Senior Data Engineer
Overview:
As the Senior Data Engineer, you will own the pipelines and platform that move Nerdy’s data from source systems into a governed lakehouse. You’ll build streaming and batch ingestion, run the Iceberg lakehouse on Starburst Galaxy, and ship reliable, well-tested dbt layers that analytics engineers and analysts build on—leveraging AI to accelerate development, QA, and operations.
About Nerdy:
At Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) - the company behind Varsity Tutors - we’re redrawing the blueprint of learning. Our Live + AI™ platform fuses real-time human expertise with proprietary generative-AI systems, setting a new bar for measurable academic impact at global scale.
We recruit the kind of technologists and operators you’d bet on as solo founders - people who turn ambiguous problems into shipping code, iterate faster than markets move, and compound their advantage with every data point. In an era where great employees can deliver 10-times the leverage of the merely good, we back those who play to win.
Fortune favors the bold. Join us.
How we compete:
AI-Native at every level
From the CEO to day-one hires, everyone builds and ships with generative AI. If you’re not wielding AI, you’re not done.Entrepreneurial velocity
Move at founder speed, prototype in hours, and measure in real user outcomes. Slow teams die.Free-market rigor
Ideas rise or fall on merit and results - no committees, no politics, no cap on upside.Full-stack ownership
You design, build, and run what you ship; accountability is a feature, not a bug.Reward for contribution
Pay rises with impact, not years. Outstanding results earn outsized rewards. We evaluate both what you achieve and how you achieve it: living our leadership principles and using AI effectively are formally measured and rewarded.Relentless exploration
Push the frontier of generative AI in live learning and - because only the paranoid survive - questioning every legacy assumption along the way.Is Apolitical
You stay focused on mission-aligned outcomes, not distractions or unrelated causes.
If you’re a technically minded builder who thrives on open competition, personal responsibility, and the chance to redefine how the world learns - while continually stretching the limits of what generative AI can do - come do the most ambitious and rewarding work of your career here. Learn more at nerdy.com.
Nerdy’s shareholder letters below explain our latest products and strategy:
Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math/Stats, or equivalent experience.
3+ years as a Data Engineer (or similar) in high-growth environments.
Expert SQL and strong Python; experience building production pipelines that run unattended and recover on their own.
Hands-on with open table formats and lakehouse engines: Iceberg on Trino/Starburst Galaxy, or similar (Delta Lake, Hudi, Spark, Databricks, Presto/Athena).
Streaming experience with Kafka/Confluent or similar (Kinesis, Redpanda), including schema registry, CDC (e.g., Debezium), and idempotent loading into lakehouse tables.
Proficiency with dbt and dbt Cloud (incremental models, macros, tests, docs) and orchestration tools such as Airflow or Dagster.
Solid AWS experience (S3, IAM, Glue/REST catalogs) and infrastructure as code (Terraform or similar).
Solid grasp of data modeling, partitioning, incremental processing, and backfill strategy on large datasets.
Git-based development and CI/CD familiarity; disciplined approach to reviews, releases, and on-call.
Experienced with AI-native tools that enhance productivity and speed (e.g., Cursor, Make, Supabase, Netlify, Claude Code, n8n, Firecrawl, ChatGPT, Grok, Bolt, Vercel, etc).
Alignment with Nerdy’s apolitical, mission-focused culture.
Responsibilities:
Ingestion & streaming: Build and run streaming and batch ingestion from Kafka and third-party APIs into Iceberg tables; own CDC, schema evolution, and late-arriving data.
Lakehouse platform: Operate the Iceberg lakehouse on Starburst Galaxy (Trino)—table layout, partitioning, compaction, retention, and cluster sizing.
Layered modeling with dbt: Build and maintain the bronze, silver, and gold layers with incremental models, idempotent merges, and safe backfills; push shared logic upstream so downstream consumers stay simple.
Orchestration & reliability: Design dbt Cloud job schedules, dependencies, retries, and alerting; keep production jobs within their freshness SLAs and drive incidents to root cause.
Data quality & governance: Implement tests, contracts, freshness and volume monitoring, lineage, and access controls; handle PII within privacy and security guardrails.
Performance & cost: Tune queries, file layout, and cluster usage to improve speed and manage compute and storage spend.
Infrastructure as code: Manage clusters, storage, and access through Terraform and CI, with changes that are reviewed, reversible, and documented.
Collaboration: Partner with Analytics Engineering, Product Engineering, and business teams to turn source changes and new requirements into dependable data products.
Documentation & change control: Maintain versioned code (Git), review PRs, run CI/CD for pipelines and dbt, and document sources, models, and runbooks.
AI-enabled workflows: Use AI for code generation/review, test scaffolding, pipeline debugging, data profiling, and anomaly detection—operating within privacy and security guardrails.
Unleash Your Potential at Nerdy:
At Nerdy, you'll earn your success through meritocracy and exceptional outcomes. Our benefits reward performance and initiative:
Competitive USD-Benchmarked Compensation: Earn a market-leading rate set in U.S. dollars, paid to you in local currency.
100% Remote (Home Country Only): Work from anywhere in your home country—no relocation required, no borders crossed.
Flexible Time Off: Our flexible PTO lets you recharge on your own terms and when you need it the most.
Local Holiday Pay: We honor your nation’s official holidays with paid time off—celebrate what matters to you.
Continuous Learning: Get a free, all-inclusive learning membership for you and your household—including 1-on-1 tutoring hours, unlimited on-demand classes, and access to our full suite of learning products and services.
Supercharge with AI: Gain exclusive access to cutting-edge AI tools that boost your productivity, making you feel almost super-human (cape not included).
Feedback-Rich, Collaborative Culture: Tap into regular training, peer reviews, and a team that treats every team member as a vital collaborator and owner in our success.
Make a Global Impact: Your expertise fuels an innovative platform used by learners around the world—be part of something transformative.
The Bottom Line:
If you're driven by impact, energized by ownership, and excited to help shape what’s next, you’ll thrive here. We move fast, think big, and reward those who deliver. This isn’t a traditional corporate environment - it’s a place to do the most meaningful work of your career.
