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Founding Data Engineer Jobs in Kentucky (NOW HIRING)

$153 - $376/hr

Figma is building its founding Forward Deployed Engineering team to solve the complex, real-world ... data residency, and compliance frameworks. * Comfort owning ambiguous technical problems end to end ...

$85 - $118/hr

Our collective efforts have led to our success since our firm's founding in 1954. Thompson ... retail, data center, municipal and/or government markets Proficiency in the latest versions of ...

$75 - $115/hr

Since our founding in 1886, APS has demonstrated a strong commitment to our customers in one of the ... Assists in the analysis and preparation of a variety of data, technical reviews and evaluations ...

$125 - $195/hr

Founding engineer, CTO, or early-stage startup background. * Experience with bare-metal or on-prem ... Hands-on work with high-throughput telemetry or data systems. * Exposure to robotics, industrial ...

$133 - $190/hr

Perform data collection, analyze test data, document findings and complete comprehensive reports ... Since its founding in 2012, nou Systems has built a reputation for excellence in innovative ...

$120 - $180/hr

BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927 ... Oversee telemetry data collection, analysis, and reporting to identify emerging trends, systemic ...

$140 - $180/hr

We do so by giving them access to data and tools that let them be accountable. We did this the hard ... engineering Strong written communication and creative instincts Demonstrated ability to manage ...

$65 - $90/hr

Since our founding in 1886, APS has demonstrated a strong commitment to our customers in one of the ... Performs periodic testing and analysis of system data to minimize system/equipment failures.

$120 - $180/hr

Unlike traditional tools, Upwind uses runtime data proactively for risk prioritization and posture ... We are looking for a Security Engineer to join our MDR team as the founding U.S. member of the ...

$220 - $292/hr

... data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of ... ABOUT THE JOB We are looking for a founding Staff AI Infrastructure Engineer to architect, build ...

$167 - $208/hr

Senior Sales Engineer, Enterprise From Fivetrans founding until now, our mission has remained the same: to make access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. With Fivetran, customer data ...

$180 - $240/hr

Reliability Data Infrastructure: Build the reliability program's data infrastructure and reporting ... Founding Program Experience: Experience standing up a reliability program or reliability ...

$90 - $120/hr

Since our founding in 1886, APS has demonstrated a strong commitment to our customers in one of the ... Assists in the analysis and preparation of a variety of data, technical reviews and evaluations ...

$90 - $120/hr

BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927 ... Post‑process raw test data to provide actionable design recommendations and root‑cause ...

$180 - $240/hr

We design and operate AI-native cloud platforms engineered for sovereignty, performance, and scale ... is a founding role for the US business, not a caretaker seat. Key Responsibilities Delivery ...

$166 - $185/hr

... founding vision and unlock world-class medicine through world-class operations. #LI-MB1 About the Role We're looking for a Security Engineer to own the design and buildout of Qventus' cloud and data ...

$162 - $199/hr

From Fivetran's founding until now, our mission has remained the same: to make access to data as ... As a Staff Software Engineer , you\'ll contribute to the technical direction for the team. You\'ll ...

$146 - $215/hr

Use engineering metrics, developer feedback, and adoption data to continuously improve the developer experience. Focus on meaningful outcomes rather than activity metrics. * Help build Developer ...

$120 - $150/hr

Since our founding in 2013, Quantiphi has tackled some of the world's most complex business challenges by combining deep industry expertise, disciplined cloud and data engineering practices, and ...

$140 - $220/hr

Mentor junior engineers * Develop and implement modeling and simulation methods and tools ... data collection Culture At Antares, we like to specifically tie each role to our founding document ...

Showing results 41-60

Founding Data Engineer information

What is a founding data engineer?

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.

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 popular job titles related to Founding Data Engineer jobs in Kentucky?

For Founding Data Engineer jobs in Kentucky, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Founding Data Engineer jobs in Kentucky look for?

The top searched job categories for Founding Data Engineer jobs in Kentucky are:

What cities in Kentucky are hiring for Founding Data Engineer jobs?

Cities in Kentucky with the most Founding Data Engineer job openings:

Infographic showing various Founding Data Engineer job openings in Kentucky as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 82% Full Time, 13% Part Time, and 4% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 10% Remote job distribution.

$153 - $376/hr

Other

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement, PTO

Posted 8 days ago


Key responsibilities

  • Embed directly with strategic customers to understand their codebases, design systems, and workflows, and address integration challenges.

  • Write and adapt Figma product code, configurations, and agent skills within customer environments to facilitate product adoption.

  • Conduct technical discovery to assess customer environments, scope solutions, and develop reusable patterns and feedback for product improvement.


Job description

Figma is growing our team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all. Figma’s platform helps teams bring ideas to life—whether you're brainstorming, creating a prototype, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI. From idea to product, Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and work together in real time from anywhere in the world. If you're excited to shape the future of design and collaboration, join us!

Figma is building its founding Forward Deployed Engineering team to solve the complex, real-world challenges that emerge when bringing Figma’s products into large-scale enterprise environments and looking for founding Forward Deployed Engineers. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you’ll embed directly with strategic customers, working across their codebases, design systems, developer environments, and workflows to make Figma’s products successful within their unique technical constraints. You’ll tackle the hardest adoption challenges hands-on, from complex frontend stacks and legacy systems to security and access requirements, while building trusted partnerships with customers’ senior engineering teams.

This is a senior/staff-level engineering role within Product and Engineering, not a sales or services function. You’ll work directly in customer environments when needed, using the minimum access required. Your goal is smooth adoption by the customer’s product and engineering teams, which means making complex workflows work simply in their environment and solving the underlying problems You’ll do that hands-on, often by writing Figma product code, then turn what you learn into a reusable path for future customers instead of taking permanent ownership of the customer’s codebase. . Working closely with Figma’s Product, Engineering, Sales, and Customer Experience teams, you’ll help shape both the product and how this brand-new function works and scales. The role is highly collaborative, deeply customer-facing, and built for engineers who thrive in ambiguity, take end-to-end ownership, and want to solve the highest-impact problems at the intersection of product, engineering, and customer needs. This role includes periodic travel to work alongside strategic customers in person.

This is a full time role that can be held from one of our US hubs or remotely in the United States.

What you’ll do at Figma:
  • Make an enterprise design system agent-ready so AI tools generate faithful, on-system code: fix tokens, naming, and guidelines, wire up Code Connect, and run evals.
  • Get Make Local, Code Layers, and our newest products working in a customer’s real environment, writing code, config, agent skills, and guideline files against their systems and ours.
  • Run technical discovery: understand a customer’s dev environment, toolchain, and constraints, then scope the fastest credible path to value, in addition to setting the customer up for long term success.
  • Debug hard, unfamiliar integration problems (git workflows, CI, dev-environment setup, non-standard stacks).
  • Build LLM-powered workflows: MCP setup, agent skills, and prompt engineering tuned to each customer’s context.
  • Turn one-off solutions into reusable playbooks and product feedback, so patterns you solve once become self-serve or shipped product.
  • Bring learnings on friction back to Figma’s Product and Engineering teams, influence what gets built next, and often build it.
We’d love to hear from you if you have:
  • 5+ years shipping production software end-to-end, with meaningful time embedded with customers or partner teams.
  • Excellent customer-facing communication and technical partnership skills, with the ability to build trust with senior engineers and translate customer needs into actionable product and engineering solutions
  • Strong engineering fundamentals and adaptability, with the ability to quickly navigate unfamiliar codebases, languages, and technical environments to deliver production-ready solutions.
  • Hands-on experience with design systems and design-to-code workflows, including component libraries, tokens, documentation, and the tooling that connects design artifacts to production code.
  • Proficiency in TypeScript/JavaScript or Python, including demonstrated fluency with agentic coding tools (e.g., MCP, agent orchestration). You have hands-on experience integrating APIs and SDKs, troubleshooting toolchains and CI environments, and navigating enterprise requirements such as SSO, security reviews, access controls, data residency, and compliance frameworks.
  • Comfort owning ambiguous technical problems end to end, identifying patterns across customer engagements, and turning field learning into reusable product improvements.
While it’s not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:
  • Background in forward-deployed engineering, solutions engineering, professional services, developer experience, or a similar customer-facing technical role
  • Familiarity with developer tools, design-to-code workflows, or AI/LLM products, including tools such as Code Connect, Storybook, Style Dictionary, or comparable technologies
  • Proven ability to partner cross-functionally with Sales, Customer Experience, Solutions Architecture, or related teams to deliver complex enterprise engagements

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Pay Transparency Disclosure

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location.

Figma offers equity to employees, as well as a competitive package of additional benefits, including health, dental, and vision coverage; retirement benefits with company contributions; parental leave and reproductive or family planning support; mental health and wellness benefits; and paid time off. Figma provides paid sick leave, holidays, and other leave benefits in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the requirements of the Washington Minimum Wage Act and related regulations. Exempt employees are eligible for employer’provided paid flexible PTO in addition to flexible paid sick leave. PTO is subject to manager approval. Additional benefits may include company recharge days, cell phone and home internet reimbursements, and a number of lifestyle spending accounts. Figma also offers sales incentive compensation for most sales roles and an annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles. All compensation and benefits are subject to applicable plan terms and may be modified by Figma at any time, consistent with applicable law.

Annual Base Salary Range:

$153,000 — $376,000 USD

At Figma we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our product and our community to flourish. Figma is an equal opportunity workplace - we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please reach out to accommodations-ext@figma.com. These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities.

  • Holding interviews in an accessible location
  • Enabling closed captioning on video conferencing
  • Ensuring all written communication be compatible with screen readers
  • Changing the mode or format of interviews

To ensure the integrity of our hiring process and facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates keep their cameras on during video interviews. Additionally, if hired you will be required to attend in person onboarding.

By applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with Figma's Candidate Privacy Notice.

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