Staff Software Engineer – Data

About the role

The Staff Software Engineer – Data will provide technical leadership on the Real‑Time Analytics Platform (RTAP), designing, building and operating large‑scale distributed data systems that enable real‑time analytics across PlayStation, while mentoring engineers and shaping long‑term platform strategy.

About the company

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the subsidiary of Sony Group behind the PlayStation brand, delivering hardware, network services and entertainment to over 100 million users worldwide. It positions itself as a dynamic technology and entertainment leader with a focus on innovation, creativity and an inclusive, diverse workplace.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years experience designing and building large‑scale distributed systems with expertise in real‑time data processing, analytics, or data platform engineering.
• Strong proficiency in Python; experience building production‑grade distributed systems and data processing applications; Scala experience beneficial.
• Hands‑on expertise designing and operating large‑scale stream processing applications using Apache Flink, Apache Spark Structured Streaming, or equivalent.
• Production experience designing, operating, and optimizing distributed analytics platforms using ClickHouse, Apache Druid, or equivalent high‑performance OLAP/analytics databases, including query optimization, data modeling, and performance tuning at scale.
• Experience building and consuming event‑driven data pipelines using AWS MSK, Apache Kafka, or equivalent messaging platforms, focusing on reliable, scalable data processing applications.
• Experience applying AI/ML techniques and modern AI tooling to automate engineering workflows, improve data pipelines, simplify platform operations, and enhance developer productivity.
• Strong systems design skills with ability to evaluate architectural trade‑offs across scalability, latency, throughput, consistency, reliability, and cost.
• Demonstrated technical leadership through architecture ownership, mentoring engineers, and influencing technical decisions across multiple teams.
• Experience with Databricks, Apache Iceberg, or modern lakehouse architectures, designing and integrating batch and streaming workloads into scalable production‑grade data platforms (nice to have).
• Experience building or operating multi‑tenant, self‑service data platforms supporting multiple engineering organizations (nice to have).
• Experience collaborating with globally distributed engineering teams across multiple organizations and time zones to deliver shared platform capabilities and drive technical alignment (nice to have).