Senior Data Engineer, AI and Data Products

Spectrum Search; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Spectrum Search is partnering with an early-stage AI technology company to hire a Senior Data Engineer. You will own critical data pipelines and cloud infrastructure enabling AI-powered financial software, with potential to move into technical leadership.

This senior, hands-on role focuses on ingesting customer data, data modelling, integrations, and scalable data platforms. You will work in a Python-led environment with SQL, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, graph databases, vector stores, and GCP, while

Qualifications

• Strong Python engineering skills with production data pipelines.
• Experience designing and operating production-grade ETL/ELT systems.
• Experience supporting AI or ML-powered products in production.
• Strong data modelling and backend engineering principles.
• Familiarity with graph databases and vector stores.
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms, preferably Google Cloud Platform.

Responsibilities

• Build, operate and improve production Python data pipelines using ETL and ELT patterns.
• Develop connectors and API integrations across data warehouses and ERP, accounting and billing systems.
• Design data models and ontologies to support AI retrieval and agent reasoning.
• Work with graph databases and vector stores supporting retrieval-augmented generation workflows.
• Own engineering work across data, infrastructure and DevOps from design through to production.
• Maintain reliable cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code and security controls.
• Mentor other engineers as the data function develops.
• Contribute to longer-term technical direction and data architecture.

Skills

Python

Data pipelines

Data modelling

Backend engineering

ETL/ELT

Graph databases

Vector stores

SQL

PostgreSQL

Snowflake

CI/CD

Infrastructure as code

IAM

Secrets management

Cloud platforms

Tools

Google Cloud Platform

Job description

Spectrum Search is partnered with an early-stage AI technology company building data-intensive products for finance teams. The company is looking for a Senior Data Engineer to take ownership of production data infrastructure supporting AI and machine learning products, with scope to develop into a technical leadership role.

About the opportunity

This is a senior, hands-on engineering position working on the data foundations behind AI-powered financial software. The role combines production data engineering, data modelling, integrations and cloud infrastructure, with a particular focus on ensuring AI systems can retrieve and reason over complex financial data accurately.

You will join a small engineering team with significant ownership and report directly to the technology leadership. Over time, the position is expected to evolve from primarily individual contribution towards mentoring engineers and shaping the longer-term data architecture.

The role

You will own critical data engineering problems end to end, from ingesting customer data and developing integrations through to designing data models and operating the supporting infrastructure.

The environment is Python-led and includes graph databases, vector stores, SQL, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Google Cloud Platform, retrieval-augmented generation and modern DevOps practices.

Key responsibilities

• Build, operate and improve production Python data pipelines using ETL and ELT patterns
• Develop connectors and API integrations across data warehouses, enterprise resource planning, accounting and billing systems
• Design data models and ontologies that support accurate AI retrieval and agent reasoning
• Work with graph databases and vector stores supporting retrieval-augmented generation workflows
• Own engineering work across data, infrastructure and DevOps from design through to production
• Maintain reliable cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code and appropriate security controls
• Support AI and ML-powered products where data quality directly affects model outputs
• Mentor other engineers as the data function develops
• Contribute to longer-term technical direction and data architecture
• Strong Python engineering skills with proven experience building and maintaining production data pipelines
• Experience designing and operating production-grade ETL or ELT systems
• Experience supporting AI or ML-powered products in production
• Strong understanding of data modelling and backend engineering principles
• Practical or conceptual understanding of graph databases and vector stores
• Experience working with cloud platforms, ideally Google Cloud Platform
• Familiarity with DevOps, infrastructure as code, CI/CD and cloud security controls such as identity and access management and secrets management
• Ability to take ownership of technically ambiguous problems and drive them through to production
• Strong communication skills and confidence working within a small, distributed engineering team
• Existing UK or EU work authorisation without requiring new visa sponsorship

Nice-to-haves

• Experience within an early-stage B2B software company
• Experience with financial systems, including accounting, financial planning and analysis, billing or business analytics
• Experience with Snowflake, SQL, PostgreSQL or TypeScript
• Exposure to retrieval-augmented generation or graph-based retrieval architectures
• Interest in progressing towards technical leadership and mentoring responsibilities

Location and remote setup

This is a full-time, remote-first position for candidates based in London or Amsterdam, working primarily across UK and Central European time zones. The engineering team also works together in person periodically. Company-wide on-sites take place approximately every two months across London, Amsterdam or New York, so willingness to travel for these sessions is required.