Data Engineer
Location: South Market, San Francisco
Pay: 150K-200K
*Unable to provide sponsorship at this time*
About the Role
A fast‑growing consumer technology startup is hiring its first dedicated Data Engineer to build and own the full data infrastructure that powers real‑time decisioning, product features, analytics, and revenue-critical systems. This is a high‑impact role where you will architect the entire data stack end‑to‑end, partnering closely with both engineering and quantitative teams in a fast‑moving environment.
You will design the warehouse architecture, own transformation layers, build reliable pipelines, and develop the real‑time systems that enable the company to scale. This is a rare opportunity to define standards, tooling, quality frameworks, and system design from the ground up.
What You'll Do
- Architect and manage the data warehouse: Design and optimize the company's warehouse environment for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency as data volumes grow.
- Own the transformation layer: Build and maintain the core transformation framework (e.g., dbt), including models, documentation, testing, and CI/CD.
- Build and operate data pipelines: Develop robust, well‑monitored data pipelines with modern orchestration tools, ensuring failures are detected and handled reliably.
- Develop real‑time data systems: Design streaming infrastructure for use cases where low latency matters, such as live user behavior, in‑session signals, and dynamic business logic.
- Integrate data into production systems: Implement reverse ETL and other mechanisms to ensure model outputs and derived data reach production systems where they drive real‑time decisions.
- Establish data quality frameworks: Build testing, monitoring, and validation systems to ensure accuracy, trust, and reliability in a rapidly scaling environment.
- Collaborate cross‑functionally: Work closely with both data science/quantitative teams and software engineering teams, enabling fast iteration and data‑driven decision making across the organization.
Qualifications
- Strong software engineering fundamentals with clean, maintainable, well‑tested code.
- Deep experience with SQL and Python in production environments.
- Hands‑on experience with major data warehouse technologies (e.g., BigQuery, Snowflake, or Redshift).
- Experience with transformation tooling such as dbt
- Experience building and operating pipelines using modern orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Dagster, Prefect).
- Understanding of data modeling approaches (dimensional modeling, SCDs, incremental models).
- Ability to work autonomously and make strong architectural decisions in a high‑ownership environment.
Preferred Experience
- Exposure to streaming and real‑time systems (Kafka, Pub/Sub, Flink, etc.).
- Familiarity with modern data stack tooling (e.g., Fivetran, analytics engineering best practices).
- Experience working in high‑accuracy, high‑throughput domains such as financial, quantitative, or real‑time decisioning environments.
- Background as an early or founding data engineering hire.
FAQs
Congratulations, we understand that taking the time to apply is a big step. When you apply, your details go directly to the consultant who is sourcing talent. Due to demand, we may not get back to all applicants that have applied. However, we always keep your CV and details on file so when we see similar roles or see skillsets that drive growth in organisations, we will always reach out to discuss opportunities.
Yes. Even if this role isn’t a perfect match, applying allows us to understand your expertise and ambitions, ensuring you're on our radar for the right opportunity when it arises.
We also work in several ways, firstly we advertise our roles available on our site, however, often due to confidentiality we may not post all. We also work with clients who are more focused on skills and understanding what is required to future-proof their business.
That's why we recommend registering your CV so you can be considered for roles that have yet to be created.
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