Staff Product Specialist (Hive & Impala)

Business Area:

Seniority Level:

Job Description: 

At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry.  Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.

As a Staff Product Specialist, you will serve as a subject matter expert in diagnosing and resolving complex performance and scalability challenges. You will play a key role in empowering our frontline support engineers, improving support operations, and ensuring customer satisfaction. Your influence will extend across support engineering, training, documentation, and collaboration with product and engineering teams to deliver best-in-class support experiences.

Staff Product Specialist you will...

• Act as an escalation point for complex customer issues, collaborating with Front Line Support Engineers via phone, email, or remote tools.

• Serve as a subject matter expert in performance, scalability, and technical deep-dives across the Cloudera stack.

• Design and develop advanced training labs and bootcamp sessions, to elevate technical proficiency across the support organization.

• Collaborate with frontline managers and Product Managers to improve tooling, processes, and support infrastructure.

• Develop support guidelines, policies, and best practices to increase team efficiency and effectiveness.

• Drive and implement cross-functional projects to enhance support workflows and automation opportunities.

• Analyze Severity 1 incidents to uncover root causes, recommend preventative solutions, and identify automation potential.

• Champion supportability by prioritizing technical enhancement requests and collaborating closely with engineering teams.

• Represent Support in pre-release engineering reviews and contribute to support-readiness checklists.

• Own escalated cases through resolution, coordinating across departments while ensuring timely communication and accountability.

• Contribute to the creation and maintenance of internal documentation and customer-facing knowledge base articles.

• Participate actively in technical forums and the Cloudera community to support the broader user base.

• Join the on-call rotation, maintaining high standards of responsiveness and professionalism under pressure.

• Continuously learn and contribute to the open-source Hadoop ecosystem and related cloud-native technologies.

We are excited if you have...

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field—or equivalent practical experience.

• 4+ years of experience supporting large-scale, distributed systems in a production environment.

• Strong command of SQL and experience with query engines such as Hive, Impala, Kudu, or Trino.

• Working knowledge of Cloudera Data Warehouse and distributed file systems (e.g., HDFS, Ozone) is desirable.

• Proficiency in supporting Java applications on Linux.

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and a passion for cloud-native technologies.

• Excellent communication skills—both written and verbal—with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to a broad audience.

• Demonstrated ability to handle high-pressure customer situations with professionalism, empathy, and poise.

• Experience collaborating with engineering teams and product stakeholders in fast-paced environments.

You may also have...

• Experience contributing to open source or engaging with technical communities.

• Prior involvement in technical training development or mentoring roles.

• Experience analyzing support data to drive process or product improvements.

• Enthusiastic, resourceful, and always looking to grow—both personally and professionally.

What you can expect from us:

• Generous PTO Policy 

• Support work life balance with Unplugged Days

• Flexible WFH Policy 

• Mental & Physical Wellness programs 

• Phone and Internet Reimbursement program 

• Access to Continued Career Development 

• Comprehensive Benefits and Competitive Packages 

• Paid Volunteer Time

• Employee Resource Groups

Cloudera is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.

#LI-AO1

#LI-Remote