Summary
Join a growing technology organization as its first dedicated Data Platform Engineer. You will establish shared standards for data flows, design an event-driven platform using streaming and change-data-capture patterns, build production-grade data ingestion, and help engineering teams adopt the new architecture. The role combines deep technical ownership with strong communication and coaching responsibilities.
Highlights
Chance to build a data platform from the ground up as the first dedicated data platform hire, shape engineering standards, work closely with senior leadership, and combine hands-on architecture with technical coaching.
Description
Senior Data Platform Engineer | Trading | Amsterdam
Tech: Kafka/Redpanda | Terraform | Kubernetes | Debezium
Our client, a growing high-frequency trading firm, is building its very first data team and looking for their first Data Platform Engineer.
Today, every engineering team runs its own data flows, each in its own way.
It's time for one shared standard, and you'll be the one who sets it.
As the first hire, reporting directly to the Head of Data, you'll move the organization from tightly coupled data flows to a shared platform built on event streaming, change-data-capture, and data contracts, designing the architecture and building real ingestions yourself.
Just as important: this is a people role.
You'll spend a significant time helping engineering teams understand why the change is worth it, listening to their concerns, and bringing them along, while the Head of Data covers the business side, so you can focus on winning over developers.
You bring:
A natural coach's mindset; you listen first, understand pushback, and navigate disagreement without steamrolling it.
Here, that matters more than technical perfection.Production experience with event-streaming platforms (Kafka or Redpanda); the technical core of the role.Solid grounding in streaming, ETL, and data-warehousing patterns, and comfort with change-data-capture tooling (e.g.
Debezium).A pragmatic take on latency: you have experience working in a data environment with a millisecond latency or faster.Experience with infrastructure-as-code and GitOps (Terraform, ArgoCD, Kubernetes).
There's no platform yet, so you build the standard from scratch, with real ownership and no layers between you and the decisions.
Seniority here isn't about ticking every technical box, it's about being the person who can carry a team through change.
Salary: up to € 110K + significant bonus
WFH: Hybrid (3 days in the office)
Location: Amsterdam
Sound like you? We'd love to hear from you.
Please apply through the direct apply button on LinkedIn or contact me on n.verhage@doghouse.nl
