Principal Data Engineer

Title: Principal Data Engineer, LLM - AI Platforms

Location: United States, Canada, Remote

Full time

job requisition id

R28829

As a global leader in cybersecurity, CrowdStrike protects the people, processes and technologies that drive modern organizations. Since 2011, our mission hasn’t changed — we’re here to stop breaches, and we’ve redefined modern security with the world’s most advanced AI-native platform. Our customers span all industries, and they count on CrowdStrike to keep their businesses running, their communities safe and their lives moving forward. We’re also a mission-driven company. We cultivate a culture that gives every CrowdStriker both the flexibility and autonomy to own their careers. We’re always looking to add talented CrowdStrikers to the team who have limitless passion, a relentless focus on innovation and a fanatical commitment to our customers, our community and each other. Ready to join a mission that matters? The future of cybersecurity starts with you.

About the Role:

CrowdStrike is looking for a Principal Data Engineer with deep expertise in Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI platforms to join our growing Data Science Platform Engineering Team. You will be a key leader, responsible for designing, building, and deploying cutting-edge data infrastructure that powers our next generation of AI-driven security products. This role requires significant hands-on experience in LLM integration, agentic workflows, and agent harnessing to deliver high-impact, scalable solutions. You will champion engineering excellence, focusing on shipping fast, writing elegant, high-quality code, and actively mentoring and strengthening the team's technical knowledge and capabilities.

The scale of our systems and data are approaching Exabytes in size. Experience with extremely large-scale systems, including DevSecOps patterns, practices, and standards are important for this work.
 

What You'll Do:

• Architect, implement, and optimize data platforms and pipelines specifically designed to support LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and sophisticated AI agentic systems at Exabyte scale.

• Drive the adoption and deployment of agentic workflows and agent harnessing techniques to create autonomous, data-driven security features.

• Design and implement highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and cost-effective data solutions, emphasizing rapid iteration and high-quality deployment.

• Write elegant, production-ready code with a focus on performance, maintainability, and testing rigor, ensuring the ability to ship fast without compromising quality.

• Provide technical leadership and deep expertise in data modeling, normalization, and semantic cataloging for AI/ML workloads.

• Establish best practices for MLOps/DataOps surrounding LLMs, including monitoring, observability, and zero-touch recovery mechanisms for AI services.

• Actively mentor engineers, conducting technical workshops, leading design reviews, and strengthening the team's knowledge in cutting-edge AI platform technologies.

• Collaborate across the organization with Data Scientists, Product Managers, and other engineering teams to transform research prototypes into robust, production-grade services.

• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of critical data services: development, testing, deployment, and monitoring.
   

Tech Stack (Expertise in several key areas is expected):

• MLOps Tools (MLflow, Sagemaker, Vertex AI)

• Experience with common agentic workflow frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex).

• Expert-level proficiency in a high-level coding language (Python, or JVM technologies).

• Deep experience with distributed data processing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Dask, Flink).

• Strong expertise with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or OCI) and related data services.

• Containerization and orchestration mastery (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Message queuing and streaming technologies (Kafka, Pulsar).

• Data Warehousing (Snowflake, BigQuery) and Data Orchestration (Airflow, Kubeflow).
   

What You'll Need:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related STEM field, or equivalent practical experience.

• 10+ years of progressive experience in Data Engineering/Platform Engineering, with at least 3 years focused on architecting and building platforms for AI/ML or Data Science at massive scale.

• Demonstrable hands-on experience in LLM engineering (fine-tuning, prompt engineering, deployment), RAG, and developing agentic workflows.

• Proven track record of designing and delivering large-scale distributed systems (sharding, partitioning, concurrency).

• Exceptional ability to write clean, elegant, performant, and well-tested code, coupled with a proactive mindset for delivering results quickly.

• A thorough understanding of engineering practices, including effective peer code reviews, resilient architecture design, and comprehensive testing paradigms.

• Prior experience in a Principal or Staff level engineering role, demonstrating technical leadership and mentorship capabilities.

Bonus Points:

• Direct experience building, deploying, and managing LLMs in a production environment.

• Prior experience in the cybersecurity, intelligence, or high-compliance industries.

• Contributions to open-source projects related to data or AI/ML.

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Benefits of Working at CrowdStrike:

• Market leader in compensation and equity awards

• Comprehensive physical and mental wellness programs 

• Competitive vacation and holidays for recharge  

• Paid parental and adoption leaves

• Professional development opportunities for all employees regardless of level or role

• Employee Networks, geographic neighborhood groups, and volunteer opportunities to build connections

• Vibrant office culture with world class amenities

• Great Place to Work Certified™ across the globe

CrowdStrike is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging where everyone is valued for who they are and empowered to succeed. We support veterans and individuals with disabilities through our affirmative action program.

CrowdStrike is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment. The Company does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, creed, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy or pregnancy-related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status, veteran status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical disability (including HIV and AIDS), mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, membership or activity in a local human rights commission, status with regard to public assistance, or any other characteristic protected by law. We base all employment decisions--including recruitment, selection, training, compensation, benefits, discipline, promotions, transfers, lay-offs, return from lay-off, terminations and social/recreational programs--on valid job requirements.

CrowdStrike, Inc. is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Placement within the pay range is dependent on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications, job level, supervisory status, and location. The base salary range for this position for all U.S. candidates is $195,000 - $290,000 per year, with eligibility for bonuses, equity grants and a comprehensive benefits package that includes health insurance, 401k and paid time off.

CrowdStrike Canada ULC is committed to equal pay for equal work in its compensation practices. The base salary range for this position in Canada is $210,000 - $320,000 CAD per year + variable/incentive compensation + equity + benefits. A candidate’s salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and location. This is Canadian-based employment, and it is expected that all employees maintain legal entitlement to work in Canada. A