Lead, Data AI & Engineering

MHC Automation; Burnsville, Northern (MN, KY); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Workplace Flexibility

401(k) Plan with employer match

Medical, Dental, Vision plans

Daycare and Medical FSA/HSA

Group Term Life Insurance

Job summary

MHC Automation seeks a hands-on Lead, Data & AI Engineering to own our data layer and the intelligence on top. You will design pipelines, build data models, and prototype AI features while managing a small team.

You’ll set standards, guide architecture, and deliver end-to-end data solutions tied to product outcomes. The role blends hands-on coding with people leadership, requiring a strong background in data engineering, AI/ML, and collaboration with product and engineering to ship new

Qualifications

• 7+ years building data/backend systems in production.
• Strong SQL and Python with production AI/ML experience.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build MHC's core data platform across batch and streaming workloads.
• Model data for analytics and product use with a semantic layer trusted by the whole company.
• Lead and grow a small team of 2–4 data and AI engineers; set standards and direction.

Skills

SQL

Python

Data modeling

AI/ML

leadership

communication

Product sense

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Snowflake

BigQuery

Databricks

Redshift

dbt

Airflow

OpenAI API

Job description

Who we are:

MHC is a global provider of AI-powered SaaS solutions for document, communication, and payment automation - purpose-built for highly regulated industries.Wesimplify complexity and unlock intelligence so organizations can deliver exceptional experiences with confidence.

Our platform helps enterprise and mid-market organizations improve efficiency, ensure compliance, and modernize customer communications at scale. Customers use MHC solutions to generate more than 10 billion documents and process billions in AP payments annually. Recognized as a Leader in multiple G2 reports and featured in analyst reports from Gartner, IDC, Aspire, and Aragon, MHC is built for organizations that can't afford to get it wrong.

People are at the center of everything we do - for our customers and within our own walls. MHC supports a flexible, work-where-you-live model, and for five consecutive years has been named one of Minnesota's Top Workplaces by the Star Tribune, based entirely on employee feedback. We are a team driven to grow, committed to being better than yesterday, and stronger together. We earn trust every day with our customers, our partners, and each other. We experiment boldly, and when our customers win, we win.

For more information, visit mhcautomation.com.

Who we are looking for:

We're looking for a hands-on Lead, Data & AI Engineering to build the data layer for MHC and the intelligence on top of it. You will own how data is ingested, modeled, governed, and served across the company, and you'll partner with Product and Engineering to ship AI- and LLM-powered features into our product.

This is a player-coach role. You will spend significant time in the code designing pipelines, building data models, and prototyping AI features while also managing and growing a small team of 1-2 data and AI engineers. You'll set the technical direction, establish the standards, and be accountable for both the platform and the people.

Why join us? MHC is at a pivotal moment. With a strong foundation and bold growth ambitions, we're not just scaling, we're transforming. We're looking for someone who isn't here to maintain the status quo, but to define what data and AI can do for our business and our customers.

This isn't a plug-and-play role. You'll have end-to-end ownership of green-field data and AI capability at a company with real data, real customers, and clear problems worth solving. You won't be handed a playbook you'll write it. You'll set the direction, build the foundation, and see your work shipped directly into the product, all while building and leading the team that does it.

If you want to architect the future of a global SaaS company, not just join it this is your opportunity.

What you will get to do:

Build the data layer

• Architect. Design and build MHC's core data platform — ingestion, transformation, storage, and serving layers — across batch and streaming workloads.
• Model. Model data for both analytics and product use cases, creating clean, well-documented, reusable datasets and a semantic layer the whole company can trust.
• Govern. Establish data quality, lineage, observability, and governance practices so data is reliable, discoverable, and secure.
• Pipe. Build the pipelines and feature/embedding stores that feed analytics, ML, and LLM applications.

Create intelligence from data

• Mine. Turn raw operational and document data into intelligence — metrics, signals, predictions, and document understanding — that powers decisions and product features.
• Apply AI. Build and evaluate models and retrieval systems (including RAG over documents) that extract, classify, summarize, and reason over MHC's data.
• Productize. Partner with Product to design and ship LLM-powered features — from prototype to production — with appropriate guardrails, evaluation, and cost controls.

Lead the team

• Manage. Manage, mentor, and grow a team of 2–4 data and AI engineers; set goals, give feedback, and develop careers.
• Direct. Set technical standards and a pragmatic roadmap for data and AI; make build-vs-buy decisions and balance speed with long-term maintainability.
• Partner. Collaborate across Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders to align the data and AI roadmap with company priorities.
• Contribute. Stay hands‑on — review code and designs, prototype hard problems, and set the bar for engineering quality.

What Success Looks Like in This Role:

• First 90 days. In 90 days: you understand MHC's data and systems, have a prioritized data & AI roadmap, and have shipped early wins to the data layer.
• Six months. In 6 months: a reliable, documented data foundation is in place, and the first AI/LLM‑powered feature is in production or in customer testing.
• One year. In 12 months: the team is delivering a steady stream of data products and AI features, with strong quality, governance, and a growing, high‑performing team.

Education and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or a related field or equivalent years of experience.
• 7+ years building data and/or backend systems in production, with recent hands‑on experience in both data engineering and applied AI/ML.
• Proven ownership of a data platform: strong SQL and Python, and experience with modern data tooling (e.g., a cloud warehouse/lakehouse such as Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, or Redshift; transformation tools like dbt; and orchestration such as Airflow, Dagster, or Prefect).
• Hands‑on experience building production AI/ML features, including practical work with LLMs — prompting, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), embeddings/vector search, evaluation, and integrating models via APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) or open‑source models).
• Solid software engineering fundamentals: data modeling, API design, testing, CI/CD, and building reliable systems on a major cloud (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers — whether as a manager, tech lead, or senior IC ready to step into people management — and a genuine interest in growing a team.
• Strong product sense and communication: able to translate ambiguous business problems into data and AI solutions, and explain trade‑offs to technical and non‑technical audiences.

Preferred experience, skills, and knowledge:

• Experience with document AI / intelligent document processing (OCR, extraction, classification) or NLP over unstructured text.
• Experience operating LLMs in production — evaluation/observability, prompt and cost optimization, fine‑tuning, or agentic workflows.
• Background in B2B SaaS, document/process automation, fintech, or other data‑heavy enterprise domains.
• Familiarity with data privacy, security, and compliance (e.g., SOC 2, GDPR) in a multi‑tenant SaaS environment.
• Experience with streaming (Kafka/Kinesis), infrastructure‑as‑code, and MLOps/LLMOps tooling.

Worksite Location:

This is a remote role. Candidates must be based in the United States.

This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

MHC Comprehensive Benefits Package

Weofferarobustbenefitspackagedesignedtosupportthewell‑beingandfinancialsecurityofouremployees.

Our Benefits Include:

• WorkplaceFlexibility
• 401(k) Plan: Deferred and Roth options available to help you save for retirement, with a generous employer match of 50% up to maximum of 4.5% of gross pay.
• MedicalPlans:Comprehensiveco-payorHSAcoverageoptionstokeepyouandyourfamilyhealthy.
• DentalandVisionPlans:Accesstoalargenetworkofprovidersfordentalandvision health.
• Daycare and Medical FSA/HSA: Save on eligible daycare and healthcare expenses with our flexible spending and health savings account plans.
• GroupTermLifeInsurance:Coverageof$50,000toprovidepeaceofmind.
• GenerousPaidTimeOff(PTO)Policies:Ampletimetorelaxandrecharge.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Support for personal and professional challenges.

VoluntaryBenefitsAvailable:

• AdditionalLifeInsurance
• CriticalIllnessInsurance
• Accident,Cancer&HospitalIndemnityInsurance
• Legal/IDShield
• PetInsurance

Parental Leave:

If your state offers a paid family or medical leave program, you will have access to those benefits. For employees instates without a state program, we offer:

• Four weeks of paid paternity leave, available after one year of employment, with partial eligibility beginning at six months.
• Twelve weeks of paid leave for the birth parent, eligibility rules apply.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome our employee’s differences, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or Veteran status. Different makes us better - Join us.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

While we may use AI tools to support parts of our hiring process, applicants and candidates may not use AI tools (such as chatbots, writing assistants, or real‑time response generators etc.) to complete application materials, assessments, or interviews. Responses should reflect your own knowledge, skills, and communication style. If our review indicates that AI was used in a manner inconsistent with this expectation, we will not move forward with your candidacy.