Principal Engineer

Company OverviewLine is a technology company dedicated to improving electricity reliability in developing countries through innovative data collection and analysis. We develop and deploy advanced sensor technologies and analytics platforms to provide utilities, regulators, and policymakers with accurate, actionable insights into power grid performance. Our work spans multiple countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where we collect and analyze granular data on power quality and outages. By leveraging cutting-edge hardware and software solutions, Line enables data-driven decision-making for infrastructure investments and operational improvements.Work EnvironmentLine operates with a flat organizational structure, valuing independence, rigor, and versatility. Our work involves developing and maintaining scalable systems that transform raw sensor data into insights that ultimately contribute to enhancing electricity access and reliability in underserved regions. Therefore, scientific integrity is held to the highest regard and a successful candidate should not be comfortable shipping code that negatively impacts the quality of the data collected and presented to partners by Line. At Line each person on the team takes ownership of their core technical areas while collaborating across our data processing and infrastructure projects. The ideal candidate should be able to orchestrate both high-level architectural decisions and hands-on development tasks. Additionally, they should be comfortable working autonomously, learning quickly, and delivering high quality work with minimal supervision. They should be comfortable working in a small team environment and be able to adapt to a range of services and platforms.Key ResponsibilitiesMaintenance and co-development of core infra products Manage and supervise cloud computing resourcesLead infrastructure planning and deployment using TerraformDevelop and maintain data processing and visualization systemsContribute to backend development and integration of auxiliary services (surveys capture)Troubleshooting and Improvement Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to ongoing deployment projects (cloud provider resources, corrections to survey data)Assist in the design and implementation of data storage solutionsContribute to the ongoing improvement of the company's technical stackEnhancing Analysis Data Pipeline Implement and improve caching mechanisms for better performanceArchitect and oversee the data analysis pipeline from ingestion to visualizationBase RequirementsEducation and Experience Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field3+ years of experience as a software, infrastructure, or devops engineerTechnical Proficiency Experience with cloud computing platforms, preferably Google CloudStrong proficiency in PythonExperience with big data processing and distributed computingExperience with data visualization and dashboard creationSoft Skills Potential experience leading small engineering/data teamsAbility to work independently and collaboratively in a small team, remote environmentPassion for leveraging technology to solve real-world problemsTechnical Skills and ExperienceCloud and Infrastructure: Deploying infrastructure with Infrastructure as Code practices (i.e. Terraform, Pulumi)Deploying microservices on Kubernetes clusters (with Docker, Helm, etc)Using at least one popular cloud provider (i.e. GCP, AWS, etc)Deploying, managing, and optimizing relational databases (i.e. PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB)Storing tabular data in datalakesArchitecting and composing multiple microservices to support a cohesive productDeveloping data backup and restore strategies and performing risk/cost tradeoffsImplementing thoughtful security practices (i.e. in storing and distributing secrets to microservices, appropriately managing granular resource access for team members, etc.)Programming and Data Processing: Python (Advanced, ideally including experience with parallel processing frameworks such as PySpark, Dask, etc)JavaScript (Intermediate, for maintaining existing JS microservices)Data Visualization and Analytics: Experience with data visualization and dashboard creation