Senior Data Engineer
Company Introduction:
Airspace is a tech-enabled freight forwarder that’s redefining how the world’s most critical packages are delivered. Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Airspace has employees who are based around the world. Our European headquarters is in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
As a recognized leader in AI and machine learning, our team leverages data and patented technology to coordinate logistics across a global network of drivers and airlines. Our goal is to deliver those packages that are truly mission-critical in a way that is faster, more transparent, more secure, and more accountable than ever before. The items we deliver range from organs for transplant, to parts for critical machinery including grounded aircraft and highly sensitive components such as semiconductors.
Airspace has been rated one of America’s best Startup Employers, listed as one of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 companies, and featured as an Innovation and Disruption leader by CBS News. Airspace has the support of leading investors such as Telstra Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, Defy Partners, DBL Partners, and Scale Ventures. To date the company has raised more than $140m.
The company is growing rapidly and serving more places around the world than ever before. We are looking for passionate, motivated individuals who want to make an IMPACT every day to help us execute on our mission of reshaping the world of time-critical logistics.
About the Role
As Senior Data Engineer, you will be the owner of all data infrastructure and ETL processes at Airspace. You will be responsible for ensuring our data pipelines are performant, scalable, and robust — and that they support our business needs today and as we grow.
This role is not just about building great infrastructure — it’s about being a great teammate. We’re looking for someone who brings technical excellence and positive energy to the team, who can lead without ego, teach without condescension, and collaborate with humility and clarity.
You’ll be the technical thought leader for data engineering: advising on architectural decisions, executing high-impact refactors, and setting the roadmap for how data flows through our systems. This is a high-impact, high-autonomy role reporting directly to the Director of Data Science and AI, with the opportunity to shape the future of our data platform.
What You’ll Do
- Own and evolve our data infrastructure and pipelines
- Design, build, and maintain reliable ETL pipelines that ingest data from internal application postgres databases and external SaaS platforms (e.g. Salesforce, Twilio, Zendesk)
- Manage and scale our orchestration layer built in Airflow
- Ensure reliability, consistency, and performance across our data systems through strong engineering practices and operational discipline
- Oversee and optimize how data flows into and through our warehouse layer (Snowflake), ensuring transformations (via dbt) integrate cleanly into upstream and downstream systems
- Be a technical leader and strategic architect
- Set a high bar for technical excellence, promoting clean architecture, code quality, and maintainability through thoughtful design, hands-on coding, and code reviews
- Drive architectural improvements and lead system-level refactors to improve performance, scalability, and efficiency
- Continuously evaluate and recommend tools, frameworks, and methodologies that enhance platform capabilities and developer velocity
- Level up our data function across the full lifecycle
- Act as a trusted partner to stakeholders in Product, Data Science, and Infrastructure, helping shape technical roadmaps that align with business priorities
- Identify and resolve systemic bottlenecks in our data workflows, and proactively implement process improvements
- Mentor teammates and foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing engineering culture
What We’re Looking For
Required Skills & Experience
- 6+ years of experience in data engineering or backend infrastructure roles
- Expert level Python engineering skills
- Thorough knowledge and understanding of Airflow (familiarity with Astronomer or Google Cloud Composer is a plus)
- Experience managing and optimizing data infrastructure built on Snowflake (preferred) or BigQuery, including warehouse design, performance tuning, and cost efficiency
- Familiarity with dbt core, including how it fits into modern data pipelines and transformation layers
- Solid understanding of SQL (especially in the context of large-scale warehouse environments)
- Proficiency in Git, version control, and collaborative development workflows
- Comfort working with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation
- Experience ingesting data from both internal and third-party systems
Soft Skills We Value
- Collaborative and approachable: You enjoy partnering across disciplines, teaching and supporting others, and explaining complex technical ideas clearly and without ego.
- Feedback-oriented: You take feedback as a way to grow and improve, and give feedback in a constructive, respectful way.
- Bias for action: You're proactive and solutions-oriented, but know when to pause and bring others in.
- Growth mindset: You’re curious, open to learning, and comfortable not always being the smartest person in the room.
Why Join Airspace
- Be part of a mission-driven company solving real-world, time-critical problems
- Own and lead the data engineering function with significant autonomy
- Collaborate with a high-performing Data Science and AI team
- Competitive salary, equity, and benefits
- Opportunity to shape the future of our data platform and influence how data enables every function of the business
Compensation:
- Salary Range: $130-180K
- High-quality health, dental, and vision plan options
- Unlimited PTO
- 401K with company match
Core Values:
- We are One Team. We believe we all accomplish more when we are working together.
- We make an Impact. We are determined to have a positive influence on our environment, our customers, our industry, and our world.
- We are Passionate. We care deeply about our mission and are not afraid to raise the bar.
- We are Transparent. We pride ourselves on having open, honest, and sincere communication with our team and customers.
- We are Innovative. We never settle and are always striving to improve our product, service, and ourselves.
About Airspace:
From life-saving organs to essential machinery components, Airspace is trusted by the world’s largest companies and most critical healthcare organizations to move their most time-sensitive shipments on time, every time. Our proprietary AI-powered platform is the most advanced of its kind- awarded and protected by multiple patents, it provides speed, reliability, and transparency unrivaled in time-critical logistics. We are thinkers, builders, and doers; from building and deploying AI in the world to assembling a world-class operations team, Airspace is on a hypergrowth trajectory while remaining hyper-focused on the needs of our customers and team members.
With offices in the United States in Carlsbad, CA and in Europe in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Stockholm, and London, we are rapidly scaling into new markets and industries while continuing to innovate and maximize value for our customers. Backed by leading investors including Telstra, HarbourVest, Prologis, Qualcomm, Defy, and others, Airspace has raised $140M to date.
Join our team of 300+ technologists, futurists, and industry veterans as we work as One Team to revolutionize time-critical logistics.
Airspace is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. Additionally, Airspace participates in the E-Verify program for all locations.
For this role the acquisition of recruitment agencies is not appreciated, thank you for your understanding.