Senior Data Engineer (AI-Native) - Data Layer

Stack

Responsibilities

• ▹Own the Data Layer end to end: ingestion from file-, event- and API-based sources, the medallion-style model (raw, refined, curated) and the serving layer for the product and the AI brain
• ▹Build and operate ingestion and transformation pipelines using a modern orchestration framework and cloud data warehouse
• ▹Ingest and reconcile large, messy, real-world data across batch files, streaming events and APIs
• ▹Model data across medallion layers so it is trustworthy, queryable and stable for downstream teams and the AI
• ▹Help take the Data Layer to the next level: better architecture, tooling, scale and sources
• ▹Operate AI coding agents (Claude Code and similar) at a high level: scope work, structure context, run agents in parallel, ship reviewed production-quality output
• ▹Build systems that make data trustworthy: validation, reconciliation, lineage, backfills, idempotent and incremental loads
• ▹Partner with backend, AI and product engineers, and occasionally customers' IT teams, to define data contracts

Requirements

• ▹7+ years hands-on as a data engineer with real production ownership: pipelines and data models serving real users at scale
• ▹Strong fundamentals: read a query plan, reason about slow or expensive pipelines, debug data-correctness bugs to the root
• ▹Strong programming and SQL skills, data modeling for transactional and analytical access patterns
• ▹Hands-on orchestration experience building reliable ingestion/ELT pipelines against messy upstream sources
• ▹Experience with a cloud data warehouse and a major cloud platform
• ▹Experience ingesting from file-based, event/streaming and API-based sources
• ▹Solid grasp of data-consistency failure modes: partial loads, late or out-of-order data, idempotency, backfills, schema drift
• ▹Daily hands-on use of agentic dev tools (Claude Code, Cursor agent mode, Codex or equivalent)
• ▹Ownership and judgment: take data systems from idea to production
• ▹Startup mindset and strong written communication
• ▹English at C1 or above

Nice to have

• ▹Deep cloud data warehouse experience and modern transformation tooling
• ▹Streaming / event ingestion at scale
• ▹Medallion or lakehouse architecture on large, multi-source data
• ▹Integrating enterprise sources such as ERP (Epicor Eclipse, Prophet 21) or ecommerce systems
• ▹Building data systems that feed AI/ML or agentic products
• ▹Prior experience at an early-stage SaaS startup

Soft skills

About the company

Proton is building the AI operating system for wholesale distribution, unifying CRM, PIM, eCommerce AI and Order & Quote Entry AI on one platform. Hundreds of distributors run on it, and the company is backed by Felicis Ventures and Battery Ventures.