Forward Deployed Data Engineer

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Company Overview

The company provides a modern technology platform for grocery retailers, helping them improve inventory management, reduce product shortages and waste, and streamline daily operations. Its platform integrates data from various retail systems to support more efficient, data-driven business processes.

Job Description

The Forward Deployed Data Engineer will bridge the gap between customer systems and the company’s grocery technology platform. Working closely with onboarding managers and customer technical teams, the engineer will configure integrations to meet each retailer’s unique operational requirements.

As one of the founding members of the Forward Deployed Data Engineering team, the engineer will help establish processes, playbooks, data pipelines, and integration systems that support the company’s growth from its initial customers to thousands of stores.

The role involves hands-on data engineering, including processing item files, invoices, and other records from point-of-sale systems, back-office tools, and enterprise resource planning systems. Data may arrive in formats such as CSV, EDI, PDFs, and scanned documents. The engineer will develop reliable methods to extract, transform, reconcile, and integrate this information into the platform.

This position is suited to a detail-oriented engineer who enjoys solving complex data integration challenges, collaborating directly with customers, and building scalable systems in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the platform’s architecture and the interdependencies between its core systems and integration components.
• Understand customer requirements and translate them into technical specifications and system configurations.
• Configure and maintain data mappings, validation processes, and reconciliation workflows as part of the operations function.
• Collaborate with Operations, Product, Engineering, and customer IT teams to improve workflows and systems from end to end.
• Build and maintain data extraction, ingestion, and transformation pipelines for diverse customer data sources and formats.
• Troubleshoot complex integration issues and implement reliable solutions in demanding customer environments.
• Establish repeatable integration processes and documentation to support onboarding efficiency and long-term scalability.
• Identify opportunities to improve data quality, pipeline performance, and integration reliability.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years of experience in Forward Deployed Engineering, Solutions Engineering, or a similar customer-facing technical role, ideally within B2B SaaS or fintech.
• Strong backend and data engineering fundamentals, combined with the ability to communicate directly with customer IT teams.
• Familiarity with unstructured data, ETL processes, and machine learning or optical character recognition (OCR) pipelines.
• Strong SQL, regular expression (Regex), and scripting skills, with a willingness to learn new technologies.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex technical problems in high-pressure customer environments.
• Ability to independently manage data extraction, ingestion, integration, and pipeline optimization with minimal guidance.
• Strong attention to detail and a practical approach to resolving data quality and integration challenges.
• Effective cross-functional communication and collaboration skills.

Growth Opportunities

• Develop expertise in complex data systems while gaining a deeper understanding of the operational and commercial challenges facing the grocery industry.
• Solve unique, real-world technical problems that strengthen problem-solving skills and encourage creative thinking.
• Take ownership of foundational data integration processes and help establish scalable engineering practices.
• Contribute to technology that supports efficiency and modernization across a large, essential industry.

Role Expectations

• Work effectively within a fast-paced startup environment with broad responsibilities and demanding deadlines.
• Demonstrate initiative, adaptability, and consistent ownership when tackling complex technical and operational challenges.
• Balance speed and creativity with reliability, data quality, and customer outcomes.
• Contribute to a high-performance team focused on building impactful technology with limited resources.

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