Ascend · 1 day ago
Data Engineering Lead
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Lead/StaffAscend is transforming the insurance industry by integrating AI automation with fintech solutions. They are seeking a Data Engineering Lead to architect and manage their data infrastructure, ensuring reliable data products that support high-volume financial transactions and decision-making across the company.
FinanceFinTechInsuranceInsurTechSoftware
Responsibilities
Develop a deep understanding of Ascend's data sources, existing pipelines, and downstream use cases across Finance, Product, and Engineering
Build strong working relationships with key stakeholders to understand current pain points, risk areas, and future data needs
Evaluate the current data stack and workflows, identifying gaps in reliability, observability, and scalability
Begin defining the architectural vision and technical standards for a modern, high-integrity data platform
Design and begin implementing core components of the Modern Data Stack, including ingestion, transformation, and orchestration
Establish data modeling standards using dbt, with clear, version-controlled definitions for core financial and operational metrics
Introduce foundational data quality and observability frameworks, including automated testing for freshness, schema evolution, and reconciliation
Partner closely with Product Engineering to improve production data exports and ensure analytics infrastructure scales alongside product development
Own and operate a trusted Single Source of Truth that defines Ascend's core KPIs at the infrastructure level
Run scalable, production-grade data pipelines that support high-volume financial transactions with accuracy and auditability
Act as the technical authority on data architecture and tooling, evaluating and evolving orchestration, governance, and reverse ETL solutions
Mentor future data hires and establish best practices across data modeling, CI/CD, documentation, and peer review
Translate complex financial and business logic into reliable, performant data structures that enable confident decision making across the company
Qualification
Required
Experience in data engineering and architecture
Strong understanding of data ingestion, transformation, and orchestration
Proficiency in data modeling standards using dbt
Experience with data quality and observability frameworks
Ability to run scalable, production-grade data pipelines
Technical authority on data architecture and tooling
Mentoring experience for future data hires
Ability to translate complex financial and business logic into data structures
Preferred
Experience in the insurance or fintech industry
Familiarity with CI/CD practices in data engineering
Experience with automated testing for data freshness and schema evolution
Knowledge of governance and reverse ETL solutions
Benefits
Competitive base salary and meaningful equity in a fast-growing company
100% health premiums covered for you and your dependents
401k with employer matching options
Unlimited PTO
Monthly company-paid commuter benefit options
Parental and family leave
Lunch provided when in office
Dog-friendly office!
Company
Ascend
Ascend is a developer of an insurance payments platform that offers automated payments in financing, collections, and payables.
Founded in 2021
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Ascend has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (11)
2024 (16)
2023 (12)
2022 (9)
2021 (11)
2020 (6)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$285.5MKey Investors
Index VenturesFirst Round Capital
2022-01-27Series A· $30M
2022-01-27Debt Financing· $250M
2021-09-15Seed· $5.5M
Leadership Team
Andrew Wynn
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Recent News
Government Technology US
2025-12-06
Company data provided by crunchbase