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Founding Data Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Xpertalent

Founding Data Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $300K/yr

Staff Data Engineer (Founding Team) Location: San Francisco (In-office) Compensation: $180,000 - $270,000 + meaningful equity Start Date: Immediate About the Company We have partnered with an elite ...

Flora AI

Founding Data Engineer

New York, NY · On-site

$170K - $240K/yr

About the role We're hiring a Senior or Staff Data Engineer to build FLORA's data function from scratch. You'd be the first data hire, working directly with the CTO and Head of Product to define what ...

Higgsfield AI

Founding Data Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$134K - $162K/yr

Partner with Product, Engineering, ML, Growth, and Finance to deliver trusted, decision-ready data. * Improve documentation, testing, and transparency across the warehouse. * Reduce key-person risk ...

Embedding VC

Founding Data Engineer

New York, NY · On-site

$125K - $150K/yr

About the role We're hiring a Senior or Staff Data Engineer to build FLORA's data function from scratch. You'd be the first data hire, working directly with the CTO and Head of Product to define what ...

GC AI

Founding Data Engineer, AI Platform

San Mateo, CA · On-site +1

$165K - $350K/yr

You'll work closely with Product and Engineering to make sure the data infrastructure serves both internal operations and the product itself. This is a founding role. You'll set the patterns, choose ...

Assort Health

Founding Data Scientist

New York, NY · On-site

$190K - $220K/yr

You'll directly unblock Product, RevOps, Marketing, Finance and CS, collaborate closely with Engineering and Ops Analyst teams; while building the data foundation of our organization and our agents ...

GPTZero

Founding Data Scientist, Analytics

New York, NY · On-site

$130K - $220K/yr

Our team comes from high-performing engineering cultures, including Meta, Perplexity, AWS, Affirm ... We're looking for a Product Data Scientist who can dig into user behavior and product performance ...

Fuel Cycle

Senior Data Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · Remote

$114K - $155K/yr

You will be a founding member of this team, responsible for designing and building the Databricks ... Peer Senior Data Engineers on the founding data engineering team * AI product and platform ...

Fuel Cycle

Senior Data Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$185K - $200K/yr

You will be a founding member of this team, responsible for designing and building the Databricks ... Peer Senior Data Engineers on the founding data engineering team * AI product and platform ...

Payabli

Staff Data Engineer

Miami, FL · On-site

$109K - $131K/yr

This is the founding Data Engineer for the Data Engineering team at Payabli. You won\'t inherit an existing architecture or a pipeline graph someone else built - you\'ll make the foundational, one ...

Leap Health, Inc

Senior Data Engineer

New York, NY · On-site +1

$200K - $250K/yr

Background as an early employee or founding data engineer responsible for building a data stack from the ground up Preferred * Healthcare or HIPAA experience; familiarity with ingestion tools such as ...

Fabrion

Data Engineer (Founding Team)

Bodega Bay, CA · On-site

$135K - $163K/yr

Data/ETL Engineer (Founding Team) Location: San Francisco Bay Area Type: Full-Time Compensation: Competitive salary + early-stage equity Backed by 8VC, we're building a world-class team to tackle one ...

Diligent Robotics

Founding Sr. Data Engineer

$108K - $147K/yr

We're hiring our Founding Senior Data Engineer - the first dedicated data hire on a team that already has active analytics demand, working dashboards, and a clear plan for what comes next. You'll own ...

Shaped

Data Engineer

Brooklyn, NY · Remote

$130K - $200K/yr

You will be a founding engineer working to reliably ingest customer data (both with batch and real-time processing) into our our state-of-the-art AI discovery engine. As one of Shaped's early ...

Shaped

Data Engineer

Brooklyn, NY · On-site

$130K - $200K/yr

You will be a founding engineer working to reliably ingest customer data (both with batch and real-time processing) into our our state-of-the-art AI discovery engine. As one of Shaped's early ...

Effective AI

Data Product Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

As a Founding Data Product Engineer, you will design and build the foundational layer that transforms raw data into actionable insights for agents and users. Responsibilities : • go out to where ...

Cognition

Data Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$134K - $162K/yr

Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders ... About the Role We're hiring a technical Data Engineer to own our full data stack - from database ...

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All JobsFounding Data Engineer Jobs

Founding Data Engineer information

See salary details

$44.5K

$129.7K

$177.5K

How much do founding data engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 10, 2026, the average yearly pay for founding data engineer in the United States is $129,716.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $114,500.00 and $137,500.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the unique challenges and opportunities of being a Founding Data Engineer at an early-stage startup?

As a Founding Data Engineer, you'll face the challenge of building data infrastructure from scratch, often with limited resources and evolving requirements. You’ll work closely with founders and cross-functional teams to define data strategies, implement pipelines, and ensure data quality. This role offers significant influence over technical decisions and architecture, and you'll likely wear multiple hats, contributing to both backend engineering and data analytics. The fast-paced environment fosters rapid skill development and provides substantial opportunities for career growth as the company scales.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Founding Data Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Founding Data Engineer, you need strong expertise in data architecture, database design, and software engineering, often backed by a degree in computer science or a related field. Familiarity with cloud platforms (like AWS or GCP), ETL frameworks, programming languages (such as Python or Scala), and data warehousing tools is typically required. Exceptional problem-solving, adaptability, and collaboration skills set standout candidates apart in this role. These abilities are crucial for building scalable data systems and shaping the technical foundation of an early-stage company.

What is the difference between Founding Data Engineer vs Data Engineer?

AspectFounding Data EngineerData Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's or higher in CS, experience in startup environmentsBachelor's or higher in CS, relevant data tools experience
Work EnvironmentEarly-stage startups, high flexibility, broad responsibilitiesEstablished companies, specialized roles, structured teams
Employer & Industry UsageFounding teams, startups, tech companiesTech firms, finance, healthcare, large organizations
Search & Comparison IntentUnderstanding startup data roles, early-stage responsibilitiesStandard data engineering roles, career progression

The main difference between a Founding Data Engineer and a Data Engineer lies in their work environment and responsibilities. Founding Data Engineers typically work in startups, handling broad tasks and building data infrastructure from scratch, while Data Engineers in established companies focus on specific data pipelines within structured teams. Both roles require similar technical skills and educational backgrounds, but their scope and context differ significantly.

What are Founding Data Engineers?

Founding Data Engineers are among the first technical hires at a startup, responsible for designing, building, and scaling the company's data infrastructure from the ground up. They work closely with founders and early team members to define data architecture, set up data pipelines, and ensure data quality and accessibility for product development and business insights. This role often requires a blend of software engineering, data modeling, and strategic decision-making skills, as well as the flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing priorities in a startup environment.
More about Founding Data Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Founding Data Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Founding Data Engineer job openings:
What states have the most Founding Data Engineer jobs? States with the most job openings for Founding Data Engineer jobs include:
What job categories do people searching Founding Data Engineer jobs look for? The top searched job categories for Founding Data Engineer jobs are:
Founding Data Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Data Engineer job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 84% Full Time, 12% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 88% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 10% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $129,716 per year, or $62.4 per hour.

Founding Data Engineer

Xpertalent

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$150K - $300K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 17 days ago

Job description

Staff Data Engineer (Founding Team)

Location: San Francisco (In-office)
Compensation: $180,000 – $270,000 + meaningful equity
Start Date: Immediate

About the Company

We have partnered with an elite team in SF building an AI-native platform that acts as an operating layer for modern organizations, helping leaders understand how their business actually runs, and where to optimize, automate, or restructure.

They are early, well-funded by top-tier investors, and already live with high-profile customers across enterprise, government, and private markets.

Experience

We are looking for a Staff Data Engineer to build their data platform from the ground up.

This is a founding-level role, you’ll define the architecture, tooling, and standards that power everything from internal analytics to customer-facing intelligence and AI systems.

You’ll work directly with the founders, engineers, and customers to design and deploy scalable data systems that ingest, normalize, and activate complex enterprise data.

Responsibilities

  • Own and build the end-to-end data platform (0→1) — ingestion, transformation, modeling, and serving
  • Design and scale robust ETL/ELT pipelines across multiple enterprise data sources (HRIS, ERP, CRM, etc.)
  • Architect data models and semantic layers that power analytics, product features, and AI systems
  • Implement orchestration frameworks (e.g. Airflow, Dagster) for reliable, observable pipelines
  • Build and optimize large-scale data processing systems (batch + streaming where needed)
  • Partner closely with engineering and product to embed data into core product workflows
  • Work directly with customers to map, ingest, and operationalize messy real-world data systems
  • Establish best practices around data quality, testing, governance, and observability
  • Contribute to AI/ML pipelines (e.g. RAG, embeddings, feature pipelines) where relevant

Tech Stack (Current & Evolving)

Python • SQL • dbt • Airflow / Dagster • Snowflake / Postgres • AWS (S3, ECS, RDS) • Docker • Terraform

Why Join

  • True founding-level ownership over the data platform
  • Work on a high-impact product already in production with real customers
  • Operate at the intersection of data, AI, and enterprise systems
  • Small, elite team; high talent density, no passengers
  • Meaningful equity and the chance to shape the company from the ground up

We are looking to arrange interviews ASAP so please send across your resume and we can discuss further.