LLM Data Engineer

About garden3d: Join Our Creative Collective as an LLM Data Engineer

garden3d is a worker-owned creative collective, pushing the boundaries of innovation across brands, communities, IoT, and cross-platform apps. We’re committed to profit sharing, open-source development, business incubation, and investing in groundbreaking ideas. Our diverse client roster includes industry leaders like Google, Stripe, Figma, and organizations like the ACLU and MIT.

We’re the team behind innovative products such as The Light Phone & Mill, and we cultivate a global, decentralized community space called Index Space. We prioritize a happy, talented, and diverse studio culture, working on projects that positively impact the world. We balance a deep commitment to our work with a genuine appreciation for life outside of our jobs.

LLM Data Engineer Opportunity: Shape the Future of Data with AI

We’re seeking a talented and passionate Data Engineer to join our team and contribute to exciting client projects. You’ll play a key role in building and maintaining data pipelines, orchestrating workflows, and integrating diverse data sources, with a particular focus on Large Language Models (LLMs). Our current data ingestion leverages an in-house application for lightweight workflow definition. We are adopting Prefect as our go-to orchestration tool.

Your contributions will directly impact the success of projects, ensuring that we deliver cost-effective, high-quality, and pragmatic solutions to complex data challenges.

Key Responsibilities: Powering Our Data-Driven Initiatives

• Data Pipeline Management: Monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot data pipelines, addressing errors and format drift.
• Data Extraction & Enrichment: Extract and enrich data from various sources, expanding our data landscape.
• Batch Data Processing: Reprocess and validate large datasets in batch workflows.
• Data Source Integration: Design and integrate new data sources into existing pipelines.
• Data Alignment & Consistency: Align and integrate extracted data with the core application data model to ensure consistency and usability.
• Code Reviews: Participate in code reviews, providing constructive feedback and upholding best practices.
• Project Success: Monitor team velocity, project scope, budget, and timeline, contributing to overall success.
• Client Collaboration: Negotiate with clients (if needed) to align project scope with budget and timeline.

Ideal Candidate: A Collaborative and Quality-Focused Engineer

We’re looking for someone who is happy, relaxed, and easy to work with. You’re flexible, except when it comes to compromising on quality. You work “smart,” managing your workflow efficiently and prioritizing tasks intelligently. You value deep work but are comfortable engaging in strategic conversations.

Bonus points if you have backgrounds or interests in design, art, music, food, or fashion, as we believe these experiences contribute to a well-rounded sense of design and quality.

Compensation & Benefits: Invested in Your Growth

Our pay scale ranges from $85 p/hr to $130 p/hr, based on seniority and team leadership experience. Projects are typically at least 8 full-time weeks at 40 hours per week. We also offer discretionary bonuses for exceptional contributions, such as training others, winning new business, or speaking at conferences.

We value long-term relationships with accountable and communicative team members, so we encourage candidates to envision longer-term engagements. A Data Engineer working 40-45 full-time weeks can expect to earn $150k – $200k USD.

Essential Skills & Experience: Your Foundation for Success

• Strong proficiency in Python.
• Experience with data/workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Prefect, Dagster, Airflow).
• Thorough understanding of ETL & data transformation for ingesting industry-standard LLMs (OpenAI, Claude, etc.).
• Familiarity with Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Skilled in interfacing with APIs (OpenAI, Google Gemini/Vertex, etc.) using wrapper libraries such as Instructor, LiteLLM, etc.
• Practical experience in prompt engineering.
• Ability to work with structured outputs and potentially tool calling.
• 5+ years of general experience in backend (Ruby on Rails, Elixir Phoenix, Python Django, or Node Express) and/or native app development (React Native, Flutter, Android, AOSP, Kotlin/Java).

Bonus Points: Skills That Will Set You Apart

These skills are a plus, as we constantly explore new and exciting technology niches:

• Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), particularly Cloud Run and Cloud Tasks.
• Knowledge of search technologies, including embeddings and vector databases for semantic search, as well as keyword-based search (BM25).
• Familiarity with PySpark for batch data processing.
• Experience working with LLMs, Vector Databases, and other generalist AI-enabled application patterns.
• Client-facing experience: working directly with customers to gather requirements and provide technical solutions.
• Product management experience: defining product roadmaps and collaborating closely with stakeholders.
• Engineering management experience: leading teams, setting technical direction, and mentoring developers.

Our Interview Process: A Collaborative Exploration

Our interview process begins with a call to meet members of our team. Selected candidates will then participate in a technical exercise to showcase their skills and comfort level. This exercise allows you to experience what it’s like to work with us and supports candidates who may not have the “right title” but possess the necessary experience and knowledge.

How We Work: Transparency, Ownership, and Impact

We strive for a better balance than traditional freelancing or full-time employment. garden3d is different:

• Transparency & Ownership: We share our Profit & Loss statements, open-source our best ideas, and discuss business and finances openly with our team.
• 150% Carbon Negative: We offset 150% of our carbon footprint, dating back to our founding in 2015, and prioritize ethical work. We are a certified climate neutral company.
• Strong Morals: We’ve turned down projects that don’t align with our values.
• Async & Decentralized: We favor asynchronous communication and protect our focus time.
• Remote Friendly: We embrace remote work to create a decentralized and democratized workplace.
• Ideas & Products: We build our own open-source or internal products to diversify our income.

Learn more on our Substack and Medium.

Ready to Join Us?

Showcase your skills by adding a Loom recording to your profile in our application form!

Please click this important link to proceed with your application and tell us about your interest in the role.

To show you’ve read the entire job post, please mention the word ENDORSES and tag RNjYuMjkuMTQ2LjE4MA== (#RNjYuMjkuMTQ2LjE4MA==) in your application.