Virtual Member of Technical Staff, Data Engineering — Applied AI Research & QA

At TopChoice Recruiting, we specialize in premier remote contracts. We are actively placing a talented Virtual Member of Technical Staff, Data Engineering — Applied AI Research & QA earning $7 - $8/hour. If you have hands-on expertise in Data Platform Architecture & Engineering, ETL/ELT Pipelines & Data Orchestration, AI Agents & Agent-Ready Data Systems, Technical Leadership & Systems Architecture, this contract allows you to monetize your skills with maximum flexibility. No micromanagement, clear evaluation rubrics, and consistent weekly payouts.

What the Role Entails

• Raise the engineering bar: Mentor engineers, establish strong data engineering practices, and lead architectural decisions through hands-on execution.
• Staff-level engineering expertise with extensive hands-on experience building and operating production data platforms.
• Proven greenfield experience: You've personally led the design and implementation of a data platform from scratch, rather than exclusively maintaining or extending existing infrastructure.
• Deep understanding of data warehouses, ETL/ELT architectures, data modeling, orchestration, and distributed data processing.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python, with the software engineering fundamentals needed to build reliable data infrastructure.
• Build our data platform from zero: Architect and implement our internal data warehouse, ingestion infrastructure, ETL/ELT pipelines, and core data models.
• Create agent-ready data foundations: Design reliable, well-documented datasets and interfaces that AI agents can safely discover, query, and use.

Requirements to Qualify

• You have experience building semantic layers, data discovery systems, or structured interfaces that make enterprise data accessible to AI.
• You've automated substantial portions of data pipeline development, validation, or maintenance using AI agents.
• You know how to avoid overengineering while building foundations that won't need to be replaced six months later.
• You're comfortable moving between data architecture, production pipelines, analytical modeling, and hands-on debugging.
• Experience with modern data technologies such as Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, dbt, Airflow, Dagster, or equivalent tools.
• Strong understanding of data quality, lineage, observability, access controls, and production data reliability.
• Experience designing analytics infrastructure that supports product insights and operational decision-making.

Pay & Remote Work Environment

• Compensation Rate: $7 - $8/hour (verified contractor remuneration)
• Work Arrangement: 100% Remote / Work From Home
• Eligible Remote Countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa
• Core Competencies: Data Platform Architecture & Engineering, ETL/ELT Pipelines & Data Orchestration, AI Agents & Agent-Ready Data Systems, Technical Leadership & Systems Architecture
• Hiring Lead: Jason Miller (Remote Workforce Specialist) at TopChoice Recruiting

Direct Application Process: Click the Apply button on this page to submit your profile directly for immediate evaluation.