Senior Data Engineer

Pontera; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant participation

Healthcare benefits

401(k) with employer match

Parental leave

Professional development

Job summary

Pontera is seeking a Senior Data Engineer in New York to build the data foundation and AI tools that empower teams across the company. You will develop reliable pipelines and semantic models, enabling business data to be understood by people and AI agents.

This hands‑on role partners with Data, Sales, Marketing, RevOps and Customer Success to deliver practical data solutions. You will work as an independent contributor, shaping solutions from discovery through delivery, and ensuring adoption and

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, analytics engineering or a closely related role, with ownership of production data pipelines and models.
• Strong SQL and Python skills, experience with cloud data warehouses, and a solid understanding of dimensional modeling, ELT, API integrations and data quality. Hands‑on experience with Snowflake and DBT is preferred.
• Practical experience building an AI agent, LLM application or automated workflow that uses real data. You can explain how it was evaluated, where it failed and what you learned.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to learn unfamiliar processes quickly. You can connect technical choices to what users need and explain tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non‑technical colleagues.
• Experience helping others adopt new tools or practices through mentoring, training, documentation or direct support.
• An ownership mindset: you take work from discovery through implementation and ongoing improvement, collaborate openly, and care about whether people actually use what you build.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain data pipelines and integrations using SQL, Python, DBT and Snowflake. Bring together operational, CRM and third-party data, and create reusable models that support analytics and business workflows.
• Develop semantic models and views with clear metric definitions, entity relationships, business rules and verified example queries. Make the same trusted definitions usable across agents, applications and reporting.
• Build and improve AI agents, copilots and automated workflows that combine structured data, documents and business tools. Work on use cases such as client intelligence, call preparation, customer support and sales productivity.
• Partner directly with business teams to understand their processes, question assumptions and identify where better data or automation will help. Turn ambiguous requests into practical solutions and support them after launch.
• Use AI coding assistants and development tools in your own work, and help the Data team develop repeatable practices for using them well. Review generated code, validate results and share what works.
• Help technical and business colleagues use AI tools effectively through hands‑on sessions, documentation, reusable examples and coaching. Use their feedback to improve the tools and workflows you build.
• Build quality and reliability into the full solution, including data tests, monitoring, agent evaluations, version control and deployment practices. Work with Engineering and Security on appropriate access, permissions and human review.
• Measure whether solutions are useful in practice through sustained adoption, output quality, time saved and improvements in business workflows. Balance new development with maintenance, performance and cost.

Skills

SQL

Python

Snowflake

DBT

AI tools

Tools

DBT

Snowflake

Fivetran

Claude

Cortex Code (CoCo)

Job description

Pontera is a fintech company on a mission to help people retire better. Our software platform enables retirement savers to get the help they need managing their 401(k) and other retirement plan accounts as part of a personalized strategy by their trusted financial advisor.

Pontera is used by financial advisors across the nation– from SMB to Fortune 500 RIA firms, independent broker-dealers, plan custodians, and plan advisors.

Backed by leading venture capital firms including ICONIQ Growth and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pontera is built by talented individuals who share a dedication to helping people retire with greater security.

Our team is fast-growing and driven to become one of the largest fintech companies in the world. Our culture is built on a people-first principle: in a complex and numbers-driven industry, we never lose sight of the people we serve and work alongside. That’s where you come in.

DESCRIPTION

We are looking for a Senior Data Engineer to build the data foundation and AI tools that help teams across Pontera work more effectively. You will build reliable pipelines, develop semantic models that make business data understandable to people and AI agents, and turn that foundation into useful applications and automated workflows.

You will work directly with our Data and go-to-market teams, including Sales, Marketing, RevOps and Customer Success. This is a hands-on individual contributor role with the autonomy to shape solutions and see their impact in everyday business use.

About the Team

We have moved from traditional, dashboard-led BI to conversational analytics. Business teams across Pontera use our agents to explore data, ask follow-up questions and get answers independently, within their access permissions. We are now taking the next step: building automated workflows that help colleagues act on those insights and complete work with less manual effort.

Data has become a central partner to the business. From customer support copilots to sales intelligence and client preparation, we build for practical value: better decisions, time back for business teams and stronger outcomes.

AI adoption and literacy are high within the team. We work with Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran and use AI tools like Claude and Cortex Code (CoCo) throughout development, investigation and problem-solving. We continually share what we learn and help colleagues across the company use AI confidently and effectively through hands‑on enablement, reusable tools and ongoing support.

We are a team of strong, independent individual contributors who own their work from understanding the problem through delivery and adoption. We also share context, review each other's work and help one another get past obstacles. Everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas, question assumptions and influence decisions. We value different backgrounds and perspectives, make room for respectful disagreement and expect people to listen as thoughtfully as they speak.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build and maintain data pipelines and integrations using SQL, Python, DBT and Snowflake. Bring together operational, CRM and third-party data, and create reusable models that support analytics and business workflows.
• Develop semantic models and views with clear metric definitions, entity relationships, business rules and verified example queries. Make the same trusted definitions usable across agents, applications and reporting.
• Build and improve AI agents, copilots and automated workflows that combine structured data, documents and business tools. Work on use cases such as client intelligence, call preparation, customer support and sales productivity.
• Partner directly with business teams to understand their processes, question assumptions and identify where better data or automation will help. Turn ambiguous requests into practical solutions and support them after launch.
• Use AI coding assistants and development tools in your own work, and help the Data team develop repeatable practices for using them well. Review generated code, validate results and share what works.
• Help technical and business colleagues use AI tools effectively through hands‑on sessions, documentation, reusable examples and coaching. Use their feedback to improve the tools and workflows you build.
• Build quality and reliability into the full solution, including data tests, monitoring, agent evaluations, version control and deployment practices. Work with Engineering and Security on appropriate access, permissions and human review.
• Measure whether solutions are useful in practice through sustained adoption, output quality, time saved and improvements in business workflows. Balance new development with maintenance, performance and cost.

REQUIREMENTS

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, analytics engineering or a closely related role, with ownership of production data pipelines and models.
• Strong SQL and Python skills, experience with cloud data warehouses, and a solid understanding of dimensional modeling, ELT, API integrations and data quality. Hands‑on experience with Snowflake and DBT is preferred.
• Practical experience building an AI agent, LLM application or automated workflow that uses real data. You can explain how it was evaluated, where it failed and what you learned. You use AI tools in your own development and can recognize when their output needs correction.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to learn unfamiliar processes quickly. You can connect technical choices to what users need and explain tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non‑technical colleagues.
• Experience helping others adopt new tools or practices through mentoring, training, documentation or direct support. You are comfortable working with users whose technical experience varies.
• An ownership mindset: you take work from discovery through implementation and ongoing improvement, collaborate openly, and care about whether people actually use what you build.

Nice to Have

• Experience with semantic layers or conversational analytics.
• Experience with Snowflake Cortex or similar agent tooling.
• Experience with GTM systems such as Salesforce, Gong or Zendesk.
• Experience in B2B SaaS or fintech is helpful.

What Success Looks Like

The solutions you build become part of how teams at Pontera work every day. You partner with business stakeholders to define the problem and what improvement would look like, then deliver tools that save time, improve decisions or increase the team’s capacity. You can explain what changed and show evidence of the value created.

Your data pipelines and semantic models provide a dependable foundation for analytics, agents and automated workflows. Business definitions are clear, outputs are tested, and teams can trust the answers they receive. New use cases build on reusable models and components, making each subsequent solution easier to deliver and maintain.

Business teams become more independent in how they use data. They can explore questions, understand the answers and take informed action within their permissions. Recurring questions and manual requests increasingly become opportunities for better self‑service, giving the Data team more time for deeper problems and new capabilities.

The agents and workflows you deliver work reliably beyond the initial launch. They have appropriate evaluation, monitoring, documentation and access controls, with clear handling of failures and situations that require human review. You use feedback and observed usage to improve quality, usefulness and cost over time.

You raise the AI capabilities of the people around you. Through practical guidance, shared examples and collaboration, colleagues become more confident using AI, evaluating its output and applying it to their own work. Within the Data team, the approaches you develop help others build faster while maintaining sound engineering judgment.

You take ownership from discovery through ongoing improvement. You identify opportunities, make thoughtful tradeoffs, communicate progress and surface risks early. Your work is documented and understandable to others, and you actively share knowledge, support teammates and contribute to an environment where different perspectives improve the decisions we make.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Compensation: The compensation range for this role is $180,000 to $220,000 annually, based on experience and qualifications.
• Opportunity: Build data and AI solutions that directly improve how business teams work.
• Team Culture: A collegial, collaborative, fun work environment with frequent team events
• Equity: All new hires are eligible for equity grant participation
• Healthcare: Comprehensive & affordable insurance benefits with a variety of plan options
• Retirement: 401(k) with employer match & employer-sponsored access to a retirement advisor
• Family Benefits: Paid parental leave & reimbursement program for family planning services (such as fertility treatments, adoption, or surrogacy
• Professional Development: Sponsored learning & development program (to cover classes, certifications, and more!)
• Food Perks: Fully stocked kitchen & lunch reimbursement program
• Work Flexibility: A hybrid office work model (In-Office Tues/Weds/Thurs and WFH Mon/Fri) & generous PTO day

Pontera is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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 Pontera’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.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three‑year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

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.