Principal Data Engineer (ClickHouse Specialist)
Employer: Qandaba (Contracting with a U.S. based client)
Location Philippines: Remote
Type: Full-time hire or contract-to-hire (3-4 overlap with U.S. Pacific time zone)
ABOUT QANDABA
Qandaba is a premier technology consultancy specializing in placing top-tier engineering talent on mission-critical, large-scale data projects. This role is a long-term engagement with a leading, global client in the mobile telecommunications and big data analytics sector. The project involves working on the client's core, customer-facing web platforma powerful application that translates trillions of raw data points into actionable insights for major industry decision-makers.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Data Engineer with deep expertise in ClickHouse and strong data engineering fundamentals to join our growing team. This role is critical in scaling our data platform, which ingests over 1 billion records per day.
You will contribute to database design, optimization, and performance improvements, working closely with our U.S.-based teams who lead overall architecture. Prior experience leading ClickHouse architecture in previous roles will be a strong advantage.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Contribute to the design, configuration, and optimization of ClickHouse clusters handling massive-scale data ingestion and queries.
- Partner with U.S.-based engineers and stakeholders to align on technical requirements and solutions.
- Optimize database performance for high-throughput inserts and low-latency analytical queries.
- Implement best practices for replication, sharding, partitioning, and backup/recovery.
- Support the development of data pipelines and ETL/ELT workflows to ensure performance, reliability, and data quality.
- Proactively suggest and provide technical guidance to improve team practices and enhance overall product performance.
- Collaborate on observability initiatives, including metrics, logging, and monitoring.
- Participate in Agile/Scrum ceremonies, contributing to iterative delivery and team collaboration.
- Clearly present and explain complex engineering problems and designs to both technical and non-technical audiences.
QUALIFICATIONS
- 8+ years of experience as a Data Engineer, Database Engineer, or related role.
- Proven expertise with ClickHouse in production environments, ideally at scale (billions of rows/day).
- Strong knowledge of data modeling, partitioning, and indexing strategies for analytical databases.
- Experience with data ingestion pipelines (Kafka, Spark, Airflow, or similar).
- Proficiency in SQL and at least one programming language (Python, Go, or Java preferred).
- Solid understanding of distributed systems and high-availability architectures.
- Hands-on experience with AWS cloud services.
- Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker/Kubernetes).
- Familiarity with AI-first developer tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT) to accelerate development and problem-solving.
- Experience working within Scrum or Agile software development practices.
- Familiarity with Atlassian Jira and Confluence for collaboration and project tracking.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to present and explain complex engineering solutions effectively.
- Excellent written and spoken English; comfortable working with remote international teams.
- Bonus: Prior experience leading ClickHouse architecture in large-scale environments.
WORK SETUP
- Remote / Work from Home must have a reliable internet connection, camera/microphone, and professional workspace.
- Mid- or Night Shift aligns with U.S. business hours.
- Internet and Equipment Allowance
WHY JOIN US
- Work with cutting-edge data technologies at massive scale.
- Collaborate with a global, highly skilled engineering team.
- Competitive compensation (negotiable based on experience).
- Paid Vacation and Holidays
- Continuous learning and international collaboration opportunities
