Lead Data Engineer

Klarna, briefly

At Klarna, we're building an everyday finance network, helping over 120 million consumers across 26 countries save time and money, and worry less about their finances. Working here means taking on problems most companies never get to solve, and being hands-on enough that the interesting part of the work lands with you, not someone else — you'll build with AI, not watch it happen.

This is the stretch zone. Come find out what you're capable of.

About the role

Every model Klarna trains and every analysis its teams run depends on data that has to be processed, stored, and accessed reliably. This position sits on the platform that makes that possible: the analytical data processing layer on AWS that other teams build on.

You'll join as a Lead Engineer, so the work is hands-on. You'll write and review code, and you'll be the person other teams turn to when a platform decision affects more than one of them. Your influence comes from your technical judgment and from seeing designs through to production.

What you'll do

• You'll build and operate Klarna's analytical data processing platforms on AWS, supporting large-scale batch and analytical workloads.

• You'll design the data pipelines, table structures, and access patterns that analytics, model training, and downstream consumers rely on.

• You'll lead the design and implementation of core data processing systems using AWS Glue, Spark, S3, Iceberg, Databricks, and Redshift.

• You'll evolve the platform architecture, infrastructure, and AWS account foundations so they hold up on scale, cost, security, and reliability.

• You'll design and evolve IAM models, roles, and access patterns so teams can use data platforms securely across accounts.

• You'll make architectural decisions with Klarna's whole data landscape in view, including downstream consumers and cross-team dependencies.

• You'll diagnose and solve problems in performance, scalability, cost, security, and compliance.

• You'll set the bar for code quality, maintainability, and operational excellence through your own work, and show the team what good practice looks like.

• You'll lead cross-team initiatives: run the discussions, align stakeholders, and deliver production-ready solutions.

Who you are

• You've built analytical data platforms on AWS, including Spark-based processing and S3-backed data lakes.

• You write Python and work hands-on with distributed data processing and infrastructure-as-code in Terraform.

• You've worked with modern table formats such as Iceberg and data warehouses such as Redshift.

• You've designed and operated IAM and AWS account setups for data platforms, and you balance security with developer usability.

• You build durable, scalable solutions rather than one-off pipelines, and you treat the platform as a product its users depend on.

• You've operated systems in production and improved them through monitoring, incident learnings, and iteration.

Things you should know before applying

• Working together: we value co-located teams; most teams currently meet in the office 2–3 days per week, and this varies by team and can change over time.

• Non-obvious backgrounds are welcome. Diversity of skills, perspectives and backgrounds is how we create, innovate, and disrupt like no other.

• Final compensation will be based on the candidate's qualifications, skills, and experience.

Please include a CV in English. Concrete beats comprehensive — what you built, what it did, what it cost. Curious to learn more about Klarna and what it's like to work here? Explore our career site!