Founding Data Engineer

• Founding Data Engineer, AI Team
• First engineer on a new team. Build the data platform behind everything we ship, then grow it into the data engineering layer our AI runs on.

THE ROLE

I'm David Skiles, Director of AI at Strand A&E. I'm hiring the first engineer on a new team in our Dallas office. We'll build this together. I'll be reviewing your code, working through architecture with you, and making the early calls alongside you.

Strand A&E is a 30-year-old, profitable architecture and engineering firm serving residential homebuilders, including some of the largest in the country. Our inspection and analytics platforms already sit inside their daily operations. We are not a tech company today. The VP wants us to become one. This is the first hire on the team that does just that.

Why is this the first hire? Everything we want to build sits on top of the data: the AI products, the analytics, every future application. Nothing we ship moves until the data work is done right. That is why this role comes first.

• WHAT YOU'LL OWN
• Every pipeline, in one place, monitored. Today our data flows through a patchwork of tools built by different people in different languages, and monitoring is thin. You consolidate the pipelines, watch the volumes, and catch issues before they reach anyone downstream.
• The big, one-way data operations. Account restructures, historical backfills, schema migrations: the changes you only get one shot at. You run them safely, audited, logged, and recoverable when something surfaces months later.
• Integrating everything. Operational SQL Server, customer data exchanges, finance, HR, email, monitoring tools. Every dataset the company owns, connected into one governed platform our AI can actually reach.
• The databases themselves. We don't have a DBA. Indexes, query plans, getting us off aging on-prem SQL Server. If you can wear that hat too, that's a real plus.

• YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS
• Audit the seven applications currently running on our aging on-prem SQL Server (TED). Classify each: refactor, rebuild, absorb, sunset.
• Stand up our cloud database standard. Choose between Supabase, Azure SQL, or Postgres on Azure. Your call, with my input.
• Own the data pipelines powering our innovation. Right now that's Python scripts scheduled on a Linux VM, feeding Supabase. It works, and it's deliberately simple. Where it goes next is your call. If Airflow, Azure Data Factory, or a warehousing layer earns its place, make the case and build it. I'm not married to the tooling. I'm married to shipping.
• Move us onto cloud file storage. Get large, multi-terabyte file shares off aging on-prem storage and onto a cloud setup that works for the whole company. The right first step is open. It might be Azure Blob, SharePoint, File Sync, or some combination. You scope the pilot, prove it on real data, then build it into a standard everyone can use.
• Get the Azure authentication pattern right so our Graph API agents run reliably and we can ship at scale.

After 90 days you build with me: the Strand Brain (institutional knowledge layer), the agent platform that lets power users build their own workflows, and the data layer behind our customer-facing AI products. The end state we're building toward: anyone at Strand can point AI at any data the company owns and trust what comes back.

REQUIREMENTS

• 5+ years of professional experience as a data engineer, software engineer, or comparable builder role
• US work authorization required. We are not sponsoring or transferring visas at this time.
• DFW-based, or willing to relocate at your own expense. The role is in-office hybrid in Dallas.
• Production experience on Azure (Blob, Functions, App Service, or equivalent). Real systems your name is on.
• Hands-on SQL Server to cloud migration experience. You know where the gotchas are.
• You have run a large, irreversible data operation (migration, restructure, backfill) with auditing and a recovery plan, and you can tell me about one that went sideways.
• Python as your primary daily language.
• You have owned a production system end-to-end, from architecture decision through deployment.
• Modern, agentic AI fluency. You build with agentic coding tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex, you understand context engineering and MCP, and you can put agents on real work and orchestrate them. This matters a lot to us, and I will ask you to show me how you actually work.

PREFERRED

• Supabase or Postgres hands-on
• AI in production: RAG pipelines, evals, or multi-agent systems you have actually shipped
• TypeScript / React for occasional app work
• Infrastructure-as-Code (Bicep or Terraform)
• Hire #1 or #2 experience at a startup or new team
• Open-source contributions or production-grade side projects

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Base salary $125,000-$150,000, depending on experience.
• Health, dental, and vision
• PTO
• 401(k) with 4% match
• Pet insurance
• AI subscriptions you need to do the job (Claude, Codex, Cursor, etc.)

HYBRID POLICY

• Weeks 1-2: in office every day, setting team patterns
• After that: this is an in-office hybrid role based in Dallas. We expect a strong in-person presence, and we'll settle into the right cadence together as you ramp.
• Prefer the office? Even better. If you want to be on site full-time, the door is open.
• What matters is the work, the team, and the momentum we build in the room.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply on LinkedIn (Easy Apply works), or skip the line and email me directly at [email protected]. Either way, skip the cover letter. Send one paragraph about the most ambitious production system you have owned and what you would do differently if you built it again. That paragraph is the first thing I read. Polished resumes all look the same now, and it's where I find out whether you've actually done the work. If we are a fit, you will hear from me within 48 hours.

• David Skiles
• Director of AI | Strand A&E | [email protected]