Junior AI Data Engineer

About the Role

Cortica is seeking a Junior AI Data Engineer to join its growing team. This early-career role focuses on learning data engineering while building AI-first habits from day one. Under senior engineers' guidance, the role contributes to data pipelines, models, and reporting that drive care decisions, financial planning, and operational efficiency. The Junior AI Data Engineer partners with data science, finance, and clinical operations teams on well-scoped tasks, gradually growing toward independent ownership. AI-assisted development is integral to the daily workflow, requiring responsible use of AI coding tools, verification of output, and building judgment to ensure production-quality work.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to well-scoped data engineering tasks within larger projects, following the full engineering lifecycle with guidance.
• Use AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) daily, verifying, correcting, and testing AI-generated code before committing it.
• Follow team context files (CLAUDE.md equivalents) and conventions to ensure AI-assisted work aligns with established patterns.
• Help build and maintain data pipelines ingesting from AWS, Azure, Salesforce, MuleSoft, and third-party APIs into the AWS Data Lake.
• Assist in implementing data models using Kimball methodology, learning dimensional modeling on the job.
• Develop simple orchestration steps in Python, run basic data-quality checks, and investigate data anomalies.
• Support Power BI data models and reports, assisting analytics team members with data questions.
• Create small automation scripts and internal tooling connecting data pipelines to end users.
• Follow data-security and HIPAA practices, documenting work clearly for others (and AI agents) to build upon.
• Collaborate across IT, finance, clinical operations, and data science teams. Occasional travel to local Cortica centers may be required.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 0–2 years of experience; contribution to 1–2 end-to-end data pipelines (coursework, internship, bootcamp, or personal projects) that ingest, transform, and load data.
• Familiarity with AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) or strong eagerness to adopt AI-first workflows.
• 6+ months of hands-on Python experience or coursework equivalent; ability to write scripts for data reading, cleaning, and transformation (e.g., using pandas).
• Intermediate SQL skills: joins, aggregations (GROUP BY), filtering, and basic subqueries.
• Exposure to at least one cloud platform (AWS or Azure); foundational certification (e.g., AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Azure Fundamentals AZ-900) is a plus.
• Experience building at least one dashboard or report in Power BI, Tableau, or similar tool (academic or personal projects count).
• Ability to document technical work clearly and explain it to non-technical audiences.
• Experience collaborating across at least 2 teams or functions (e.g., cross-functional projects, internships, or clubs).

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan with company matching and rapid vesting.
• Paid holidays and wellness days.
• Life and disability insurance options.
• Tuition reimbursements for professional development and continuing education.
• Referral bonuses.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $80,000 - $90,000.