Data & AI Engineer

Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) has created some of New York’s most beloved restaurants, cafes, and bars, which offer outstanding food delivered with our signature warmth and hospitality. Founded by Danny Meyer with the opening of Union Square Cafe in 1985, the company now extends beyond the walls of its eateries. 

USHG has long supported its communities through hunger relief and civic organizations. USHG holds 28 James Beard Awards and numerous accolades for its distinctive style of hospitality.

Who you are:

The Data and AI Engineer will own the data infrastructure that powers reporting and decision-making across every concept in the USHG portfolio. This is a hybrid role split evenly between two disciplines: building and maintaining our AWS Redshift data warehouse, and building and maintaining the AI layer on top of it.

You will be the first dedicated owner of this stack end-to-end: source APIs in, clean and modeled data in Redshift, and an AI-driven experience out. You will work closely with FP&A, Operations, Marketing and others to understand the data they need and the questions they want to answer, and you’ll be the one who helps build the solutions needed.

What you’ll do:

• Cultivate a culture of Enlightened Hospitality for all stakeholders
• Design, build, and maintain the AWS Redshift environment that consolidates data from our source APIs (POS, reservations, guest survey, labor/HR, and other operational systems)
• Build and maintain ETL pipelines to ingest, transform, and load data reliably and on schedule, using tools such as AWS Glue, Lambda, and/or Airflow
• Design efficient schemas and data models (distribution keys, sort keys, incremental models) optimized for reporting and analytics workloads
• Monitor pipeline health and data quality; build automated validation and alerting so issues are caught before they reach a report
• Manage Redshift performance and cost – right-sizing clusters, tuning queries, and keeping the environment scalable as we add sources and concepts
• Maintain clear documentation of data lineage, schemas, and access controls
• Design, build, and maintain an internal analytics agent that lets non-technical stakeholders ask questions of our data in plain language and get accurate, trustworthy answers
• Build and maintain AI-automated reporting structures (e.g. daily/weekly/ monthly reports) that blend metrics with narration
• Prototype and productionize agentic workflows – including retrieval, evaluation, and guardrails – so AI-generated outputs are reliable enough for operators and executives to act on
• Evaluate and integrate new AI/LLM tooling as the space evolves, bringing back practical recommendations rather than chasing every new release

What we need from you:

• 2-4 years of experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, or a closely related role
• Hands-on production experience with AWS Redshift or comparable cloud data warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery), including schema design and query/performance tuning
• Strong SQL and Python skills
• Experience building ETL/ELT pipelines and integrating data from multiple third-party APIs
• Hands-on experience with LLM/AI tooling – e.g. Claude or another foundation model API, prompt design, RAG, or agent frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, or similar)
• Comfort working with ambiguous, evolving requirements and prioritizing independently
• Clear written and verbal communication, and the ability to explain technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders

What you’ll get from us:

At Union Square Hospitality Group, we believe our people are our greatest ingredient. Joining our team means becoming part of a culture rooted in care, creativity, and growth. As a Data and AI Engineer, you’ll enjoy:

• Competitive pay and bonus potential : Annual compensation of $110,000 plus eligibility for a performance-based bonus, with consideration for your experience and impact
• Comprehensive health coverage:  Medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus flexible spending options for healthcare and dependent care
• Time to recharge: Generous paid time off and paid parental leave to support life outside of work
• Investing in your future: A matched 401(k) plan to help you grow long-term savings
• Peace of mind: Life insurance, employee assistance programs, and exclusive access to primary care, mental health, and other wellness services.
• Support in times of need: Access to the USHG HUGS Employee Relief Fund, offering direct assistance to team members facing unexpected hardship
• Hospitality perks: Annual dining credit and a 51% dining discount across the entire USHG family of restaurants
• Convenience & flexibility: Pre-tax commuter benefits for transit and parking
• Growth and community: Opportunities for learning, mentorship, and collaboration with some of the most passionate people in hospitality.

Putting Enlightened Hospitality into Practice

Integral to our culture are our six behaviors. Our behaviors guide how we work together.

• We play to win with humble swagger.  Hospitality is a team sport where everyone deserves an opportunity to thrive and belong
• Turn over the rocks and always be connecting dots  to build uplifting experiences and relationships
• Center the salt shaker  with an unwavering commitment to excellence and the values that matter most
• Write a great next chapter.  The road to success is paved with mistakes well-handled
• Bring a charitable assumption  and err on the side of generosity
• Leave our campsite better than we found it;  always responsible for the impact of our wake

*The above represents the expected salary range for this position. Ultimately, we'll consider your experience and other job-related factors in determining your pay.

The responsibilities outlined above are not exhaustive. This role may be required to take on other duties or projects as necessary to support organizational goals, in alignment with their skills, experience, and the evolving needs of the business.