Lead AI & Data Engineer

MEDIDATA; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) matching

Family leave

Flexible PTO

10 paid holidays

Job summary

Medidata is seeking a Lead AI & Data Engineering professional in a hybrid role based in New York, NY. You will design and deliver production-grade AI and data products within Medidata’s Virtual Twin ecosystem, building scalable, secure solutions using LLMs, RAG, agent orchestration, and modern data architectures.

The role blends data engineering foundations with applied AI to create enterprise-ready capabilities, including AI-powered workflows and governed data integrations.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in data engineering or data science with AI focus.
• Bachelor’s in a technical or scientific field.
• Hands-on AI-native solution development with LLMs and agents.
• Experience integrating AI/ML pipelines into production data infra.

Responsibilities

• Build scalable automated data pipelines and AI-powered solutions.
• Design and deploy production-grade AI using LLMs, RAG, and agents.
• Implement integrations via API and MCP with governance and security.
• Orchestrate AI agents/workflows with LangGraph/LangChain.

Skills

Data engineering

AI/ML engineering

Python

SQL

CI/CD

Git

Airflow

LangGraph

LangChain

Education

Bachelor’s degree in technical field

Tools

Python

SQL

Git

Airflow

LangGraph

LangChain

MCP

Job description

Lead AI & Data Engineering at Medidata in a hybrid role based in New York, NY. You will design and deliver production-grade AI and data products within Medidata’s Virtual Twin ecosystem, building scalable, secure, reliable solutions using LLMs, RAG, agent orchestration, and modern data architectures.

Why this role: you’ll combine data engineering foundations with applied AI to create enterprise-ready capabilities, from AI-powered workflows to governed integrations and metadata management. You’ll also have the opportunity to communicate technical work clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders while collaborating in Agile teams.

What you’ll do

• Build scalable automated data pipelines and AI-powered solutions using Python and SQL, applying CI/CD practices with tools such as Git.
• Design, develop, and deploy production-grade AI solutions leveraging LLMs, RAG, and agentic workflows.
• Implement and maintain integrations using API and MCP to connect applications, agents, and enterprise data and tools in alignment with governance, security, and compliance controls.
• Orchestrate AI agents and workflows using frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, or equivalent technologies.
• Develop agent-driven metadata management to maintain data catalogs, business glossaries, lineage documentation, and governance policies.
• Apply advanced expertise in data architecture, data science engineering, data modeling, and data quality using cloud-native technologies.
• Document and communicate technical work clearly to stakeholders at all levels.
• Collaborate effectively in Agile environments and cross-functional teams.

What you bring

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or data science, including at least 2 years hands-on in AI and data engineering, with a strong foundation in enterprise data architecture.
• A Bachelor’s degree in a technical or scientific field (examples include Data Engineering, Data Science, Computer Science, or similar).
• Hands-on experience developing AI-native solutions with LLMs, RAG, AI agents, and agent orchestration patterns.
• Experience integrating AI/ML pipelines into production-grade data infrastructure, including API and MCP standards and work across model access controls, context management, auditability, security, compliance monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Experience implementing AI governance and guardrails, including access controls, data privacy, auditability, and policy enforcement across AI services and agents.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL, plus modern data engineering practices including CI/CD and Git-based development.
• Hands-on experience with Airflow, CDC, batch processing, and job scheduling.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills, with the ability to troubleshoot complex issues and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, production-ready solutions.
• Experience with healthcare or clinical trial data is not required, but interest in learning how these data improve Life Sciences is paramount.

Tools you’ll work with

Python, SQL, Git, LLMs, RAG, vector databases, CI/CD, API, MCP, LangGraph, LangChain, data catalogs, data modeling, cloud-native technologies, Airflow, CDC, batch processing, job scheduling.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, life and disability insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Family leave
• Flexible paid time off
• 10 paid holidays per year

Hybrid work location

This is a hybrid remote/in-office role. Medidata follows a hybrid office policy where employees hired for an in-person position are expected to work on site a certain number of days per week according to Company policy.

Additional nice to have

• Knowledge graphs, advanced vector search, and retrieval optimization techniques
• Familiarity with clinical research data standards and formats such as CDISC SDTM and ADaM
• Experience with AI evaluation frameworks, benchmarking, and continuous monitoring of AI solution performance
• Experience optimizing cloud infrastructure, AI workloads, and data processing costs
• Familiarity with semantic layers, metadata-driven architectures, and automated data cataloging

Salary range (NYC/NJ Metro Area, physically based): $135,000 - $180,000 per year.

Total Rewards note: Base pay is one part of Medidata’s Total Rewards. Many non-sales roles may be eligible for annual bonuses, and sales positions may be eligible for commission on the terms of applicable plan documents.