Forward Deployed Data Engineer
About the role
About Mecka AI
Mecka AI is building the data infrastructure layer for robotics and embodied AI.
We partner with leading AI labs and robotics companies to deliver high-quality, real-world datasets used to train, evaluate, and deploy robotic systems — where model performance is dictated by data quality.
The Role
We are hiring a Forward Deployed Data Engineer to operate on the frontier with customers: analyze messy, real-world data, turn it into beautiful, reliable datasets, and own the technical relationship end-to-end.
This is a senior, high-trust role with significant autonomy. You’ll combine data engineering, analytics, and product judgment to deliver outcomes customers can ship on.
What You’ll Work On
Customer Delivery & Technical Ownership
Own the end-to-end delivery of customer datasets: requirements validation iteration final handoff.
Be the technical point of contact: communicate clearly, set expectations, and close loops.
Turn customer needs into durable internal improvements (tooling, pipelines, standards).
Data Systems & Pipelines
Build and debug data pipelines across ingestion, transformation, QA, and export.
Work across storage and database types (SQL + NoSQL + object storage) and choose the right tool for the job.
Create reliable dataset “contracts”: schemas, versioning, provenance, and reproducible builds.
Analysis, QA, and Dataset Excellence
Analyze data distributions, identify gaps, and recommend what to collect/fix next.
Build quality checks and acceptance criteria (coverage, consistency, integrity, edge cases).
Deliver datasets that are clean, documented, and usable by research and engineering teams immediately.
Who You Are
Required Background
7+ years in data engineering and/or backend engineering (or equivalent impact).
Strong experience with large data systems, pipelines, and analytical workflows.
Strong SQL proficiency and comfort across multiple database/storage paradigms.
Excellent engineering judgment and debugging ability in production systems.
Strong Signals
You’ve owned high-stakes customer deliveries with autonomy and trust.
You can translate ambiguous requirements into crisp dataset specs and execution plans.
You have strong product instincts and care about polish: “would I trust this dataset?”
Why This Role
Own the customer-facing delivery loop for world-class robotics datasets.
High autonomy, high trust, and direct impact on customer success and revenue.
Work across the stack: data, pipelines, analysis, and delivery quality.
Compensation Range: $180K - $250K
Compensation
This Data Engineer role pays $180k-$250k/yr. Within typical range for data engineer roles in United States.
Questions about this role
How do I apply to this Forward Deployed Data Engineer role at mecka?
Click "Apply with AI Applyd" above. We auto-fill the application from your resume and answer screening questions in seconds. No copy and paste, no juggling tabs.
What's the typical salary for Data Engineer in United States?
Compensation for Data Engineer roles in United States varies widely by seniority, employer size, and remote vs onsite arrangement. Check the salary range on this listing when published, or browse our Data Engineer hub for United States medians across recent openings.
How fast does AI Applyd auto-apply?
Most applications complete in under 90 seconds. You can track the status in your dashboard and watch the screenshot proof land the moment the application submits.
What ATS does mecka use?
AI Applyd supports Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, iCIMS, SmartRecruiters, LinkedIn Easy Apply, and most other ATS platforms. If we can submit through the platform, we do.
Want AI Applyd to auto-apply to roles like this?
We tailor your resume per posting, fill the forms, and track replies for you.