Data Engineer

About CuspAI

CuspAI is the frontier AI company on a mission to solve the breakthrough materials needed to power human progress. While nature took billions of years to perfect molecules, we are harnessing AI to unlock trillion-dollar materials breakthroughs in months, not millennia. Our founding team is the most cited in the world, comprised of world-class researchers in AI, chemistry and engineering.

We are working on some of the hardest and most important challenges including energy, clean water, the future of compute, and carbon capture, and this is just the start of what our 'search engine' for next-generation materials will unlock.

We invite you to be part of a diverse, innovative team at the intersection of AI and materials science, working to create impactful partnerships that drive innovation, scalability, and industry collaboration. This work matters. Your work matters.

We’re on the cusp of the on-demand materials era. Join us.

The Role

We are seeking a Data Engineer with strong software engineering fundamentals to own, design, develop, test, secure, and deploy data-rich tools, services, and web applications. In this role, you will build the foundational data systems and platforms that enable our materials scientists, machine learning engineers, and partners to collaborate on diverse datasets at scale.

Your Impact

As a key member of our engineering team, you will bridge the gap between complex materials science data and real-world application. You will empower researchers and machine learning models with clean, structured, and accessible data, directly accelerating our ability to discover and design breakthrough materials.

What You Will Do

• Own the full software lifecycle of data-rich tools, services, and web applications from design through to deployment and security.

• Build scalable data ingestion, processing, and cleaning pipelines to handle both structured and complex unstructured data.

• Develop data-intensive Python APIs and intuitive web applications/UIs that allow team members and partners to query, export, analyse, and visualise data.

• Implement robust orchestration systems to automate pipeline execution and manage data flows.

• Maintain strict standards for data privacy, governance, and security across all data architectures.

• Deploy and manage containerised data services using basic infrastructure tooling.

Must Have Skills and Qualifications

• Software engineering background with a strong focus on data management.

• Deep fluency in Python.

• Hands-on experience with at least two database paradigms (e.g., Relational, Document, Columnar, Key-Value).

• Proven track record writing data-rich Python APIs and surfacing data through web applications with a UI.

• Experience working with complex unstructured data, large-scale datasets, and implementing data privacy standards.

• Experience with at least one modern orchestration framework (e.g., Dagster, Flyte, Prefect, Ray).

• Fundamental infrastructure experience with basic Docker and Kubernetes.

Bonus Points

• Experience working with geographically distributed data.

• Experience with modern data lakehouse / warehouse technologies (e.g., Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Apache Hudi).

• Prior experience collaborating with scientists, domain experts, or ML teams.

What We Offer

• A competitive salary: We value and reward impact and growth

• Equity in CuspAI: You have a stake in the success of the company

• Time off to stay fresh: 28 days holiday (DE, NL, UK) or 21 days holiday (JP, SG, US), in addition to local public holidays

• ‘Gold Standard’ parental leave: 26 weeks (primary caregiver) and 12 weeks (secondary caregiver) at full pay - we look after you and your family while we work on the most important materials discovery problems together

• Professional development budget: We invest in your career development so you can stay up to date with the latest industry knowledge or add to your skills to increase impact and growth

• Solve meaningful problems: See how your work has a direct impact on advancing materials science and solving sustainability and climate-related problems through the creation and application of bleeding-edge SOTA technology and revolutionary techniques

• True interdisciplinary teamwork: Be part of a deeply collaborative environment bridging AI research, computational chemistry, and experimental science - work with world-class researchers and engineers who enjoy sharing knowledge and supporting each other

Join us in shaping the future of materials with AI. Together, we can create groundbreaking solutions for a more sustainable world.

CuspAI is an equal opportunities employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

We actively encourage applications from all backgrounds and value the unique perspectives and contributions that diversity brings to our team.

Please let us know if you require any specific adjustments during or after the interview process. We will do everything we can within reason to accommodate.