Junior AI Data Engineer

Cortica - Neurodevelopmental•San Diego, CA

6h•$80,000 - $90,000•Remote

About The Position

Cortica is looking for a Junior AI Data Engineer to join its growing team! The Junior AI Data Engineer is an early-career role focused on learning the craft of data engineering while building AI-first habits from day one. Working under the guidance of senior engineers, this role contributes to the data pipelines, models, and reporting that power care decisions, financial planning, and operational efficiency at Cortica. This role partners with the data science, finance, and clinical operations teams on well-scoped tasks, growing toward independent ownership over time. AI-assisted development is part of the daily workflow: the Junior AI Data Engineer is expected to use AI coding tools responsibly, verify their output, and build the judgment that turns AI acceleration into reliable, production-quality work. We are a rapidly growing healthcare company pioneering the most effective treatment methods for children with neurodevelopmental differences. Our mission is to design and deliver life-changing care – one child, one family, one community at a time. Ultimately, we envision a world that cultivates the full potential of every child. At Cortica, every team member is instrumental in helping us achieve our mission! Our culture and values guide how we work and treat one another. Cortica celebrates diversity and fosters an inclusive environment, seeking ideas and opinions from everyone on the team. We safeguard equal rights and respect for all individuals, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, creed, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ancestry, veteran status or other applicable, legally protected characteristics. All Cortica employment decisions are made based on an individual’s qualifications and ability to successfully perform the job responsibilities.

Requirements

You hold a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
You have 0—2 years of experience; have built or contributed to at least 1—2 end-to-end data pipelines (coursework, internship, bootcamp, or personal projects) that ingest, transform, and load data from a source into a destination.
You’re familiar with using AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot), or have a strong eagerness to adopt AI-first development workflows.
You bring 6+ months of hands-on experience or coursework-equivalent Python; able to write scripts that read, clean, and transform data (e.g., using pandas).
You have demonstrated an ability to write intermediate SQL — joins across multiple tables, aggregations (GROUP BY), filtering, and basic subqueries.
You’ve had exposure to at least one cloud platform (AWS or Azure); a foundational certification such as AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) is a plus.
You’ve successfully built at least one dashboard or report in Power BI, Tableau, or a similar tool (academic or personal projects count).
You’ve demonstrated an ability to document technical work clearly and explain it to non-technical audiences; you have experience collaborating across at least 2 teams or functions (e.g., a cross-functional class project, internship, or club).

Nice To Haves

Foundational certification such as AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Contribute to well-scoped data engineering tasks within larger projects, following the full engineering lifecycle with guidance.
Use AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) as part of daily development, verifying, correcting, and testing AI-generated code before committing it.
Follow the team’s context files (CLAUDE.md equivalents) and conventions so AI-assisted work stays consistent with established patterns.
Help build and maintain data pipelines that ingest from AWS, Azure, Salesforce, MuleSoft, and third-party APIs into the AWS Data Lake.
Assist in implementing data models using Kimball methodology, learning dimensional modeling on the job.
Develop simple orchestration steps in Python, run basic data-quality checks, and help investigate data anomalies.
Support Power BI data models and reports and help analytics team members with data questions.
Assist with small automation scripts and internal tooling that connect data pipelines to end users.
Follow data-security and HIPAA practices in all work and document your work clearly so others (and AI agents) can build on it.
Collaborate across IT, finance, clinical operations, and data science.
Travel to local Cortica centers may be required from time to time.