Senior Staff R&D Software Engineer, Fivetran AI

From Fivetran’s founding until now, our mission has remained the same: to make access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. With Fivetran, customer data arrives in their warehouses, canonical and ready to query, with no engineering or maintenance required. We’re proud that more organizations continue to leverage our technology every day to become truly data-driven.About UsFivetran and dbt Labs are bringing together two industry-leading companies with a shared mission: helping organizations unlock the full value of their data. Together, we’re delivering the data infrastructure layer that helps organizations move, transform, and trust their data — from the moment data moves, through every transformation, to the context teams and AI systems rely on. Fivetran helps organizations automate data movement across the systems, clouds, engines, and tools they rely on. dbt Labs pioneered analytics engineering, helping teams transform data into reliable, governed insights. Together, we support thousands of organizations as they build a trusted foundation for analytics, AI, and better business decisions. As we bring our teams and technology together, we’re building on the strengths of both companies while continuing to deliver the products and experiences our customers know and trust. It’s an exciting time to join us: we’re creating a company with the scale, talent, and technology to help more organizations put their data to work with greater speed, confidence, and impact. During this transition period, you may see references to both Fivetran and dbt Labs throughout our recruiting process as we integrate our teams, systems, and career sites.About the RoleFivetran and dbt are building the open data infrastructure that powers AI agents you can trust.Fivetran is looking for a Senior Staff R&D Software Engineer to join our fast-growing Fivetran AI team. Your data stack was built for humans — but agents are the new primary data consumers, and they have fundamentally different requirements. Agents can’t intuit context; it must be explicitly codified, governed, and traceable. We’re building the governed context layer that solves this problem: Agents Schema, an open standard for storing agent-ready context directly in the customer’s own data warehouse, and Context Builder, the managed service that keeps it filled and fresh.This role goes well beyond standard engineering. You’ll research emerging techniques in the fast-moving AI landscape and bring real product and market understanding to decide which ideas are worth pursuing — and then you’ll take what you’ve learned and ship it as production software. We’re looking for a true generalist who is willing and able to wear whatever hat the moment calls for: prototyping a new retrieval technique one week, hardening a backend service the next, then doing SRE or QA work when the team needs it. At this level, you’re a trusted expert beyond your own department — your judgment shapes technical direction across Fivetran AI and the teams it depends on, you define your own direction rather than waiting for it, and you execute with the highest level of independence. Fivetran AI operates like a startup within Fivetran, and we need engineers who thrive on that range and ambiguity rather than staying in one lane.Fivetran is the epitome of data-driven development — our engineering team is focused on building a world class product that:Builds Infrastructure Agents Can Trust — join our mission to deliver the governed context layer that AI agents depend on: accurate semantic definitions, traceable lineage, data contracts, and auditable history baked in from the start.Embraces Open Standards — help build portable, interoperable data infrastructure: Agents Schema, open formats (Iceberg, Delta Lake), MCP-native interfaces, and connector skills that work with any model and any compute.Scales Without Breaking — work to make Fivetran AI efficient at agent scale, where unit costs deflate as volume grows and context retrieval is fast, accurate, and cost-controlled.We emphasize using no-nonsense tools and take great pride in the simplicity and effectiveness of the systems we build. Our back-end is built on Java, Python, Postgres, and Kubernetes, and our front-end is built on React and TypeScript.This is a full-time hybrid position based out of our Oakland, CA office. Our hybrid work model offers a blend of remote flexibility and in-person collaboration, including two days in the office each week to connect and build as a teamTechnologies You’ll UsePython, Java, SQL, dbt, LLMs (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini), vector databases, BigQuery / Snowflake / Databricks, MCP protocol, React, TypeScript, KubernetesWhat You’ll DoIdentify which emerging AI research and techniques are worth pursuing, and set the agenda for Fivetran AI’s technical roadmap accordinglyPrototype new ideas quickly, then take the ones that prove out and turn them into shipped, production-grade featuresDefine technical direction that spans Fivetran AI and collaborating departments — product, data platform, and go-to-market — resolving architectural tradeoffs that cross department linesBuild and maintain both back-end and front-end systems for the Fivetran AI product — from Agents Schema pipelines to the Context Catalog UISet the long-term technical vision for capabilities like AISQL: natural language to SQL grounded in dbt metric definitions, executed natively against the warehouseTake ownership of production reliability across the platform: on-call rotation, incident response, and SRE work to keep the system trustworthy at scaleSet the bar for engineering quality, testing, and QA practices across the department, and do hands-on work yourself when it matters mostUse coding agents to automate the repetitive parts of the job, freeing up time for the research and design work that needs a humanDefine your own priorities and roadmap based on your judgment of what will most move Fivetran AI forward, with minimal oversightMentor staff and senior engineers, and act as a multiplier for technical judgment across the departmentRepresent Fivetran AI’s technical perspective in cross-department planning and strategy discussionsContribute to hiring by participating in and helping shape the interview processSkills We’re Looking For10+ years of programming experience across Python and/or Java, with the ability to move fluidly between back-end and front-end workConsidered a trusted expert beyond your own department, able to exert influence and shape direction with collaborating departmentsComfortable reading AI/ML research and turning promising findings into working prototypes, then production systems, at a level that sets direction for othersDeep product and market awareness — able to judge which emerging techniques are worth building versus which are hype, and defend that judgment to skeptical stakeholdersTrack record of defining your own direction and executing it with the highest level of independence, with little need for oversightExperience with SQL and data warehouses (BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, or similar)Genuine willingness to work across the full stack: research, backend, frontend, SRE, and QA, as the team’s needs demandWrites well-structured, performant code and can dive into unfamiliar codebases to suggest improvementsExperience using coding agents or similar AI tooling to speed up day-to-day engineering workDemonstrated ability to mentor senior and staff engineers and influence technical decisions across departmentsThrives in a startup-like environment with shifting priorities and a high degree of ownershipBonus SkillsExperience with LLM-powered applications — RAG pipelines, embeddings, evaluation frameworks, or agent frameworksFamiliarity with semantic layers — dbt, LookML, Sigma, or similarExperience with the MCP (Model Context Protocol) ecosystem or building AI agent integrationsBackground in site reliability engineering — monitoring, alerting, incident responseExperience in data processing (ETL, ELT) and/or building data connectorsExperienced working in a cloud environment utilizing AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, or DockerContributions to open source AI or data projects#LI-HYBRID #LI-AM1The compensation range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire compensation for the target position and level, and may include sales incentives or target bonuses depending on the role. Our compensation ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Our job titles may span more than one career level. Within the range, individual compensation is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, relevant education or training, business need, market demands. The compensation range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. Your recruiter can share more about the specific compensation range for your location during the hiring process.Oakland Pay Range$232,338—$290,422 USDPerks and Benefits100% employer-paid medical insurance*Generous paid time-off policy (PTO), plus paid sick time, inclusive parental leave policy, holidays (including a year end Global Week of Rest), and volunteer days offRSU stock grants*Professional development and training opportunitiesCompany virtual happy hours, free food, and fun team-building activitiesMonthly cell phone stipendAccess to an innovative mental health support platform that offers personalized care and resources in areas such as: therapy, coaching, and self-guided mindfulness exercises for all covered employees and their covered dependents.*May vary by country and worker type - please reach out to your recruiter for more informationClick here to learn more about Fivetran's Benefits by Region.We’re honored to be valued at over $5.6 billion, but more importantly, we’re proud of our core values of Get Stuck In, Do the Right Thing, and One Team, One Dream. Read about us in Forbes. Fivetran brings together high-quality talent across the globe to make data access as easy and reliable as electricity for our customers. We value and recognize that our customers benefit from having innovative teams made of people from many backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Fivetran promotes diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging through attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it helps us build a world-class company to better serve our customers, our people and our communities.To learn more about Fivetran’s culture and what it’s like to be part of the team, click here and enjoy our video.To learn more about our candidate privacy policy, you can read our statement here.We are committed to ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to participate in our interview process. If you require accommodations at any stage of the process due to a disability, medical condition, or any other circumstance, please don't hesitate to submit your request by filling out this form. We will work with you to provide reasonable accommodations to facilitate your participation and ensure a fair and accessible interview experience. Your request and any information provided will be kept confidential and will not impact your candidacy. We look forward to hearing from you and accommodating your needs to the best of our ability.