Senior Software Development Engineer, Big Data

About the teamThe Zillow Group’s Housing Trends Data Engineering team brings innovative analysis, creativity, and excellence to the U.S. housing market. We create, productionalize, analyze, and share a full collection of housing metrics and analysis for Zillow’s internal and external customers. Our work contextualizes Zillow’s unparalleled living database of all homes and hundreds of millions of customers to provide insight to everyday consumers and open data to hundreds of researchers and policymakers across the country. You’ll work in a fun, collaborative atmosphere with a high-performance team with diverse data engineering and analytical skills.
Your work will be highly impactful. The data we create ends up in the nation’s most reputable publications, used by government institutions in policy-making and official reports, in public-facing tools used by millions of Zillow consumers, and in the work of hundreds of academic researchers.
Small team = big impact. Engineering teams are highly decentralized in order to create the small team speed and autonomy of a start-up environment but are backed by big company resources.

About the role

We process hundreds of millions of data points to produce macroeconomic housing market indicators, forecasts, and insights. We publish those so businesses, policymakers, and individuals can make informed decisions about homes. We are also an integral part of housing market intelligence for our internal businesses, and an important input into tactical and strategic business decisions with customers across the company (from marketing, finance, business unit ML teams, to executives).

We are looking for a strong engineer who will be working closely with the data science and forecasting teams, and our customers to help us re-shape our rapidly-evolving data products and the end-to-end data processing framework. You will have great opportunities to learn cutting-edge ecosystems, and cloud technologies, and work with a group of versatile software developers in a collaborative and supportive team environment.

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $160,900.00 - $257,100.00 annually. This base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont the standard base pay range for this role is $152,900.00 - $244,300.00 annually. The base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations.

In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside.

Who you areKey Qualifications:

• Strong proficiency in Python programming

• Hands-on experience with big data ecosystems, architectures and modern data platforms, including AWS cloud data services and Lakehouse/Lakebase platforms

• Hands-on experience with Databricks is a significant advantage.

• Proven ability to design, build, and orchestrate batch and real-time data pipelines, processing large-scale datasets from diverse sources

• Practical experience with cutting-edge data engineering technologies such as SparkSQL  and Spark Streaming, PostgreSQL, EKS, and Kubernetes

• Familiarity with Agile/DevOps software development processes and tools such as GitLab and CI/CD.

• A good understanding of data science concepts, fundamental machine learning algorithms/libraries, and development lifecycle is a must-to-have.

• Familiarity with LLM and Agentic AI technologies and engineering patterns is a big advantage.

• Strong ability in performing root cause analysis to address operational issues and identify opportunities for improvement.

• Exceptional communication skills to drive effective customer engagement, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and clearly articulate technical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

• 5+ years of experience in Big Data Engineering or Machine Learning Engineering roles.

You Will Get To:

• Build data systems to link raw data and concrete Housing Trends insights.

• Build and extend our internal forecasting model development framework.

• Develop and maintain scalable data products and deliver pipelines built for speed, accuracy, and consistency that will scale as our stakeholders’ need. 

• Identify, design, and implement internal process improvements: automating manual processes, optimizing data delivery, re-designing infrastructure for greater scalability and performance, etc.

• Collaborate with data scientists to understand their data requirements and build systems/tools that enable efficient model training and experimentation.

• Implement feature stores and ETL pipelines to streamline feature engineering and model development.

• Build and maintain infrastructure for deploying machine learning models into production environments.

• Be a trusted partner for our stakeholders, such as Forecasting, Zestimates, and the ML teams within the AI organization to assist them for data investigation/publication, ML model development and infrastructure support.

Get to know us

At Zillow, we’re reimagining how people move—through the real estate market and through their careers. As the most-visited real estate platform in the U.S., we help customers navigate buying, selling, financing and renting with greater ease and confidence. Whether you're working in tech, sales, operations, or design, you’ll be part of a company that's reshaping an industry and helping more people make home a reality.

Zillow is honored to be recognized among the best workplaces in the country. Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2025, and included on the PEOPLE Companies That Care® 2025 list, reflecting our commitment to creating an innovative, inclusive, and engaging culture where employees are empowered to grow.

No matter where you sit in the organization, your work will help drive innovation, support our customers, and move the industry—and your career—forward, together.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.