Senior Data Engineer

Talantir; United States; Remote; USD 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Dental insurance

Health insurance

Life insurance

Paid time off

Vision insurance

Job summary

Talantir seeks a Senior Data Engineer to own a complex affiliate and content-driven data ecosystem. You will collaborate with the Data Engineer and Data Scientist to optimize pipelines, improve observability, and implement an orchestration framework for reliability and scalability.

This contract-to-full-time role requires strong Python and SQL skills, GCP familiarity, and experience with DBT, Airflow, Dagster or Prefect.

Qualifications

• Strong Python experience building and maintaining data pipelines.
• Expert SQL for complex transformations and performance tuning.
• Hands-on with DBT, Airbyte, or similar ETL/ELT tools.
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform services (BigQuery).
• Familiarity with orchestration frameworks (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect).
• Knowledge of composable CDPs (Hightouch, Segment...).
• Deep data warehousing and dimensional modeling knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Own and optimize data pipelines from various sources including affiliate systems and logs.
• Develop observability, monitoring, and alerting to reduce downtime.
• Refactor data models and define dimensional models for reporting.
• Collaborate with Data Scientist on analytics initiatives and AB testing.
• Incorporate AI-driven tooling to improve pipeline performance.
• Lead and mentor engineers; align data strategies with business goals.
• Build model ops for paid media including lineage and backfills.

Skills

Python pipelines

SQL / DBT

GCP

ETL/ELT tools

Orchestration frameworks

CDP experience

Data modeling

AI in workflows

Tools

DBT

Airbyte

Airflow

Dagster

Prefect

Hightouch

Segment

RudderStack

Job description

About the Role

We’re seeking a Senior Data Engineer to take ownership of a complex affiliate and content-driven data ecosystem. You’ll work closely with our existing Data Engineer and Data Scientist to optimize and modernize data pipelines, enhance observability, and implement an orchestration framework. This position is contract-to-full-time, with the expectation that you’ll transition into a permanent leadership role on successful completion of the contract.

Key Responsibilities

• Data Pipeline Ownership
  • Manage and optimize existing ETL pipelines that ingest data from affiliate management systems (Rakuten, Impact), web/CDN logs, and various ad networks.
  • Maintain and enhance custom Python scripts, Ayrbyte, Big Query Table sync, etc for data ingestion, transformations, and reverse ETL processes.
  • Oversee and expand our composable CDP (Hightouch) to enable identity resolution and audience segmentation, including deeper email integration.
• Orchestration & Observability
  • Drive the decision, architecture, and implementation of an orchestration framework (currently leaning toward Dagster or Prefect).
  • Develop robust observability, monitoring, and alerting strategies to reduce downtime and simplify troubleshooting.
• Data Modeling & Warehouse Architecture
  • Refactor and expand core data models to accommodate new business lines and future growth.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders to define dimensional models and fact tables for reporting, analytics, and campaign optimization.
• Reporting & Analytics
  • Support existing reporting efforts (currently in Hex, with R/Python) to ensure data is accurate, timely, and easily accessible.
  • Work alongside our Data Scientist on advanced analytics initiatives, such as modeling, experimentation & AB testing.
• AI Integration
  • Incorporate AI-driven tools and methods into day-to-day tasks where sensible, leveraging emerging technologies to enhance pipeline performance and scalability.
  • Stay current on AI trends and innovations, ensuring our architecture evolves alongside cutting-edge best practices.
• Collaboration & Leadership
  • Partner with engineering, analytics, full stack web devs and business teams to align data strategies with company objectives.
  • Mentor junior engineers, share best practices, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Model Ops for Paid Media
  • Design and ship a production pathway for our existing models. Own the end-to-end lifecycle—from model packaging to orchestration and monitoring.
  • Align offline/online metrics and ad-platform semantics (event_id/gclid/gbraid, hashing & dedupe, conversion windows), with auditable lineage and automated backfills.

Required Qualifications

• Expert Python Skills: Proven experience in building and maintaining data pipelines, custom transforms, and scripts.
• SQL Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in SQL for complex transformations (using DBT), analytics queries, and performance optimization. Must be comfortable debugging intricate queries and designing maintainable, scalable SQL-based workflows.
• GCP Familiarity: Competence with Google Cloud Functions, BigQuery, and related GCP services; advanced GCP knowledge is a plus.
• ETL/ELT Experience: Hands-on experience with DBT, Airbyte, or similar tools for data ingestion, transformation, and management.
• Orchestration & Observability: Exposure to frameworks like Airflow, Dagster, or Prefect, with a strong desire to drive architectural decisions.
• CDP Experience: Familiarity with Hightouch, Segment, RudderStack, or similar composable CDPs.
• Data Modeling: Deep understanding of data warehousing, dimensional modeling, and best practices.
• AI Enthusiasm: Active use of AI tools or methods in daily workflows and an eagerness to apply AI pragmatically to improve systems and processes.

Soft Skills

• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with an ability to explain complex data concepts simply.
• Self-starter who can work independently and as part of a team.
• Batteries Included: Capable of taking high-level business and technical requirements from concept to production with minimal oversight. Proactively seek team input and resources as needed to ensure success.
• Resilience in the Face of Changing Priorities: Adapt quickly and maintain composure when business needs shift. Manage changing scopes or timelines gracefully while preserving quality and momentum.

Compensation Range

Actual salary will be based on qualifications and experience.

Job Types: Full-time, Contract

Pay: $100,000.00 - $160,000.00 per year

Benefits

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Application Question(s)

• When hiring for full time positions, our company starts with a contract project of 1-3 month duration to make sure we're a mutual excellent fit. Please confirm you understand this requirement.
• Please describe your experience with implementing and managing orchestration tools.
• Describe a concrete production incident you’ve handled where model outputs or ad-platform attribution went wrong (e.g., drift, gclid/gbraid mismatch, hashing bug). What alerted you, what was the root cause, and what automation prevented recurrence?

Work Location: Remote