Senior Data Engineer

About us At Playground, we help clients put their data to work, from the platforms underneath to the models and AI solutions on top. We are a collaborative team that values solid engineering and shared growth, and our people see their work through, from first idea to production. About the role You’ll work closely with our clients on initiatives where the data platform is critical to how the business runs. Many of our engagements are greenfield builds or major platform transformations, and someone needs to own the shape of the solution. This role suits an experienced engineer who wants to lead that work: making the architecture calls, setting the standard for how things get built and seeing it through to production and beyond. In practice, you'll:

• Design and build modern data platforms from scratch, and take the lead on architecture and technical direction.
• Ingest, model and structure data so it holds up for analytics, AI and ML workloads at scale.
• Own platforms in production, with responsibility for operating, evolving and improving them over time, including in our Managed DataOps engagements.
• Act as the technical go-to in the client relationship, guiding decisions and translating fuzzy needs into something buildable.
• Contribute internally by mentoring colleagues, building and maintaining our data engineering frameworks, shaping our technical approaches, being part of presales and supporting Playground’s continued growth.

You'll never sit idle, there's always something meaningful to design, decide, or untangle. Who are you? You’ve been building and maintaining data platforms for many years and have delivered more than one that people depend on every day. You’ve seen what breaks in production and learned how to design so it doesn’t. Python and SQL are part of your daily toolkit, you’re at home in infrastructure as code, and you’ve gone deep in at least one modern data stack (AWS, Azure, GCP, Databricks, Snowflake etc.). You would probably describe yourself as someone who:

• Leads with engineering judgment: You know how data needs to flow, scale and hold up in production, and you can explain why one design is better than another.
• Enjoys building from scratch: Greenfield work doesn’t scare you, it motivates you, and you know which shortcuts are fine and which ones hurt later.
• Stays calm when things are unclear: You don’t panic when requirements are fuzzy and the system diagram needs three whiteboards. You’re usually the one holding the pen.
• Makes the people around you better: You mentor naturally, review code with care and raise the bar for the team without making a thing of it.
• Is comfortable in a consultant role: You handle customer dialogue well, carry weight in presales and help clients through difficult decisions.

As a person, you're humble, genuinely curious about technology, and motivated, while knowing that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. Friendly, curious, and playful! Language and other requirements You need to be fluent in Swedish and able to use it confidently in a professional environment. Why? Most of our collaborations and client projects are conducted in Swedish, and several of our clients have formal requirements for full professional fluency in the language. You must also be based in the Stockholm area and have existing, independent and permanent right to work in Sweden (no visa sponsorship or relocation).