[Hiring] Senior AI-First Data Engineer @Smartcat

Role Description

Help transform Smartcat's data platform into an AI-native foundation where business data becomes discoverable, actionable, and consumable by both humans and AI agents — partnering across Data, Product, Engineering, GTM, and AI teams to enable self-service analytics, intelligent automation, and agent-driven decision support.

Outcomes

• Evolve Smartcat's data architecture into a scalable, cloud-native, AI-first platform, leading the transition from batch-oriented pipelines to near real-time and streaming systems.
• Improve reliability, observability, governance, and performance across the data stack, establishing engineering standards and best practices.
• Turn business data into AI-ready assets — building data products consumable by AI agents, analytics systems, and business users, with semantic layers and metadata management.
• Use AI to accelerate development, testing, documentation, monitoring, and operational workflows, and design systems that let AI agents query, understand, and act on business data safely.
• Improve business intelligence and data accessibility — making analytics simpler for non-technical stakeholders and enabling self-service without sacrificing governance or quality.
• Raise the engineering bar through mentorship, code reviews, architecture leadership, and knowledge sharing across Data and Analytics Engineering.

How You'll Ramp

• By Day 30:
  • Get deep on Smartcat's current data architecture, the greenfield cloud platform build, and the transition plan from batch to streaming.
  • Meet your partners across Data, Product, Engineering, GTM, and AI teams to understand current pain points and priorities.
  • Get hands-on with the core stack (Databricks, dbt, Airflow, Python, SQL) and current BI tooling (e.g., Omni).
• By Day 60:
  • Contribute to at least one concrete piece of the Next Generation Data Platform build (pipeline, streaming component, or data product).
  • Have identified and started applying at least one AI-powered workflow to accelerate your own engineering work (testing, documentation, debugging).
  • Begin shaping a semantic layer, metadata structure, or data product aimed at AI-agent or business-user consumption.
• By Day 90:
  • Own a defined piece of architecture or data product end-to-end, with measurable improvements in reliability, observability, or time-to-insight.
  • Be actively mentoring or raising the engineering bar through code reviews and architecture input.
  • Have a documented example of measurable productivity gains from AI adoption in your own workflow.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, or a related field.
• A proven track record designing and operating modern cloud data platforms, ideally in high-growth SaaS environments.
• Experience working effectively with both technical and business stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex projects from design through delivery.
• Strong hands-on experience with Databricks, dbt, Airflow, Python for data engineering, SQL and data modeling, data warehousing architectures, data quality frameworks, data governance, and data orchestration/integration.
• Experience with streaming architectures and event-driven systems, business intelligence platforms, product analytics platforms, and CRM/customer data platforms.
• A demonstrated AI-first mindset — AI-powered development workflows, automation of repetitive engineering tasks, use of AI for debugging/testing/architecture exploration/documentation, and evidence of measurable productivity gains through AI adoption.
• Bonus: experience building AI-native data products, semantic layers, RAG systems, vector databases, knowledge graphs, or enabling AI agents to consume operational business data.

Benefits

• A global, connected team with remote-friendly roles.
• Be part of an AI Native Organization that embraces innovation and encourages all team members to manage their own AI Agents.
• Join a company reshaping the $100B multilingual content industry with an AI-powered platform.
• Be part of a team growing at 130% YoY, transitioning from a post-Series C startup to a company exceeding $100M in ARR and $1B in valuation.

Company Description

At Smartcat, we are committed to building a culture that highlights respect and appreciation for each individual's unique background and perspective, while maintaining a strong focus on results and engagement. We believe in welcoming everyone and fostering an inclusive environment where team members can be their authentic selves at work. Our commitment to inclusion is steadfast, and we stand firmly against discrimination and harassment.