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Data Software Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

xAI

Data Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

$134K - $161K/yr

The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering fundamentals and excellent coding practices with deep intuition for statistics, neural networks, and how data quality influences training ...

xAI

Data Engineer

Palo Alto, CA

$134K - $161K/yr

The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering fundamentals and excellent coding practices with deep intuition for statistics, neural networks, and how data quality influences training ...

Airtable

Software Engineer, Data

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$179K - $221K/yr

As a Software Engineer, Data at Airtable, you'll make an enormous contribution to our data engineering efforts. You'll design and own mission-critical data pipelines to enable decision-making ...

Airtable

Software Engineer, Data

San Francisco, CA · On-site +1

$179K - $221K/yr

As a Software Engineer, Data at Airtable, you'll make an enormous contribution to our data engineering efforts. You'll design and own mission-critical data pipelines to enable decision-making ...

Apple

Software Development Engineer - Data

Cupertino, CA · On-site

$141K - $169K/yr

The Commerce Engineering team is looking for an experienced, hardworking and proactive software engineer to lead several data architecture and technical compliance efforts across the commerce ...

anduril

Software Engineer, Data Engineering

Costa Mesa, CA · On-site

$146K - $194K/yr

Software Engineer, Data Engineering Costa Mesa, California, United States Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with ...

Whatnot

Software Engineer, Data

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$220K - $290K/yr

As our next Software Engineer of Data, you should have 3+ years of experience, plus: * Ability to write well-tested, API-driven applications and services that run at scale in production. * Track ...

Hadrian

Software Engineer - Data Platform

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$123K - $148K/yr

The Role As a foundational software engineer on our data platform engineering team, you will lead the charge on building the AI and data infrastructure that powers Hadrian's autonomous factories.

Intelliswift Software

Software Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$226K - $227K/yr

Analyze specifications, communications, data points, and programming requirements gathered per client's requests and approvals. Adhere to software development life cycle process, best practices, and ...

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All JobsData Software Engineer JobsData Software Engineer Jobs in California

Data Software Engineer information

See California salary details

$43.9K

$128K

$175.2K

How much do data software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 9, 2026, the average yearly pay for data software engineer in California is $128,018.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $113,000.00 and $135,700.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are Data Software Engineers?

Data Software Engineers are professionals who design, build, and maintain the software systems that enable organizations to collect, process, and analyze large volumes of data. They bridge the gap between data engineering and software development by creating scalable, efficient pipelines and applications that support data-driven decision making. Their responsibilities often include developing data processing frameworks, ensuring data quality, and collaborating with data scientists and analysts to deliver actionable insights.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Data Software Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Data Software Engineer, you need strong programming skills (often in Python, Java, or Scala), a solid understanding of data structures and algorithms, and a background in computer science or a related field. Familiarity with big data frameworks (like Hadoop or Spark), database systems (SQL/NoSQL), and data pipeline tools is typically required, along with relevant certifications such as AWS Certified Data Analytics. Excellent problem-solving abilities, collaboration, and effective communication are soft skills that set top performers apart. These skills ensure the efficient design, development, and optimization of robust data systems critical for driving business insights and decision-making.

What is the difference between Data Software Engineer vs Data Engineer?

AspectData Software EngineerData Engineer
Primary FocusDeveloping software tools and applications for data processing and analysisBuilding and maintaining data pipelines and infrastructure
Skills & CertificationsProgramming, software development, data modeling, often with certifications in software engineeringDatabase systems, ETL tools, cloud platforms, often with certifications in data engineering
Work EnvironmentSoftware development teams, data science teams, often in tech companiesData infrastructure teams, IT departments, cloud service providers

While both roles work with data, Data Software Engineers focus on creating software solutions for data analysis, whereas Data Engineers build the infrastructure to collect, store, and process data efficiently. Both roles require programming skills and often overlap, but their core responsibilities differ in scope and focus.

What are some common challenges Data Software Engineers face when working with large datasets?

Data Software Engineers often encounter challenges related to scalability, data quality, and system performance when handling large datasets. Ensuring that data pipelines can efficiently process high volumes of data without bottlenecks requires robust architecture and frequent optimization. Additionally, maintaining data integrity and consistency across distributed systems can be complex, especially when integrating data from multiple sources. Collaboration with data scientists, analysts, and DevOps teams is key to overcoming these challenges and building reliable, efficient data solutions.
What are the most commonly searched types of Data Software Engineer jobs in California? The most popular types of Data Software Engineer jobs in California are:
What are popular job titles related to Data Software Engineer jobs in California? For Data Software Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Data Software Engineer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Data Software Engineer jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Data Software Engineer jobs? Cities in California with the most Data Software Engineer job openings:
What are popular job titles related to Data Software Engineer jobs in CA? For Data Software Engineer jobs in CA, the most frequently searched job titles are:
Data Software Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Data Software Engineer job openings in California as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 3% Internship, 88% Full Time, and 9% Contract. Highlights an 88% In-person, 3% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $128,018 per year, or $61.5 per hour.

Data Engineer

xAI

Palo Alto, CA • On-site

$134K - $161K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement

Posted 15 days ago

Job description

ABOUT xAI
xAI's mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company's mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.
ABOUT THE ROLE:
At xAI, we are building AI systems that push the frontier of human knowledge and scientific discovery. High-quality data is fundamental to every stage of that mission. Our Data team is responsible for ensuring that the models are trained on the right data, in the right form, at the right quality, across every phase of the training lifecycle. This includes partnering closely with acquisition teams to identify where valuable data can be sourced, determining what data is needed to improve model performance, and building the production pipelines and systems that transform raw inputs into high-quality training data at scale. We work at the intersection of data, infrastructure, and machine learning to ensure our models train effectively and reliably.
As a Data Engineer / AI Engineer on xAI's Data team, you will be responsible for developing the systems, processes, and production code that power data acquisition, preparation, quality evaluation, and delivery for model training. You will work closely with acquisition teams, ML engineers, and software engineers to identify data needs, build scalable data pipelines, and continuously improve the quality of the data that shapes model behavior. The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering fundamentals and excellent coding practices with deep intuition for statistics, neural networks, and how data quality influences training outcomes.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
  • Analyze the performance and impact of data used throughout the model training lifecycle
  • Investigate anomalous model behavior and rigorously identify the data issues that drive poor downstream performance
  • Design, build, and improve the data cleaning, transformation, and quality-control steps required to produce high-quality training data
  • Research, evaluate, and develop frontier methods for improving data quality and effectiveness in AI model development
  • Apply statistical techniques and empirical analysis to make informed, data-driven decisions about dataset quality and model outcomes
  • Partner across teams to identify where data needs exist and define the highest-impact opportunities for new data acquisition and improvement
  • Build and maintain production-grade data pipelines, tooling, and software systems that ingest, process, validate, and deliver data for training
  • Develop metrics, evaluation frameworks, and monitoring systems to assess how data quality influences model behavior at scale
  • Fuse data from multiple sources into reliable, usable datasets for research and production model training
  • Create shared datasets, tooling, and internal data products that enable other teams to analyze, debug, and improve model performance
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, physics, mathematics, or a STEM discipline
  • 1+ years of data/software engineering experience (internship experience is applicable)
  • Experience in implementing or analyzing language models or neural networks
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
  • Professional experience in analytics, data science, machine learning, or data engineering
  • Experience building and operating production data pipelines for neural network or large-scale machine learning workloads
  • Strong experience with Python and the broader ecosystem of libraries and tools used in modern machine learning and data development
  • Experience working with Parquet or similar columnar storage formats in large-scale data systems
  • Familiarity with Kubernetes and distributed production environments
  • Experience developing predictive models and machine learning pipelines, including clustering, forecasting, anomaly detection, or related techniques
  • Experience working with very large-scale datasets, including terabyte- to petabyte-scale data systems
  • Strong statistical intuition and the ability to use quantitative analysis to guide technical and product decision, including familiarity of scaling ladder design studies
  • Ability to operate effectively in a dynamic environment with evolving priorities, changing requirements, and fast-moving technical challenges
  • Demonstrated ability to take ownership of ambiguous problems, drive projects independently, and develop new expertise where needed
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
$240,000 - $280,000 USD
Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at xAI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.
xAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.

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