Senior Data Systems Engineer

January • New York, NY

1d • $199,915 - $231,331 • Onsite

About The Position

As our first Data Systems Engineer, you'll own the foundation under every decision we make: what data lands, what our reports say, and what we offer to consumers. When the data is right, someone in their hardest financial moment gets an offer that fits their life. When it's wrong, they get the wrong balance, the wrong call, or nothing at all.

About the Role
We're hiring our first data systems engineer. Data is the most valuable thing January has: 20 million consumers, $20 billion in debt, and every record behind them. Every decision we make about a consumer starts with our data. As we grow our business, it’s critical that our data system scales with it. The data that powers collections now has to power every stage of consumer credit. You'll decide what that foundation looks like and how it grows.

This is a blank page. What gets built, in what order, and how this function interacts with downstream consumers is yours to decide. You'll set the standard for how we treat our data: trusted by default, understood by everyone who touches it, and increasingly able to look after itself.

Engineers, analysts, ops, and product all depend on what you build. You'll set the standards that let them make good calls on data without you in the room.
You thrive on obsessing over data quality and infrastructure, and you move fast to improve both.

Requirements

• 4+ years in software engineering, data engineering or data platforms.
• You've built and owned a data pipeline end to end.
• You design for failure. Safe replayability, recovery that self heals where possible and has a clear runbook when it doesn’t.
• You treat data quality as a key indicator of pipeline health.
• You can own migrating a legacy system into a durable data pipeline by identifying the highest impact opportunities first, and you know when to build vs. buy.
• You've collaborated with multiple stakeholders/data consumers, with an ability to manage asks and hold boundaries where they need to be held.
• You draw ownership lines through writing and influence instead of authority, and explain tradeoffs equally well to engineers and non-engineers.
• You already use AI deeply in your own work and want to go further, including by architecting systems that repair themselves.
• You love building 0 to 1, and you want the shape of a function to be yours.

Responsibilities

• Own the foundation under every decision we make: what data lands, what our reports say, and what we offer to consumers.
• Decide what the data foundation looks like and how it grows.
• Set the standard for how we treat our data: trusted by default, understood by everyone who touches it, and increasingly able to look after itself.
• Set the standards that let the team make good calls on data without you in the room.
• Obsess over data quality and infrastructure, and move fast to improve both.
• Build and own a data pipeline end to end.
• Design for failure. Safe replayability, recovery that self heals where possible and has a clear runbook when it doesn’t.
• Treat data quality as a key indicator of pipeline health.
• Own migrating a legacy system into a durable data pipeline by identifying the highest impact opportunities first, and know when to build vs. buy.
• Collaborate with multiple stakeholders/data consumers, with an ability to manage asks and hold boundaries where they need to be held.
• Draw ownership lines through writing and influence instead of authority, and explain tradeoffs equally well to engineers and non-engineers.
• Use AI deeply in your own work and want to go further, including by architecting systems that repair themselves.
• Build 0 to 1, and want the shape of a function to be yours.
• Push AI further into the work than almost any company you've worked at.
• Operate at every altitude. Get into the trenches to learn the ground truth, then refine our information flows so ground truth climbs as fast as direction comes down.

Benefits

• Transparent, fair, and equitable compensation practices
• Commitment to fostering an environment where all team members are valued and supported
• Equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed