Staff Software Engineer (Data Governance)

• The Data Governance team makes sure Plaid handles consumer and customer data responsibly — and can prove it
• Our mission is to enforce Plaid’s privacy commitments and regulatory obligations in the systems themselves rather than in policy documents: we build the platform and controls that govern how data flows through Plaid — where it lives, who can use it, for what purpose, and for how long
• That includes verifiable deletion of consumer data on request, enforcement of data-use restrictions so downstream systems can only use data in permitted ways, and the cataloging and classification that let Plaid know what data it holds and how sensitive it is
• We operate at the scale of Plaid’s entire data footprint, and correctness and auditability matter to us as much as throughput
• As a Staff Software Engineer on Data Governance, you will set the technical direction for how Plaid enforces data governance at scale
• You’ll lead the design of distributed backend systems that reliably delete, restrict, and track data across dozens of services, making architectural decisions whose blast radius spans the whole company
• You’ll drive multi-quarter initiatives from ambiguous privacy and regulatory requirements through to shipped, auditable infrastructure — decomposing the hard problems, aligning multiple engineering teams behind a plan, and staying hands-on in the code for the highest-risk pieces
• You’ll be a force multiplier: raising the technical bar through design reviews and mentorship, and partnering deeply with Legal, Privacy, Security, and product-engineering teams to turn obligations into controls the rest of the company can build on
• Own the technical architecture for Plaid’s data-governance platform
• Lead the design and delivery of multi-quarter, cross-team initiatives
• Drive design reviews and set engineering standards for reliability, correctness, and auditability across the team’s systems
• Partner with Legal, Privacy, Security, and product-engineering teams to shape requirements and unblock adoption of governance controls company-wide
• Mentor engineers and level up the team’s technical judgment; act as a technical point of contact for governance concerns raised by other teams

Benefits

• Vibrant offices in SF, NYC, and Raleigh-Durham—with catered meals, happy hours, and clubs to keep you connected
• Competitive pay, comprehensive health benefits, and support for fertility, mental health, and parental leave
• Lifestyle perks including home office stipends, daycare support, and commuting benefits like CitiBike and Lyft

• Demonstrated ability to turn ambiguous requirements into clear technical plans and align multiple stakeholders behind them
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including working effectively with non-engineering partners (legal, privacy, compliance)
• Extensive experience (typically 8+ years) building and operating backend distributed systems at scale, in a language like Go, Java, or similar
• A track record of leading the design of complex systems and driving cross-team technical initiatives to completion
• Strong fundamentals in data stores, consistency, and reliability, with the judgment to reason about correctness and failure modes
• We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn’t fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!
• Prior experience with data privacy, governance, or compliance systems (e.g., GDPR/CCPA deletion, data-use/consent enforcement, cataloging/classification, or auditing)