gridicon
The Grid - Public Docs
Pages
Join The Grid

Principal Data Engineer

ok

Apply through Wellfound at
https://wellfound.com/l/2BwXf7
⁠

Principal Data Engineer

We’re looking for a Principal Data Engineer to be our senior technical leader responsible for shaping and executing our data engineering, management and pipeline strategy. You will be leading complex development projects that support our data teams, and delivering high quality data to our users.
Love data and have an affinity for Web3? Want an opportunity at a funded startup with revenue and with real ownership over the next versions of our data pipelines that will produce data that will be shown to millions of users? Well we’ve got this far by building production grade MVPs, but we are now looking for someone to come and own our data pipelines. This is an opportunity for someone to really get knee-deep in data with real ownership.

About The Grid’s data

We provide a structured data service and additional tooling all around answering key questions - exactly what is that token or Web3 service and what is the composition of various ecosystems in Web3? We call this ecosystem metadata, and we’ve already mapped the blue-chip projects in the Solana ecosystem, which you can check out at
https://solana.thegrid.id
⁠
…and you can see some fun things we built with our data at
⁠
https://marketmap.thegrid.id
⁠
and
⁠
https://solanareport.thegrid.id
⁠
.
For an example of a profile, see
https://solana.thegrid.id/profiles/Jupiter
⁠

About This Role

Our product is our data. We’re looking for a senior technical leader responsible for shaping and executing our data pipeline and engineering strategy. As we are a startup, this role is a combination of functional leadership over the design and architecture of our product and individual contribution through building.
In doing so, you will have the following Key Responsibilities:
Product Leadership
Lead the data engineering strategy and oversee delivery across multiple projects and products, ensuring technical excellence and alignment with business goals.
Review our current data pipelines, identifying solutions to our current bottlenecks
Architect, design, and implement scalable, secure, and high-performance data systems, both as part of our product and our internal systems, reporting, and processes.
Provide technical leadership, making key decisions on solution design, architecture, and implementation.
Teamwork & Leadership
Mentor and coach the development team.
Ensure operational data quality, performance, scalability, and security of our data platforms.
We’re a small team, so it is important to collaborate and provide feedback with cross-functionally as we grow, with the goal to deliver end-to-end data solutions.
Drive continuous improvement, innovation, and adoption of new technologies and methodologies within the development team.
Take technical ownership of data products, pipelines, and infrastructure.
Manage technical debt, risk, and emerging issues, recommend solutions.
Leadership and Strategic Impact
Set technical direction for the data pipelines and influence broader engineering and business strategy.
Listen to our customer’s needs and guide development so that the implementation and building with our data by our customers is as painless as possible.
Champion technical excellence, innovation, and best practices at The Grid.
Serve as a subject matter expert and escalation point for complex technical challenges.
Colleagues and Resources
As part of the development team, you will work alongside our senior full stack engineer, our data scientist, and our project manager with vision and guidance directly from co-founder JJ on what we’re building. We also have resources already allocated for additional help on a project basis as needed or for self contained projects and we already have a roadmap for expansion for the development team as we grow throughout 2025 into 2026.
We’re a Mac based shop and use Linear for project management.
What you’ll bring:
Ability to communicate effectively in English - we are a globally distributed team and our English is our current universal connector language.
An understanding of Web3/blockchain technology and that you’ve used blockchain products in the past.
Coachability - you can take continuous feedback and action it for self improvement.
Ability to give actionable feedback - we want regular actionable feedback between everyone that works at The Grid
A Dive in and get things done mentality - we’re looking for self starters.
Ability to work in a startup environment. Rapidly scaling start ups mean a lot of change, and you’ll need to be comfortable with the constant change.
The ability to think critically and not take things at face value. You’ll need to dive in and really research and question everything in order to ensure accuracy.
Your Skills and Qualifications
Advanced proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, or Scala.
Deep understanding of database systems (relational and NoSQL), data modeling, and data warehousing concepts[.
Expertise with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Kafka) and real-time/streaming data processing frameworks
Strong knowledge of ETL/ELT processes, data integration, and workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Nifi)
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and distributed systems[
Familiarity with data governance, security, and compliance requirements
Excellent problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills
Typically requires a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a STEM field, with 7+ years of relevant experience including several years in technical leadership roles
How we’ll work together
After onboarding, this is primarily a
maker schedule
⁠
role to start, with a relatively low amount of time spent in team meetings per week.
We are looking for a full time commitment.
If you are in the Netherlands already this is a hybrid role with regular time each week at our offices in Centrum, Amsterdam.
If you are outside of the Netherlands, after an initial period to assess fit for both of us, we can offer support to relocate to Amsterdam. As part of onboarding to what we do, we’d ask for a commitment to come to Amsterdam to spend time with us so that we can go through everything together.
There’s an opportunity to grow with the role and the company as the team evolves into an executive leadership role.
Note: If remote, you must have high speed connectivity to the internet at a quality that allows collaboration (including video calls) and availability of at least 6 working hours during The Grid’s core working hours of 09:00 to 18:00 CET/CEST (Monday to Friday) and for regularly scheduled data team meetings each week.
What we offer
Autonomy, the ability to contribute to the future of Web3, and the opportunity to grow into an executive leadership role. In addition to salary, we can offer an equity/option package aligned with experience and future token allocations.
Application notes:
When you apply to the Grid for this role, include a story about the coolest data pipeline that you built and why you think it was the coolest. You do not need to include any private information.
About The Grid
Founded by spoon lover Jonathan Knegtel (founder of BlockData) and dystopian cyberpunk fan Jordan Hatcher (technology lawyer), The Grid provides ecosystem metadata, tooling, and insights about the projects building in Web3.
Made with love and a lot of data in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Find out more at
https://thegrid.id
⁠
⁠
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.