Data Engineering Manager

The posting, as LILT wrote it

ABOUT LILT

AI is changing how the world communicates — and LILT is leading that transformation.

We're on a mission to make the world's information accessible to everyone, regardless of the language they speak. We use cutting-edge AI, machine translation, and human-in-the-loop expertise to translate content faster, more accurately, and more cost-effectively without compromising on brand, voice, or quality.

At LILT, we empower our teammates with leading tools, global collaboration, and growth opportunities to do their best work. Our company virtues—Work together, win together; Find a way or make one; Dance in the customer's shoes; Quicker than they expect; Quality is Job 1—guide everything we do. We are trusted by Intel Corporation https://www.linkedin.com/company/intel-corporation/, Canva https://www.linkedin.com/company/canva/, the United States Department of Defense https://www.linkedin.com/company/deptofdefense/, the United States Air Force https://www.linkedin.com/company/united-states-air-force/, ASICS https://www.linkedin.com/company/asics/, and hundreds of global Enterprises. Backed by Sequoia, Intel Capital, and Redpoint, we’re building a category-defining company in a $50B+ global translation market being redefined by AI.

ABOUT THE ROLE

You own LILT's data transformation layer: the dbt layer and warehouse behind every number LILT reports, from Analytics to our LLM/MCP surface to internal dashboards. Metric definitions are often owned by other teams; you implement and keep them consistent. This layer has no owner today; you make it a role.

You lead a new Data sub-team in Platform Engineering, reporting to the head of Platform, as a hands-on player-manager while hiring and growing a Data Engineer and Senior Data Scientist. You hold decision rights over the transformation layer and warehouse and own their cost.

WHAT YOU'RE WALKING INTO

We want to be direct about this role so the right person applies.

• You inherit ambiguity. No single owner, pipelines to document and rebuild, and no team until your first two hires; until then you write the SQL, dbt, and Python yourself.
• You settle the numbers. Finance, Operations, Production, and Product must trust the same metrics; you keep definitions consistent and say no when needed.
• Some things are fixed, most aren't. dbt, a single warehouse, and on-prem parity are non-negotiable; warehouse cost is measured and expected to go down. Everything else is yours to decide, with a written case.

THE STACK

• Transformation: dbt on BigQuery
• Analytics serving: ClickHouse, Cloud for SaaS, self-hosted on-prem
• Sources: MySQL, replicated to BigQuery
• ETL/orchestration: Python 3, Argo Workflows on Kubernetes
• Consumers: In-app Analytics, Sigma, LILT's Assist agent, LILT's MCP server
• Observability: Datadog
• Agentic engineering: Claude Code and Cursor, used daily across Engineering

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the data layer. Implement every metric definition once in

[…]
r global network of professional linguists, for high-impact content that requires expert review

LILT IN THE NEWS

• Featured in The Software Report’s https://www.thesoftwarereport.com/the-top-100-software-companies-of-2024/ Top 100 Software Companies!
• LILT makes it onto the Inc. 5000 List https://labs.lilt.com/lilt-listed-on-the-2024-inc-5000.
• LILT’s continues to be an intellectual powerhouse, holding numerous patents https://patents.justia.com/inventor/john-sturdy-denero that help power the most efficient and sophisticated AI and language models in the industry.
• Check out all our news on our website https://lilt.com/news.

Information collected and processed as part of your application process, including any job applications you choose to submit, is subject to LILT's Privacy Policy at https://lilt.com/legal/privacy.

At LILT, we are committed to a fair, inclusive, and transparent hiring process. As part of our recruitment efforts, we may use artificial intelligence (AI) and automated tools to assist in the evaluation of applications, including résumé screening, assessment scoring, and interview analysis. These tools are designed to support human decision-making and help us identify qualified candidates efficiently and objectively. All final hiring decisions are made by people. If you have any concerns, require accommodations, or would like to opt-out of the use of AI in our hiring process, please let us know at recruiting@lilt.com.

LILT is an equal opportunity employer. We extend equal opportunity to all individuals without regard to an individual’s race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic characteristics, veteran or marital status, pregnancy, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state or federal laws. We are committed to the principles of fair employment and the elimination of all discriminatory practices.