Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Afresh is an AI platform for grocery that aims to reduce food waste and improve decision-making across the industry. As a Senior Staff Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting and building core data systems and pipelines, driving data quality, and collaborating with various teams to meet customer needs.
Responsibilities
- Architect and build core data systems and pipelines that power Afresh products, owning reliability and quality from raw data through to production
- Take on our most ambiguous, high-leverage data problems and drive them to a shipped solution — without waiting for a detailed spec
- Set technical direction: define the architecture, patterns, and abstractions that make customer integrations and product dataflows faster, cleaner, and more repeatable over time
- Drive data quality and pipeline reliability — invest in better alerting, self-healing patterns, and resilience to messy or incomplete real-world customer data
- Champion AI-forward engineering: evaluate and adopt AI tools and agentic workflows that accelerate development, automate repetitive work, and push the team to the bleeding edge of modern data engineering
- Raise the bar technically — review code and architecture decisions, pair with engineers on hard problems, and mentor across the team
- Collaborate deeply with Product, ML, Solutions Engineering, and customer-facing teams to scope work, unblock dependencies, and make sure what we build meets real customer needs
Skills
- Extensive experience (typically 8+ years) building data engineering systems, with a track record of operating at a staff or principal level
- Deep technical expertise across Python, PySpark, SQL, dbt, Airflow, and modern data platforms (Databricks, Snowflake, or similar)
- A history of shipping high-quality data integrations or ETL systems at scale, and a deep understanding of what makes data pipelines reliable
- Proven ability to own ambiguous, end-to-end problems and set technical direction in a fast-moving environment with no established playbook
- Genuine enthusiasm for AI-augmented engineering. You've experimented with AI coding tools, agentic workflows, or similar, and have a vision for how they can transform data engineering
- Comfort working with messy, real-world data from enterprise customers, and the pragmatism to ship solutions that work without over-engineering
- Strong collaboration and influence skills — you're effective working across engineering, product, and customer-facing teams, and you can move others without formal authority
- Experience in grocery, retail, or supply chain data domains
- Prior experience at a high-growth startup navigating rapid customer expansion
- A history of acting as a technical leader who sets direction across multiple teams or projects
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family, with the majority of premiums covered by Afresh.
- Dedicated mental health support and counseling services.
- Competitive base salary, meaningful equity (U.S. employees), and a 401(k) program with a generous company match.
- Home office stipend and "Coworking Wallets" for flexible workspace access.
- Annual professional development budget to master new skills and grow their career at Afresh.
- Monthly stipends for "Betterment" (wellness/lifestyle) and telecommunications to ensure you have what you need to thrive.
- Flexible paid time off to take the time you need to recharge.
Company Overview
Afresh is an AI-powered company selling software to track demand and manage orders for fresh produce in grocery stores. It was founded in 2017, and is headquartered in Oakland, California, USA, with a workforce of 51-200 employees. Its website is https://afresh.com.