Overview of Role

Heretic’s stealth portfolio company, a consumer-facing AI startup, is seeking a Senior Data Engineer with at least 5 years of professional experience to lead data engineering..

You will play a critical role in the optimization and enhancements of our AI models by leading the design, implementation, and maintenance of the training data pipelines and tools of our model training process. Additionally, you will be responsible for overseeing and maintaining our business analytics platforms, ensuring seamless access to critical insights that drive strategic decision-making.

This is a unique opportunity to help build a billion-dollar company from the ground up while learning from successful repeat entrepreneurs and a stable group of powerful and experienced mentors and advisors. 

This role reports to the VP of Engineering and has a dotted line reporting relationship to the head of the AI team. This is a hybrid role with the expectation of 3 days per week in-person in our sunny Presidio, SF office. The position is compensated with salary, benefits, and/or equity.

About Heretic 

Heretic Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture studio ideating and launching new businesses in the creator economy, including those that capitalize on AI/ML technology. Heretic is run by Managing Partner Mariam Naficy, who founded and built the pioneering internet companies Minted and Eve.com. Heretic is backed by household names in Silicon Valley (investors and entrepreneurs), who act as the studio’s advisors both in selecting and in advising companies.

Responsibilities

• AI Model Training Pipeline Management
• Design, develop, and maintain scalable and efficient data pipelines for training AI models.
• Collaborate with AI engineers and company management to understand requirements and implement solutions that result in improved model performance
• Implement data versioning, tracking, and monitoring systems to ensure the quality and historical preservation of training data

• Business Analytics Platform
• Lead the management and optimization of business analytics platforms, enabling stakeholders to derive actionable insights from diverse datasets including but not limited to behavioral data, transactional data, survey data 
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to gather business requirements and translate them into data engineering solutions
• Ensure data consistency, accuracy, and reliability within the business analytics platforms.

• Data Governance and Security
• Enforce data governance policies and security measures to protect sensitive information
• Collaborate with the security team to implement and maintain data privacy standards and compliance

• Documentation and Knowledge Sharing
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for data pipelines, ensuring knowledge transfer within the team

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field.
• 5 years’ experience as a Data Engineer with a focus on data pipelines, cloud data solutions, analytics databases, visualization tools and business analytics platforms. Direct experience with AI model pipelines is a plus, but not required.
• Strong proficiency in SQL, Python, and Linux. Comfortable with or ability to learn light Javascript for light tool configuration.
• Experience working with large data sets, both structured and unstructured. Experience converting unstructured JSON and other data types into structured data in a scalable, automated manner.
• Understanding of machine learning model types and generative AI concepts is a plus.
• Experience with cloud based data and image management platforms such as BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, and S3.
• In-depth knowledge of database systems, data warehousing, and ETL and data orchestration processes.
• Comfortable with or willing to learn about setting up and managing cloud based visualization tools such as Tableau or Looker, connecting to analytical and relational data sources.
• Entrepreneurial and ownership mindset with bias for action. Prepared to move with speed to outpace competitors.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.