Senior Data Engineer

Sekai

22d•Remote

About The Position

Sekai is building the TikTok for mini apps — an AI-driven consumer platform where people create, remix, share, and play interactive content instantly. We are a Series A company backed by Khosla, a16z, Mayfield, and A, with $30M raised to date. We are remote-first across all positions and are looking for ambitious, AI-native builders who want to help shape the next generation of consumer social products. About this Role We are looking for a Senior Data Engineer to own the data foundation behind Sekai’s product, growth, and company decision-making. This is one of the most important infrastructure roles at Sekai. You will build the systems that help the company understand how users behave, how the product performs, and where we should invest next. This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, backend instrumentation, product analytics, business intelligence, and AI-ready internal data tooling. The ideal candidate is not just a pipeline builder — they are a product-minded data owner who can turn ambiguous consumer product questions into scalable, trusted data systems. You will work closely with Product, Engineering, Growth, and Leadership, with hands-on ownership across BigQuery, PostHog, and Amplitude.

Requirements

5+ years of professional experience in data engineering, data platform engineering, or a closely related role.
Strong hands-on experience with SQL, Python, and large-scale analytical data systems.
Deep experience with BigQuery, including warehouse design, query optimization, and cost-aware data modeling.
Experience working with product analytics tools such as PostHog, Amplitude, or similar platforms.
Strong understanding of consumer app analytics, including funnels, retention, cohorts, activation, engagement, and user journeys.
Ability to understand business and product needs, then translate them into scalable data architecture.
Comfortable working with backend engineers on tracking, data contracts, APIs, logs, and production data flows.
High ownership mindset; able to operate independently in a fast-moving startup environment.

Nice To Haves

Experience as an early data hire or primary owner of a startup data platform.
Experience building or rebuilding a data warehouse from 0 to 1.
Background in consumer apps, social products, UGC platforms, creator tools, gaming, or mobile-first products.
Backend engineering experience or strong familiarity with backend systems.
Experience building AI-ready data workflows, internal data tools, or governed self-serve analytics systems.
Strong side projects, open-source work, or independently built data products.

Responsibilities

Own and evolve Sekai’s data warehouse architecture, with BigQuery as the core analytical platform.
Build reliable data pipelines, data models, and intermediate tables for product, growth, and company-level analysis.
Manage product analytics integrations across PostHog, Amplitude, and internal data sources.
Partner with Product and Backend Engineering on event instrumentation, tracking quality, and user journey visibility.
Create trusted source-of-truth datasets that help teams make faster and more consistent decisions.
Build clean reporting workflows, dashboards, and self-serve analytics foundations for internal teams.
Improve data quality, freshness, documentation, observability, and access patterns.
Optimize BigQuery cost and performance through thoughtful architecture, table design, and query practices.