Senior Data Engineer

About Airwayz

Airwayz is a defense-grade airspace technology company building the operational infrastructure for the low-altitude airspace era. We are on a mission to make complex airspace safe, governed, and commercially viable for everyone operating in it.

Our platform is a sophisticated autonomous decision-making engine that sits between raw sensor data and operational action. Unlike systems that stop at detection or visualization, our platform autonomously connects, orchestrates, and governs sensors, effectors, and drone operators. It processes complex data in real-time to provide automated responses and AI-assisted mission planning, acting as the critical intelligence layer for human decision-makers.

We operate globally, managing high-stakes environments like the Port of Rotterdam (managing 80+ drone vendors daily with zero shutdowns), Port of Ashdod, the IDF and more. Recently, we validated our technology for World Cup 2026 infrastructure protection alongside the US Army 7th Infantry Division, FBI, CISA, and DHS.

We are a small, fast-moving team of ~25 people. If you want to work on technology that is operationally real, commercially significant, and genuinely hard this is the place.

About the Role Airwayz is developing next-generation autonomous UAV swarm C2 and AI-driven airspace management systems. We are looking for a Senior Data Engineer to design and build our core real-time data infrastructure. In this role, you will lead the architecture of high-throughput streaming pipelines and lakehouse solutions that process live telemetry, spatial coordination data, and AI/game-theoretic decision streams from 200+ autonomous drones in contested environments.

Responsibilities

• Data Infrastructure & Architecture: Design, build, and maintain scalable, low-latency data pipelines handling millions of real-time spatial messages daily.
• Streaming & Lakehouse: Implement distributed streaming frameworks and data warehouse/lakehouse schemas to support both real-time C2 execution and post-mission analytics.
• Full-Lifecycle Ownership: Take end-to-end ownership from system architecture, data modeling, and IaC deployment to monitoring, optimization, and security.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with R&D, AI/Algorithm engineers, and product teams to integrate game-theoretic COA models and simulation telemetry.
• Performance & Scale: Optimize system throughput, memory footprints, and cloud infrastructure costs to support mission-critical, low-latency deployments.

Requirements

• Experience: 6+ years of experience building production data/backend systems in Python or Java/Spring .
• Real-Time & Streaming: 3+ years of hands-on experience with streaming platforms (Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS Kinesis) and near real-time data processing (~10M+ messages/day).
• Data Modeling & Storage: Deep proficiency in SQL and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, Elastic, DynamoDB, Redis) and schema design for high-concurrency systems.
• Cloud & DevOps: Strong experience with AWS cloud infrastructure, containerization ( Docker, Kubernetes ), CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code ( Terraform/AWS CDK ).
• System Design: Solid understanding of microservices architecture, distributed systems, and distributed state management.
• Education & Soft Skills: B.Sc. in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent; excellent problem-solving skills and a proactive, "get-things-done" approach.

Advantages

• Geo-Spatial Data: Experience with spatial data modeling, GIS tools, or spatial indexing frameworks (e.g., PostGIS, H3, GeoJSON).
• Big Data & Lakehouse: Hands-on experience with Databricks, Spark, Delta Lake, Snowflake, or ClickHouse.
• Regulated Industries: Prior work in defense, aerospace, aviation, or compliance-heavy environments (ITAR, CMMC, FedRAMP).

Why Airwayz?

• Real Impact: Your code will protect infrastructure and manage the skies for events like the World Cup.
• Elite Team: Work with IAF veterans and top-tier engineers in a mission-driven environment.
• Forward-Thinking: We don’t just allow AI tools; we expect you to lead with them.