Data Engineer

Data & Backend Engineer

At SafeLease, we're rethinking how P&C insurance is sold in an age of technological change. We believe the industry's biggest inefficiencies aren't technical problems — they're structural ones. And we're building the team to tackle them.

SafeLease is a profitable insurance business that designs, underwrites, and distributes specialty coverage for commercial property owners and their tenants. Most insurance companies either distribute products or bear the risk — we do both. We back our policies with our own capital, which means we control the full stack: product design, tech, and the speed at which we move. That end-to-end ownership lets us offer customers real flexibility, saving time and money for more than 4,000 properties insured for billions in value nationwide.

We're a team of 70, growing over 100% annually, and we've done it without sacrificing profitability or culture. Here, you'll get high discretion and a wide aperture of problems to solve. We embrace the newest technologies, move fast together, and operate with the intensity of a small company where every person's work is visible. If you're looking for a place to sharpen your craft alongside people who take their work seriously, you'll fit right in.

This position requires working in the office 3 days per week in either New York City or Austin, TX. Applicants who are unable to work from either office location or are not willing to relocate will not be considered.

About The Role

As a Data & Backend Engineer building our Data Platform, you'll design and build our data infrastructure from the ground up: ingestion pipelines that span multiple systems, Python and SQL transformations that give the whole company a trustworthy view of our business, and backend structures making that data accessible where it's needed. You'll be a force multiplier for every team at SafeLease.

What you'll build

• End-to-end data pipelines integrating sources across our internal and external apps, 3P vendors and Saas systems
• Transformations within and between infrastructure: OLTP, OLAP and S3
• Backend Python services and APIs that expose platform data to internal consumers and downstream workflows
• Monitoring, alerting, and data quality frameworks so we know when something breaks before anyone else does
• Data architecture decisions that will create agility and the ability to scale the business

What we're looking for

• 3–6 years working on data infrastructure or backend systems in production
• Strong Python: you write clean, testable code and know when to reach for a library vs. rolling your own
• Strong SQL: complex joins, window functions, CTEs, and query optimization feel natural
• Experience designing and shipping cross-system data pipelines (ETL/ELT) that are reliable in the real world
• Comfort interpreting data - you become the expert on the data you touch
• Collaborative instincts: you'll work closely with product, frontend, analytics, research

Nice to have

• Experience with dbt for SQL-native transformation layers
• Familiarity with Airflow, Prefect, or another orchestration framework
• Exposure to AWS Lambda, IAM, KMS, MWAA, ECS/EKS
• Background at an insurtech, proptech, or similarly regulated domain
• Opinions about data modeling: star schema, OBT, normalization tradeoffs
• Experience being one of the first data engineers at a company

Compensation: $130,000 to $225,000 base, depending on experience and qualifications.

Why SafeLease?

The tech: Our prospects convert fast because we're solving real problems and delivering serious value to commercial real estate owners.

The team: We're a team of seasoned pros and sharp operators who know how to move fast and build smart. High standards, low ego.

The stability: We're well-funded, growing fast, and we make sure our team shares in that success with competitive pay and equity.

The employee experience: We also offer unlimited PTO, full health benefits, flexible work setups, and the kind of culture where people want to show up to do their best work.

If you don't have all the qualifications listed, don't worry! We understand everyone's career path is unique and still encourage you to apply if you feel this role is aligned with your career trajectory.

Employment at SafeLease is contingent upon a satisfactory verification of a general and criminal background check.