Tech Lead / Senior Staff Software Engineer (Octopai - Modeling, APIs)
Cloudera · Prague
Business Area:
EngineeringSeniority Level:
Mid-Senior levelJob Description:
At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.
About Octopai
Octopai is a fast-growing Data Intelligence company (Acquired by Cloudera) that empowers enterprises to understand, trust, and optimize their data. Our platform provides automated data lineage, cataloging, and discovery to accelerate analytics, improve governance, and drive business impact.
As we expand our platform capabilities and evolve our next-generation APIs and metadata modeling foundation, we are looking for an experienced Tech Lead to guide the architecture and development of Octopai’s core modeling and API layer.
Role Overview
As a Senior Staff Software Engineer (Modeling, APIs), you will combine hands-on engineering with deep technical leadership, owning the design and evolution of Octopai’s metadata modeling, domain structures, and API infrastructure.
You will drive architectural decisions around how Octopai represents data assets, lineage relationships, governance concepts, and integrations — and how these are exposed through scalable, enterprise-ready APIs.
This role requires strong backend and distributed systems expertise, plus the ability to lead engineers in building robust foundations that power both our SaaS platform and enterprise deployments.
You will:
- Lead the backend engineering team in designing, developing, and delivering Octopai’s modeling and API infrastructure.
- Own the architecture of Octopai’s metadata model, including representation of data assets, transformations, lineage, governance, and operational metadata.
- Define technical direction and best practices for API versioning, extensibility, and enterprise-grade integrations.
- Collaborate closely with Product and leadership to translate platform requirements into scalable modeling and API solutions.
- Provide mentorship and day-to-day technical guidance, fostering strong practices such as TDD, CI/CD, peer reviews, and clean architecture.
- Ensure API security, performance, and reliability across hybrid (SaaS + on-premise) deployments.
- Drive development of SDKs, documentation standards, and partner-facing integration frameworks.
- Partner with infrastructure and DevOps teams to ensure APIs are deployable, observable, and maintainable in complex enterprise environments.
- Represent the Modeling & APIs domain in cross-team architectural forums, influencing platform evolution and roadmap priorities.
We are excited if you have:
- 12+ years of backend engineering experience, with at least 2+ years in a leadership role.
- Proven experience leading the design and development of API-first platforms, domain modeling systems, or core backend infrastructure.
- Strong programming expertise in C# (.NET), Java and familiarity with modern backend design patterns.
- Hands-on experience designing RESTful APIs, distributed services, and scalable backend architectures.
- Strong understanding of data modeling concepts, including metadata systems, graph-based relationships, or domain-driven design.
- Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, ArangoDB, or similar), and messaging/streaming systems (Kafka, Redis, etc.).
- Familiarity with API lifecycle management: versioning, backward compatibility, governance, and developer experience.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to mentor engineers, influence stakeholders, and align teams on platform strategy.
You may also have:
- Experience in data lineage, metadata management, or data intelligence platforms.
- Background in graph databases and modeling complex relationships across enterprise systems.
- Familiarity with OpenAPI standards, API gateways, and partner integration ecosystems.
- Knowledge of search systems (ElasticSearch/Solr, full-text search) and modeling-driven discovery.
- Contributions to open-source projects or experience scaling backend architecture in high-growth companies.
This role is not eligible for immigration sponsorship
What you can expect from us:
Generous PTO Policy
Support work life balance with Unplugged Days
Flexible WFH Policy
Mental & Physical Wellness programs
Phone and Internet Reimbursement program
Access to Continued Career Development
Comprehensive Benefits and Competitive Packages
Employee Resource Groups
EEO/VEVRAA
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