product, engineering, and data stakeholders to align technical work with user needs and company goals.
• Influence Data Strategy: Play a key role in evolving our approach to data enrichment, including potential applications of AI and LLMs.
• Mentor and Support the Team: Provide technical direction and guidance to other data engineers and contributors. Help establish a strong culture of code quality, documentation, and ownership.
• Build for the Future: Lay the groundwork for scaling our data systems as the product and organization grow.

Who We’re Looking For

• Experience: 6+ years of engineering experience, with a strong background in data engineering, backend systems, or platform architecture.
• Languages: Deep fluency in Python and SQL. You write production-grade code that’s clean, testable, and maintainable.
• Modeling Expertise: Hands-on experience with dbt and modern data modeling best practices.
• Data Infrastructure: Familiarity with cloud-native data pipelines and tools like Airbyte, Postgres, and AWS-based infrastructure.
• Leadership Skills: You’ve guided other engineers and taken ownership of technical domains, even if you haven’t formally managed a team.
• AI Curiosity: You’re interested in how LLMs and modern ML tooling can integrate with structured data to create better outcomes.

Bonus

• Experience with Terraform or orchestration tools (e.g., Step Functions, Airflow)
• Background in fintech, data-heavy products, or investment intelligence platforms
• Exposure to real-time or streaming systems (nice to have, not required)

Position Location

Charlotte. We are hybrid (in office Tuesday–Thursday).

Compensation

• Competitive annual salary + target equity

Benefits

• 100% medical, dental & vision insurance coverage for you
• 401k
• Flexible PTO
• Parental Leave
• Located in the heart of South End
• Bagel Thursdays 🥯