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Founding Data Engineer Jobs in Phoenix, AZ (NOW HIRING)

Senior Data Engineer

Tempe, AZ · On-site

$103K - $140K/yr

Since its founding in 1903, SRP has fostered a culture of stewardship and customer service ... Data Engineer in the Supply & Trading Support Team at Salt River Project (SRP), you will be ...

Senior Data Engineer

Tempe, AZ · On-site

$103K - $140K/yr

Since its founding in 1903, SRP has fostered a culture of stewardship and customer service ... Data Engineer in the Supply & Trading Support Team at Salt River Project (SRP), you will be ...

Founding GTM Engineer

Phoenix, AZ · On-site

$120K - $170K/yr

Founding GTM Engineer (Series A Fintech / EdTech) Location: San Francisco, CA or Phoenix, AZ (In ... Data Rigor: You will instrument funnels, set up tight feedback loops, and analyze cohort/retention ...

Founding GTM Engineer

Phoenix, AZ · On-site

$120K - $170K/yr

Founding GTM Engineer (Series A Fintech / EdTech) Location: San Francisco, CA or Phoenix, AZ (In ... Data Rigor: You will instrument funnels, set up tight feedback loops, and analyze cohort/retention ...

Data Science Analyst

Phoenix, AZ · On-site

$95 - $135/hr

The Data Science Analyst partners with business leaders, operations teams, IT, data engineering ... Our Mission At Shamrock Foods Company, we live by our founding family's motto to "treat associates ...

With $16M raised from top-tier VCs, the team is composed of elite engineers and operators from ... Dig into real transaction data to identify categories and purchase flows that matter most by ...

Our firm has experienced steady growth since its founding in 1991 and continues to expand its ... This role combines expertise in data engineering, business intelligence, advanced analytics, and ...

Our firm has experienced steady growth since its founding in 1991 and continues to expand its ... This role combines expertise in data engineering, business intelligence, advanced analytics, and ...

Partner with internal Business, Product, Engineering, & Finance teams to prioritize business and ... At Shamrock Foods Company, we live by our founding family's motto to "treat associates like family ...

Principal Software Engineer

Phoenix, AZ

$134K - $179K/yr

Exposure to logistics, fleet, mobility, or data-intensive SaaS platforms. * Prior experience in founding engineer or early platform team roles. Working in AV Fleet & Depot Ops Tech You'll be building ...

Be Seen First

... data outcomes to lenders, regulators, and government program partners. What You'll Own * Full ... Recruiting, managing, and leading a growing engineering team (5+ direct reports as we scale)

New

Be Seen First

... data outcomes to lenders, regulators, and government program partners. What You'll Own * Full ... Recruiting, managing, and leading a growing engineering team (5+ direct reports as we scale)

New

Be Seen First

... data outcomes to lenders, regulators, and government program partners. What You'll Own * Full ... Recruiting, managing, and leading a growing engineering team (5+ direct reports as we scale)

New

AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$125K - $175K/yr

The Core Team: You will work alongside top talent, including a founding engineer who did AI ... Read data and fix mistakes: diagnose real-world AI failures by going directly into the data, making ...

AI Engineer

Phoenix, AZ · On-site

$125K - $175K/yr

The Core Team: You will work alongside top talent, including a founding engineer who did AI ... Read data and fix mistakes: diagnose real-world AI failures by going directly into the data, making ...

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Showing results 1-20

Founding Data Engineer information

See Phoenix, AZ salary details

$44.2K

$128.8K

$176.2K

How much do founding data engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 21, 2026, the average yearly pay for founding data engineer in Phoenix, AZ is $128,797.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $113,700.00 and $136,500.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

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 job categories do people searching Founding Data Engineer jobs in Phoenix, AZ look for?

The top searched job categories for Founding Data Engineer jobs in Phoenix, AZ are:

Infographic showing various Founding Data Engineer job openings in Phoenix, AZ as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 64% Full Time, 33% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 10% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $128,797 per year, or $61.9 per hour.

Senior Data Engineer

Salt River Project

Tempe, AZ • On-site

$103K - $140K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 9 days ago


Salt River Project rating

9.0

Company rating: 9.0 out of 10

Based on 23 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz


Job description

Requisition ID: 20455
Join us in building a better future for Arizona!
SRP is one of the largest public power and water utilities in the U.S. providing electricity to approximately one million customers in the greater metropolitan Phoenix area. Since its founding in 1903, SRP has fostered a culture of stewardship and customer service consistently ranking as an industry leader in customer service according to J.D. Power and named one of Arizona's best employers by Forbes. SRP continues to adapt to its changing business environment by seeking innovative ways to reimagine utility service and the provision of critical resources essential to the life and economy of Arizona.
Why Work at SRP
At SRP, we foster an inclusive work environment and believe everyone should have a fair chance to work, regardless of who they are. That's why we value teams with diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds to help SRP deliver on its mission of providing reliable, affordable and sustainable water and power.
SRP's success is rooted in our employees' happiness, health, and safety. That's why we offer a comprehensive benefits package to meet the needs of our employees and enhance their well-being. In addition to competitive pay and performance incentives, eligible employees can take advantage of the following benefits:
  • Pension Plan (at no cost to the employee)
  • 401(k) plan with employer matching
  • Available your first day: Medical, vision, dental, and life insurance
  • Over 200+ hours of PTO (includes vacation days, holidays, floating holidays, and sick leave)
  • Parental leave (up to 4 weeks) and adoption assistance
  • Wellness programs (including access to a recreation and fitness facility)
  • Short and long-term disability plans
  • Tuition assistance for both undergraduate and graduate programs
  • 10 Employee Resource Groups for career development, community service, and networking

Summary
As a Data Engineer in the Supply & Trading Support Team at Salt River Project (SRP), you will be expected to collaborate with our business partners, understand their business requirements, and develop data driven solutions to meet their needs. You will create & support data models, data pipelines, transform SQL queries and algorithms, and solve interesting business problems. Your outputs will include dashboards, reports, interactive visualizations, datasets, and tools that will be delivered to users across the business units.
What You'll Do
  • Understanding your business stakeholders' objectives and guiding them in a process to explore relevant data and analytical methods
  • Coding interactive and effective visualizations of data
  • Meet regularly with customers to review and demonstrate delivered functionality, and to capture new or changed requirements
  • Building the infrastructure for efficient extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) of data from a wide variety of data sources
  • Creating and maintaining efficient data pipeline architecture
  • Assembling large, complex data sets that meet functional/non-functional business requirements
  • Identifying, developing, and implementing internal process improvements: automating manual processes, optimizing data delivery, re-designing infrastructure for greater scalability, etc.
  • Strive for clean and meaningful data within our consolidated data analytics platform
  • Working with technical and non-technical stakeholders to assist with data-related technical issues and support their data infrastructure needs

Education
A bachelor's degree relevant to the assignment from an accredited institution is preferred.
Experience
This is being sourced at the Sr. Level:
Level 3 - Senior: Minimum 5 years of relevant experience required. In lieu of a degree, 9 years of relevant experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience totaling 9 years may be considered.
Additional Requirements and Qualifications
  • Experience in developing and/or maintaining: Data Model, ETL/ELT, SQL Queries, and Data Science Models in a business analytics, data warehousing or business intelligence setting
  • Fundamental knowledge of Snowflake, Hadoop, SQL Server, SAP, Oracle, DB2, Postgres, and other common data platforms
  • Experience with CI/CD pipelines
  • Curiosity and passion about utilizing analytics and data to solve problems
  • Willing to ask questions and challenge data accuracy and assumptions
  • Creative in solution design to achieve impactful, highly functional, and supportable solutions
  • Able to translate or transform complicated or technical information into simple and clear communications for non-technical and business audiences
  • Able to translate business needs and data into models that support KPIs, visualizations, or interactive dashboards that influence behavior
  • Excellent communication, and presentation skills for a variety of audiences from entry-level employees to executive staff
  • Thrive in an active collaborative team environment, experience with Agile is a plus
  • Sensitive to client needs and able to develop strong relationships
  • Eager and able to continually learn new tools
  • Familiarity with reporting and visualization tools
  • Results driven and self-sufficient

Technical Skills
  • Preferred: Cloudera Hadoop, Azure Data Lake Storage, Snowflake, DBT, ANSI SQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure DevOps, Python, Experience with other technologies within the Microsoft BI Stack, Microsoft Power Platform, SQL Server, SSRS, Databricks, SAS, Tableau
  • Desired: Dataiku, Alteryx

Testing and Certifications
Hybrid Workplace
SRP currently offers a hybrid workplace, which allows employees whose jobs can be performed remotely, and who have sufficient technical capability, to telework up to three days per week. Although teleworking is available, all employees must live and work in Arizona.
Drug/Alcohol Policy Statement
To promote the safety and well-being of our employees, customers, and the communities we serve, SRP is committed to maintaining a drug/alcohol free work environment. Although marijuana may now be legal in Arizona, except as otherwise specified under Arizona law, SRP considers it to be an illegal drug for the purpose of our drug/alcohol policy because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. Any candidate found to be impaired during the hiring process or who has the presence of an illegal drug or unauthorized substance in their system during the pre-employment drug/alcohol test may be disqualified from further consideration in the hiring process.
Equal Opportunity Employer Statement
Salt River Project (SRP) is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military status, or any other protected status under applicable federal, state or local law.
Work Authorization
All candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
Currently, SRP does not sponsor H1B visas, OPT, or other employment-related visa's.

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