Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform, AI Labs

Epiq; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Epiq AI Labs is building the data infrastructure beneath its AI platform, handling high-volume ingestion, distributed processing, and scalable storage/indexing for legal workflows.

The team operates with startup speed inside a global provider, emphasizing end-to-end ownership, collaboration, and rigorous design standards. Hybrid work is available, with 3–4 office days per week.

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing, building, and operating data-intensive distributed backends.
• Experience with large-scale data-processing pipelines and production ops.
• Production experience with message brokers and queue-based architectures.
• Strong relational DB skills: indexing, partitioning, zero-downtime migrations.
• Experience with Temporal, Airflow, or Dagster.
• Experience with search or vector-index tech and index-record consistency.
• Proficiency in Python; strong skills in a similar language acceptable.
• Observability tooling experience with Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry.
• Experience in cloud containers: Azure or AWS, Kubernetes, Docker.
• Strong system-design and architectural documentation skills.
• Familiarity with AI tools in software development.

Responsibilities

• Design scalable data pipelines for multi-million-file workloads, including parsing, ingestion, storage, partitioning, and indexing strategies.
• Build queue-based asynchronous processing frameworks with fault tolerance, retries, idempotency, dead-letter handling.
• Design storage and indexing architecture across relational, object, search, and vector stores.
• Create multi-tenant data architectures with per-tenant controls and workload management for AI.
• Establish pipeline observability and SLIs covering throughput, latency, and data quality.
• Plan modernization and migration strategies preserving availability and data integrity.
• Produce technical design docs and participate in architectural reviews with cross-functional teams.

Skills

Python proficiency

Distributed systems

Data pipelines

AI tools in software development

Observability

REST/backend design

PostgreSQL

RabbitMQ

Solr

Qdrant

Azure

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

OAuth2 / OIDC / SAML

Tools

PostgreSQL

RabbitMQ

Solr

Qdrant

Azure

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

OAuth2 / OIDC / SAML

Job description

At Epiq, your work contributes to complex, global legal outcomes. You’ll join a values‑driven community where integrity guides decisions, relentless service sets the bar, and we thrive on big challenges together. We invest in your growth with enterprise‑wide learning and mobility. We celebrate who you are, and we respect life beyond work with flexibility that’s recognized externally. Enabled by modern platforms and AI, you’ll do the most meaningful work of your career and see your impact at scale.

Job Description

Epiq AI Labs is the innovation and engineering hub behind Epiq’s next-generation AI platform for corporate legal departments and global law firms. Operating with the speed and autonomy of a startup and the resources of a global alternative legal services provider, the team builds intelligent agents, reasoning engines, knowledge systems, and structured workflows for litigation, investigations, compliance, and corporate knowledge work.

The team is highly collaborative, deeply technical, and focused on rapid iteration, thoughtful design, and end-to-end ownership.

The Opportunity

You will build the data infrastructure beneath Epiq AI Labs’ AI platform, including high-volume document ingestion, distributed and asynchronous processing, and the storage and indexing architecture used by the broader platform. You will own systems from design through production operation.

This work directly supports retrieval, reasoning, and legal workflows by ensuring that data is complete, reliable, and indexed correctly. You will help establish an architecture designed for the next order of magnitude in scale.

This role will be in the office 3~4 days a week.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Design scalable data pipelines for multi-million-file workloads, including parsing, ingestion, storage, partitioning, and indexing strategies.
• Build queue-based asynchronous processing frameworks with fault tolerance, retry, idempotency, dead-letter handling, and elastic capacity.
• Design storage and indexing architecture across relational, object, search, and vector stores, including consistency, backfill, and reconciliation mechanisms.
• Design multi-tenant data architectures with tenant isolation, per-tenant resource controls, and workload management for AI workloads.
• Establish pipeline observability and service-level objectives covering throughput, latency, queue depth, error classification, and data quality.
• Plan and execute modernization and migration strategies that preserve production availability and data integrity.
• Produce technical design documentation, participate in architectural review, collaborate across engineering, product, and security, and strengthen standards for testing, CI, code quality, and operational readiness.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience designing, building, and operating data-intensive or distributed backend systems in production.
• Demonstrated experience with large-scale data-processing pipelines, including operational responsibility.
• Production experience with message brokers and queue-based architectures, including scaling, delivery and ordering guarantees, and failure handling.
• Strong relational database skills, including query optimization, indexing, partitioning, and zero-downtime schema migration.
• Experience with workflow-orchestration frameworks such as Temporal, Airflow, or Dagster.
• Experience with search or vector-index technologies and maintaining consistency between an index and a system of record.
• Proficiency in Python, or strong proficiency in a comparable language with the ability to work primarily in Python.
• Experience with observability tooling such as Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry.
• Experience operating in containerized cloud environments using Azure or AWS, Kubernetes, and Docker.
• Strong system-design and architecture experience, including production of technical design documents.
• Demonstrated proficiency using AI tools in software development.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with document-processing technologies, including text extraction, OCR, format conversion, and archive or email extraction.
• Experience modernizing or replacing production systems while maintaining availability.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools, particularly Terraform.
• Experience with multi-region deployments and data-residency or sovereignty requirements.
• Experience with AI/ML data infrastructure and retrieval technologies such as Solr or Qdrant.
• Experience in legal technology or another regulated industry.

Technology Stack

• Python
• PostgreSQL
• RabbitMQ
• Solr
• Qdrant
• OAuth2 / OIDC / SAML
• Azure
• Kubernetes
• Docker
• Terraform
• Prometheus
• Grafana
• OpenTelemetry

The Compensation range for this role is $180,000 -$240,000 USD annually and may be eligible for an annual bonus.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

Must be authorized to work in the United States for any employer.

Your specific salary will be determined based on several factors:

• Location-based market rate for the role
• Your abilities in relation to the job specification
• Performance during screening and interview
• Pay parity with the wider team in the considered location

Further details about the package will be provided during the initial screening call with the Talent Acquisition Team.

Epiq Leadership Compass

Fosters Relationships & Collaboration

Builds trust and alignment through open communication, shared goals, and strong partnerships to drive collective success.

• Build trust-based partnerships
• Nurture long-term relationships
• Remove collaboration barriers
• Celebrate cross-team success

Engages & Influences

Inspires action and alignment through clear communication, purposeful influence, and a compelling vision.

• Use storytelling to build buy-in
• Align communication with organizational goals
• Guild alignment through strong engagement

Maximizes Performance

Sets and reinforces performance standards that drive results, ensure accountability, and align with Epiq’s goals.

• Use data to identify improvement opportunities
• Make informed decisions
• Align team goals with boarder strategy
• Empower teams to manage their own goals
• Translate vision into clear priorities
• Prepare for disruptions with strong change management

Achieves Operational Success

Drives continuous improvement and operational excellence through smart processes, data insights, and quality execution.

• Improve workflows for team efficiency
• Use clear documentation and expectations
• Resolve issues quickly using data and feedback

It is Epiq’s policy to comply with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws by making all employment decisions without unlawful regard or consideration of any individual’s race, religion, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expressions, transgender status, sexual and other reproductive health decisions, marital status, age, national origin, genetic information, ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, veteran or family status or any other basis protected by applicable national, federal, state, provincial or local law. Epiq’s policy prohibits unlawful discrimination based on any of these impermissible bases, as well as any bases or grounds protected by applicable law in each jurisdiction. In addition Epiq will take affirmative action for minorities, women, covered veterans and individuals with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. Epiq is pleased to provide such assistance and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request. Pursuant to relevant law, where applicable, Epiq will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.