Founding Data Engineer

New York

Data Engineering

240000

Permanent

Our client, a growing AI company, are hiring a Founding Data Engineer to join their team in New York. The successful candidate will establish and own the organisation’s data function from the ground up, spanning everything from instrumentation to infrastructure, and defining how data is captured, modelled, and leveraged to inform product and growth decisions.

Responsibilities

Review and assess existing PostHog telemetry, event tracking and user behaviour.
Design scalable data models with robust metadata structures.
Build and take ownership of data infrastructure, warehousing and pipelines.
Identify and define key metrics (e.g. activation, engagement quality, power users).
Develop executive-ready dashboards that drive real usage and decisions.
Evaluate and select core data tools and technologies.
Collaborate with growth engineering to design tracking frameworks and instrumentation.

Skillset

Over 6 years of experience in data engineering or analytics engineering.
Proven ability to operate autonomously, ideally as a first data hire.
Advanced SQL skills and experience with modern data platforms (e.g. Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks).
Strong track record of building pipelines, schemas and data infrastructure from scratch.
Strong product intuition with clear commercial awareness.
Ability to distinguish signal from noise and communicate insights effectively.
Experience with activation modelling, conversion analysis, and A/B testing.
Experience in SaaS, web analytics or product-led growth environments.