Data Platform Engineer – $200K+ Apache Airflow Role in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
This Data Platform Engineer role sits at the intersection of solutions engineering, data architecture, and technical consulting — a high-leverage career position that builds a rare combination of deep technical expertise and customer-facing influence.
Compensation context: At $200K–$250K total cash plus equity, this is at the top of the market for Solutions/Sales Engineers in the data space. Industry benchmarks for senior SEs at Series B–D data infrastructure companies typically sit at $160K–$220K OTE, making this offer competitive even at the low end of the stated range.
Skills you'll develop:
- Deep expertise in Apache Airflow — the dominant open-source workflow orchestration tool, with strong market demand.
- Hands-on experience across the modern data stack (Snowflake, Databricks, dbt, Fivetran) — highly transferable skills.
- Product feedback loops and cross-functional influence — a career accelerator toward PM or technical leadership roles.
- Open-source community contribution — builds personal brand and visibility in the data engineering ecosystem.
Culture signals: Astronomer is a growth-stage company (800+ enterprise clients, venture-backed) with a strong OSS foundation. The emphasis on community contribution and cross-department collaboration suggests a relatively flat, impact-driven culture.
Green flags: Equity upside at a scaling company, broad seniority range considered, and a role with genuine product influence. Watch for: customer-facing SE roles can carry high meeting loads — worth clarifying async vs. synchronous expectations in interviews.
Astronomer empowers data teams to bring mission-critical software, analytics, and AI to life and is the company behind Astro, the industry-leading unified DataOps platform powered by Apache Airflow®. Astro accelerates building reliable data products that unlock insights, unleash AI value, and powers data-driven applications. Trusted by more than 800 of the world's leading enterprises, Astronomer lets businesses do more with their data. To learn more, visit www.astronomer.io.
About This Role:
As a Data Platform Engineer at Astronomer, you'll be a key partner to our clients, guiding them in deploying powerful data workflows to accelerate their business outcomes. You'll have the chance to work with cutting-edge technology, help customers solve complex data challenges, and influence our product's evolution through client feedback. This role is ideal for someone who wants to make a visible impact while growing into an expert in workflow orchestration and Apache Airflow.
What You Get To Do:
- Solve Real-World Problems: Design and implement proof-of-concept solutions that help customers tackle real data challenges, from concept to production.
- Be a Trusted Advisor: Conduct demos and provide technical guidance to engineering teams, showing them how our platform can transform their workflows.
- Drive Community Impact: Contribute to the Apache Airflow community by creating technical content and best practices, positioning Astronomer as a thought leader in workflow orchestration.
- Influence Product Direction: Act as a liaison by gathering field insights and providing critical feedback to the Product team to shape the future of our platform.
- Develop and Grow: Become an expert in Airflow, workflow orchestration, and the data engineering landscape as you collaborate across departments and work on impactful projects.
What You Bring To The Role:
- Data Engineering Know-How: Familiarity with core data engineering concepts including orchestration, ELT, Git, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), with hands-on experience or working knowledge of Apache Airflow in a customer environment.
- Experience and Expertise: 2+ years in a Sales Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Consulting or similar role within the data space, ideally with experience in modern data tools like Snowflake, Databricks, Fivetran, or Tableau.
- Effective Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills to simplify complex technical concepts for diverse audiences.
- Curiosity and Customer Empathy: A genuine desire to understand customer needs, patience, and empathy to support them through challenges.
- Drive to Innovate: Eagerness to learn and experiment with new technical concepts, tools, and approaches to stay ahead in the data industry.
Bonus Points If You Have:
- Hands-on Python scripting skills for data pipeline support.
- Experience with open-source data tools.
- Background in designing data workflows in a production environment.
- Customer-facing experience in a technical or consultative role.
- Experience working with Command Line Interfaces (CLI).
The estimated total compensation for this role ranges from $200,000 – $250,000, along with an equity component. This range is merely an estimate, and the width of the range reflects willingness to consider candidates with broad prior seniority. Actual compensation may deviate from this range based on skills, experience, and qualifications.
#LI-Remote
At Astronomer, we value diversity. We are an equal opportunity employer: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Frequently Asked Questions
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