Principal Software Engineer, Web Data - Tech Lead

We're looking for an exceptional Principal Software Engineer to serve as the de facto Technical Lead for our Web Data Acquisition (WDA) team - designing and leading the next generation of ZoomInfo's web crawling and data extraction infrastructure. This is a highly visible, hands-on technical leadership role where you'll own the architectural direction for crawling systems, evolve and unify crawling platforms into a best-in-class stack, and elevate a high-performing engineering team. You'll solve complex distributed systems challenges, build modular tooling that accelerates delivery, and set the standard for observability and operational excellence.
This is not a people management role. You'll have a dedicated manager handling all HR and administrative responsibilities. A product manager connects business needs with technical work. Your focus is 100% technical leadership, mentorship, and hands-on execution.

• Proven experience building web crawling or large-scale data systems from scratch
• Strong architectural skills designing scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems
• Track record leading complex technical initiatives and driving architecture direction for teams
• Demonstrated ability to evolve production systems incrementally while maintaining reliability

• Deep background in large-scale data engineering (terabytes daily)
• Hands-on experience with cloud data warehouses (BigQuery, Snowflake)
• Experience with Apache Kafka, Kubernetes (GKE/EKS), and orchestration tools (Airflow)
• Familiarity with multi-cloud environments (GCP + AWS)
• Expertise designing and operating ETL/ELT pipelines

• Deep expertise in web crawling technologies and advanced scraping (Scrapy or similar)
• Experience extracting structured/unstructured web data and SERP extraction
• Knowledge of proxy infrastructure management, anti-bot detection, and ethical crawling
• Familiarity with crawling vendors and AI/LLM-based extraction approaches

• Experience mentoring engineers at all levels and fostering collaborative culture
• Strong ability to influence technical direction and establish best practices
• Track record hiring, coaching, and developing senior engineers

• Startup or small company experience wearing multiple hats
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and pioneering new capabilities
• Entrepreneurial mindset with bias toward action and iteration
• Excellent communicator who explains complex technical concepts to diverse audiences

• 10+ years software engineering experience
• 5+ years focused on data engineering
• 3+ years in senior/principal-level technical leadership
• Strong CS fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, distributed systems)
• Self-starter who thrives in fast-paced environments
• B2B data company or data-as-a-product experience a plus

• Python & Java 
• Apache Kafka
• GCP (BigQuery, GKE, Vertex AI)
• Snowflake & Starburst/Trino
• Terraform
• Scrapy / Web Scraping Frameworks
• Proxy Management Systems
• Distributed Systems & Kubernetes
• Apache Airflow
• Large-Scale ETL Pipelines
• Nice to have: Expert-level experience with Apache Spark

ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: GTM) is the Go-To-Market Intelligence Platform that empowers businesses to grow faster with AI-ready insights, trusted data, and advanced automation. Its solutions provide more than 35,000 companies worldwide with a complete view of their customers, making every seller their best seller.

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