Senior Data Engineer

Department: Applied AI

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Compensation: $170K – $250K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

ABOUT RETELL AI

Retell AI is using the first principles to reimagine the call center with cutting edge voice AI.

Since launching 18 months ago, thousands of companies now utilize Retell’s AI voice agents to handle sales, support, and logistics calls that once required large teams of human agents. Backed by Y Combinator, Alt Capital, and other leading investors, we have scaled to $36M ARR with a team of 20 people, up from $5M at the start of 2025.

Our vision for 2026 is to build a modern CX platform where entire contact centers are powered by AI. Instead of basic automation that needs constant human tuning, we’re creating intelligent AI “workers” that can act as frontline agents, QA analysts, and managers — continuously executing, monitoring, and improving customer interactions.

We’re growing quickly and looking for ambitious builders who want to tackle hard technical problems, move fast, and have real impact at one of the fastest-growing voice AI startups.

Let’s build the future together.

• We’re a top 50 AI app in a16z list: https://tinyurl.com/5853dt2x

• #4 on Brex's Fast-Growing Software Vendors of 2025: https://www.brex.com/journal/brex-benchmark-december-2025

• We're also one of the top ranking startups on: https://leanaileaderboard.com/

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Founding Senior Data Engineer at Retell, you will build the company’s analytics foundation from the ground up. You will own how data flows, how metrics are defined, and how decisions get made across Product, GTM, Finance, and Infrastructure.

This is a highly technical, high-leverage role. You’ll work directly with the founders and functional leads to turn raw data from product events, billing systems, CRMs, and internal services into reliable insights that shape strategy, pricing, hiring, and product direction.

If you enjoy building end-to-end analytics systems, care deeply about data correctness, and want real ownership at an early-stage AI company, this role is for you.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design, build and manage our data pipelines, ensuring all user event data is seamlessly integrated into our data warehouse.

• Develop canonical datasets to track key product metrics including user growth, engagement, and revenue.

• Work collaboratively with various teams, including, Infrastructure, Data Science, Product, Marketing, Finance, and Research to understand their data needs and provide solutions.

• Develop insightful and reliable dashboards to track performance of core metrics that will deliver insights to the whole company

• Become an expert in our organization’s data models and the company's data architecture

• Ensure the security, integrity, and compliance of data according to industry and company standards.

YOU MIGHT THRIVE IF

• Have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Data Science, or a closely related technical field.

• Have 3+ years of experience as a Data Engineer, Analytics Engineer, Data Analyst, or in a similar analytics-focused role.

• Write production-quality SQL and are comfortable with Python or similar languages.

• Have experience partnering closely with Product and GTM teams to define metrics that actually drive decisions.

• Have worked at a startup or fast-growing company and are comfortable with ambiguity.

• Think in systems and care deeply about metric definitions and data correctness.

• Can translate messy business questions into clean, reliable analytical models.

• Enjoy owning problems end-to-end rather than operating within a narrow scope.

JOB DETAILS

• Cash: $170,000 - $250,000 base salary

• Equity: Offers Equity

• Location: Redwood City, CA, US (Relocation Provided)

• US Visas: Retell AI is open to sponsoring work authorization for qualified candidates, including H1B/H-1B, TN, L-1, E-3, F-1 (OPT/CPT), and O-1 visas.

OTHER BENEFITS

• 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision insurance

• $70/day DoorDash credit for unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks

• $200/month wellness reimbursement (gym, fitness classes, etc.)

• $300/month commuter reimbursement (gas, Caltrain, etc.)

• $75/month phone bill reimbursement

• $50/month internet reimbursement

COMPENSATION PHILOSOPHY

• Best Offer Upfront: Choose from three cash-equity balance options, no negotiation needed.

• Top 1% Talent: Above-market pay (top 5 percentile) to attract high performers.

• High Ownership: Small teams, >$1M revenue/employee, and significant equity.

• Performance-Based: Offers tied to interview performance, not experience or past salaries.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

1. Recruiter Intro Call (15 min): Discuss your background and motivation, and give you a chance to learn about us.

2. Technical First Round (45 min): This round will assess your data engineering fundamentals.

3. Onsite (3 hours):

   • Technical Deep Dive: Data modeling, pipelines, and analytics systems

   • Analytics & Metrics: Cohort analysis, metric design, and trade-offs

   • Business Judgment: Turning data into decisions

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