Senior AI-First Data Engineer

About Smartcat Smartcat is building the future of work, where human expertise meets digital teammates to drive 10x to 1000x productivity gains for the world’s leading enterprises. We’re on the frontier of an entirely new category: Agentic AI. We enable enterprises to build high-performing hybrid workforces made up of both humans and AI agents. These AI agents aren’t generic copilots. They’re fully trained digital teammates that learn from your best people, your content, and your business strategy—ready to get to work from day one. Our platform combines generative AI, human-in-the-loop workflows, and a living Enterprise Skill Graph that continuously learns and improves. Whether you're launching a product globally, onboarding new hires, translating learning content, or aligning legal teams across regions, Smartcat turns knowledge into action and action into scale. Over 1,000 companies, including 20% of the Fortune 500, rely on Smartcat to bring their business to the world—instantly, accurately, and in every language. As a Series C company with consistently high year-over-year growth, we’re scaling fast and investing in people who want to shape the future of work with us. Join us in unlocking global potential, one human and agent team at a time. Senior Data Engineer (AI-First) Mission Data is becoming one of Smartcat’s most strategic assets. As a Senior Data Engineer, you will help build the intelligence layer that powers decision-making, AI agents, automation, and business operations across the company. This is not a traditional data engineering role focused solely on pipelines and dashboards. You will help transform Smartcat’s data platform into an AI-native foundation where business data becomes discoverable, actionable, and consumable by both humans and AI agents. You will partner closely with Data, Product, Engineering, GTM, and AI teams to create a modern data ecosystem that enables self-service analytics, intelligent automation, and agent-driven decision support. We're currently building a modern greenfield cloud data platform and transitioning from legacy on-premise and batch architectures toward cloud-native, streaming-first infrastructure. This is an opportunity to have a significant impact on how Smartcat scales its data capabilities over the next several years. The role aligns directly with Smartcat's transformation into an AI-native company and agentic platform. Outcomes Evolve our architecture into Next Generation Data Platform Continue building our data architecture into scalable cloud-native AI-first architecture Lead the transition from batch-oriented pipelines to near real-time and streaming data systems Improve reliability, observability, governance, and performance across the data stack Establish engineering standards and best practices for data development Turn Business Data into AI-Ready Assets Build data products that can be consumed by AI agents, analytics systems, and business users Enable semantic layers, metadata management, and knowledge structures that make data more accessible and actionable Create foundations for agent-driven reporting, forecasting, and business intelligence Help transform business metrics from static dashboards into living operational systems Drive AI-First Data Engineering Use AI to accelerate development, testing, documentation, monitoring, and operational workflows Design systems that allow AI agents to query, understand, and act on business data safely Evaluate emerging AI technologies and identify opportunities to increase productivity across the data organization Help establish Smartcat as an AI-native data organization, leveraging AI to increase productivity and talent density across the company. Improve Business Intelligence & Data Accessibility Make analytics simpler and more accessible for non-technical stakeholders Improve usability and adoption of BI tools such as Omni and future AI-powered analytics experiences Enable self-service analytics without sacrificing governance or data quality Reduce time-to-insight across Product, Revenue, Marketing, Customer Success, and Finance teams Lead Through Technical Excellence Raise the engineering bar through mentorship, code reviews, architecture leadership, and knowledge sharing Influence technical direction across Data Engineering and Analytics Engineering Partner with stakeholders to align platform investments with business priorities Requirements Experience 6+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, or a related field Proven track record designing and operating modern cloud data platforms Experience in high-growth SaaS environments Experience working with both technical and business stakeholders Demonstrated ability to lead complex projects from design through delivery Technical Expertise Strong hands-on experience with: Databricks dbt Airflow Python for data engineering SQL and data modeling Data warehousing architectures Data quality frameworks Data governance practices Data orchestration and integration Experience with: Streaming architectures and event-driven systems Business intelligence platforms Product analytics platforms CRM and customer data platforms AI-First Mindset (Required) You should be able to demonstrate: AI-powered development workflows Automation of repetitive engineering tasks Use of AI for debugging, testing, architecture exploration, and documentation Experience integrating AI into data or analytics workflows Curiosity about agentic systems and the future of AI-enabled data platforms Evidence of measurable productivity gains through AI adoption Candidates may also have: Experience building AI-native data products Experience with semantic layers, RAG systems, vector databases, or knowledge graphs Experience enabling AI agents to consume operational business data Why joining Smartcat might be your best move so far A global, connected team We’re a team of 200+ people across 30+ countries, working together through a hub-and-spoke model anchored in eight key locations: New York, London, Lisbon, Costa Rica, Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, and Spain. Most of our roles are remote-friendly, giving you the flexibility to do your best work from where you thrive. For customer-facing teams, we prioritize proximity to our customers, ensuring we stay deeply connected to their needs and deliver an exceptional experience. No matter where you’re based, you’ll be part of a highly collaborative, globally-distributed team that values ownership, speed, and meaningful impact. Be part of an AI Native Organization We are highly innovative, using AI across all areas of the organization to accelerate decision-making and free people to focus on strategy and high-impact work. We embrace new ideas and encourage all Smartcaters, regardless of level or department, to manage their own AI Agents. At Smartcat you’ll shape how AI transforms the workplace and play an integral role in ensuring Smartcat remains a leader in AI innovation. Innovating a $100 Billion industry Smartcat is reshaping the $100B multilingual content industry with an AI-powered platform that makes it easy for companies to create, translate, and localize global content at scale. Our platform enables enterprise teams to move away from slow, traditional outsourcing methods, and achieve fast, high-quality results, at a fraction of the cost. Join the rocketship to scale-up 10x and beyond together We are looking for someone to become an integral part of our team and play a crucial role in the most exciting part of our journey: transitioning from a post-Series C startup to a company exceeding $100M in ARR and $1B in valuation. Our journey isn’t for the faint of heart. We are growing at 130% YoY, thanks to our strong product-market fit and high-performing team, and plan to accelerate from here. Smartcat Culture Code: Where Diversity Meets High Performance At Smartcat, we are committed to building a culture that highlights respect and appreciation for each individual's unique background and perspective, while maintaining a strong focus on results and engagement. We believe in welcoming everyone and fostering an inclusive environment where team members can be their authentic selves at work. Our commitment to inclusion is steadfast, and we stand firmly against discrimination and harassment.