Senior Data Engineer (Architecture & AI Foundations)

Appnovation is seeking a Senior Data Engineer who combines architectural thinking with hands-on delivery. We’re looking for someone who can design robust data architectures and build the pipelines that bring them to life.

In this role, you’ll help organizations transform fragmented data landscapes into unified, reliable platforms. You’ll work with modern cloud data technologies, contribute to the data foundations that support AI/ML initiatives, and play a key role in shaping how data is modeled, moved, and trusted across systems.

This is a hands-on role with architectural ownership — ideal for someone who enjoys both designing data systems and implementing them in practice.

Who you are

• You think architecturally about data, looking beyond individual pipelines to the broader ecosystem of how data flows, transforms, and creates value

• You’re equally comfortable whiteboarding data models and writing code to implement them

• You’re curious about how AI and ML are influencing data engineering, including areas like RAG architectures and vector databases

• You care deeply about data quality, governance, and lineage, and understand why trustworthy data is foundational

• You communicate effectively with both technical teams and business stakeholders, translating data capabilities into meaningful outcomes

• You approach legacy system consolidation as a problem to solve, not a burden, and enjoy bringing structure to complexity

• You stay current with the evolving data ecosystem and enjoy evaluating new tools and approaches

What you bring

A strong mix of the following will set you up for success in this role:

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering and/or data architecture roles

• Strong experience with at least one cloud data warehouse

• Experience designing data pipelines across batch, streaming, or event-based architectures

• Data modeling expertise, including dimensional modeling and conceptual, logical, and physical model design

• Strong SQL skills, including window functions, CTEs, query optimization, and performance tuning

• Proficiency in Python for data engineering tasks

• ETL/ELT pipeline development experience using modern tools (e.g. dbt, Airflow, or similar)

• Cloud platform experience (GCP, AWS, or Azure), including cloud storage and data lake services

• Familiarity with event streaming platforms (Kafka, Pub/Sub, or similar)

• Practical understanding of data governance, quality, and lineage practices

• Experience with or interest in AI-assisted development tools

• CI/CD experience for data pipelines, including testing strategies for data transformations

• Experience working with Docker and containerized environments

Nice to have

Experience in one or more of the following areas is a plus, but not required:

• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures or AI/ML data infrastructure

• Vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, or similar)

• Agentic AI implementations

• Lakehouse architectures (Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg, or similar)

• Health or regulated data environments (HIPAA, GDPR)

• MLOps practices and ML pipeline development

• Real-time data processing and streaming analytics

• Legacy database migrations (e.g. MSSQL, MySQL consolidation)

• BI tools (Power BI, Looker, or similar)

• Workflow orchestration and automation tools (Airflow, Prefect, n8n, or similar)

• Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform, Pulumi, or similar)

Why Appnovation

At Appnovation, you’ll work with collaborative, experienced teams on a wide range of client challenges. We value thoughtful technical leadership, clear communication, and continuous learning. Our environment is professional but human, with room to grow, experiment, and build meaningful solutions.

We offer:

• Flexible working arrangements (hybrid remote/in-office)

• Health benefits and wellness support

• Fitness allowance

• Opportunities to work across industries and modern data platforms

• A culture that values inclusion, collaboration, and professional growth

Appnovation is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates, even if you don’t meet every requirement listed.