Data Engineer, AI

Focused; Chicago (IL); In loco; USD 145.000 - 175.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

Focused, a Chicago-based software partner, is seeking a Data Engineer to build the data foundation behind an enterprise AI platform. You will own data pipelines, governance, and data readiness for retrieval across analytics and AI workloads, mostly in Databricks.

In this role, you will design batch and streaming pipelines, model data in lakehouse architectures, implement Unity Catalog governance, and collaborate with AI engineers.

Competenze

• 5+ years in data engineering.
• Experience with Databricks, Spark, Delta Lake.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL.
• Experience building production data pipelines in cloud environments (Azure or GCP preferred).
• Experience with data modeling and data quality practices.

Mansioni

• Design and build batch and streaming pipelines in Databricks (Spark, Delta Lake, Workflows).
• Model data in a lakehouse architecture for analytics and AI workloads.
• Implement governance and access controls with Unity Catalog.
• Monitor data quality and pipeline reliability.
• Build ingestion and chunking pipelines for unstructured data feeding RAG systems.
• Generate, store, and refresh embeddings; operate vector search.
• Build datasets for LLM evaluation and measure retrieval quality.
• Partner with AI and platform engineers to ensure data with correct permissions.
• Deploy data infrastructure on Azure and/or GCP using IaC.
• Bring software engineering habits to data work: version control, testing, CI/CD.

Conoscenze

Python

SQL

Databricks

Spark

Delta Lake

Data modeling

Data quality

Azure or GCP

Descrizione del lavoro

At Focused, we move quickly to deliver quality software that achieves client outcomes and meets their customer's needs. We strategically partner with our clients to leverage our expertise in design and software, while our clients bring their own domain expertise. We work with a variety of clients from different industries, collaborating as we get new products to market, modernizing legacy systems, or helping teams learn the skills they need to be successful.

Our values:

• Listen first We are experts in product practices but lifelong learners in the domain of our customers. We research, collaborate, and understand.
• Learn why We ask questions and talk to users to understand problem spaces, objectives, and goals, which allows us to deeply invest and drive towards the outcomes of our clients.
• Love your craft We love diving into a variety of domains and solving problems. We take pride in delivering value, in communicating progress, and guiding our clients to success.

We're looking for a Data Engineer to build the data foundation behind an enterprise AI platform for a global enterprise client. Agents and LLM applications are only as good as the data they can reach, and you'll own getting it there: clean, governed, and ready for retrieval. Most of your work will be in Databricks, with a strong lean toward AI use cases.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and build batch and streaming pipelines in Databricks (Spark, Delta Lake, Workflows)
• Model data in a lakehouse architecture that serves both analytics and AI workloads
• Implement governance and access controls with Unity Catalog
• Monitor data quality and pipeline reliability

Data for AI

• Build ingestion and chunking pipelines for unstructured data (documents, PDFs, knowledge bases) that feed RAG systems
• Generate, store, and refresh embeddings; operate vector search (Databricks Vector Search or similar)
• Build datasets for LLM evaluation and help teams measure retrieval quality
• Partner with AI and platform engineers so agents get the right data with the right permissions
• Deploy data infrastructure on Azure and/or GCP using IaC
• Bring software engineering habits to data work: version control, testing, CI/CD

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years in data engineering
• Strong hands-on experience with Databricks, Spark, and Delta Lake
• Proficiency in Python and SQL
• Experience building production data pipelines in a cloud environment (Azure or GCP preferred)
• Experience with data modeling and data quality practices

Preferred Qualifications (Exceptional Candidates):

• Experience building data pipelines for RAG, embeddings, or vector search
• Experience with Unity Catalog and Mosaic AI
• Experience with streaming (Structured Streaming, Kafka, Event Hubs)
• Consulting or client-facing experience

What Sets Exceptional Candidates Apart:

• You’ve improved an AI system’s answers by fixing the data underneath it
• You’ve handled messy unstructured data at scale
• Databricks certifications or open-source contributions

What to know before you apply:

• This role will require being in the Chicago office 3 days per week and up to 20% travel within the United States.
• Focused is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of the employment Visa process at this time.
• The Chicago base salary range for this role is $145,000 - $175,000.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Focused’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

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An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.