Sr. Backend Data Engineer - Streaming Data Platform, Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo Mail is the ultimate consumer inbox with hundreds of millions of users. It’s the best way to access your email and stay organized from a computer, phone or tablet. With its beautiful design and lightning fast speed, Yahoo Mail makes reading, organizing, and sending emails easier than ever.

A Little About Us

Digital Transformation is a highly critical initiative for Yahoo Mail and Communications. We are modernizing our tech stack on public cloud while building new cloud-native components and systems to support core features at massive scale. Yahoo Mail is the second largest email provider globally; we operate at a throughput and scale that few other companies face. We are looking for engineers to architect the next generation of our high-scale streaming infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop robust, highly scalable streaming systems and infrastructure on public cloud platforms (GCP).

• Identify and implement AI-driven efficiencies in day-to-day engineering work, utilizing AI pair-programming tools to accelerate development cycles and improve code quality.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support AI-driven product needs, including Mail Classification, Entity Extraction, and Summarization.

• Optimize streaming workflows by replacing manual monitoring or repetitive diagnostic tasks with automated, AI-assisted observability and alerting systems.

• Lead end-to-end feature development within a cross-functional team, ensuring solutions are both scalable and resilient.

• Exercise judgment in when to rely on AI-assisted code generation versus manual architectural design to ensure system reliability at Yahoo scale.

• Contribute to a culture of continuous learning through active participation in design discussions and code reviews.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

• 6+ years of professional experience in software systems development, with 3+ years specifically in streaming platforms (GCP, Dataflow, Flink, Kafka).

• Demonstrated expertise in Java and high-throughput messaging technologies.

• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot, Cursor) to level up thinking, design process, and coding speed.

• Familiarity with AI/ML deployment workflows and the data infrastructure required to support LLM-based features.

• Solid understanding of DevOps principles (CI/CD, Terraform, Kubernetes).

• Comfort operating in an evolving, AI-augmented environment with a focus on using automation to increase individual and team impact.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) at enterprise scale.

• Deep knowledge of real-time data governance and AI-generated output validation.

• Experience with Pub/Sub, Kinesis, SQS or other relative technologies.

• Interest in prompt engineering for automating technical documentation and system architecture mapping.

The material job duties and responsibilities of this role include those listed above as well as adhering to Yahoo policies; exercising sound judgment; working effectively, safely and inclusively with others; exhibiting trustworthiness and meeting expectations; and safeguarding business operations and brand integrity.

At Yahoo, we offer flexible hybrid work options that our employees love! While most roles don’t require regular office attendance, you may occasionally be asked to attend in-person events or team sessions. You’ll always get notice to make arrangements. Your recruiter will let you know if a specific job requires regular attendance at a Yahoo office or facility. If you have any questions about how this applies to the role, just ask the recruiter!

Yahoo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, gender, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected category. Yahoo will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. Yahoo is dedicated to providing an accessible environment for all candidates during the application process and for employees during their employment. If you need accessibility assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability, please submit a request via the Accommodation Request Form (www.yahooinc.com/careers/contact-us.html) or call +1.866.772.3182. Requests and calls received for non-disability related issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

We believe that a diverse and inclusive workplace strengthens Yahoo and deepens our relationships. When you support everyone to be their best selves, they spark discovery, innovation and creativity. Among other efforts, our 11 employee resource groups (ERGs) enhance a culture of belonging with programs, events and fellowship that help educate, support and create a workplace where all feel welcome.

The compensation for this position ranges from $128,250.00 - $266,875.00/yr and will vary depending on factors such as your location, skills and experience.The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary annual bonus or commissions. Our comprehensive benefits include healthcare, a great 401k, backup childcare, education stipends and much (much) more.

Currently work for Yahoo? Please apply on our internal career site.