Data Engineer

Cognition is hiring a Data Engineer in San Francisco, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Cognition.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this data engineer role Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
Tools and skills the posting cites include Cursor and Devin.
Level lists 104 other open roles at Cognition.

AI in this role

cursordevin

We are an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents.

We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer.

Our team is extremely talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro.

Building Devin is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks, apply to join us.

About the Role

We're hiring a technical Data Engineer to own our full data stack – from database architecture and pipelines to instrumenting telemetry and owning integrations and reporting. You'll design and maintain the systems that keep our data reliable, accessible, and actionable across the company. There are multiple openings across various teams: GTM, Core Product, and Finance.

In this role you will:

Design and manage database architecture and data models
Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines and orchestration workflows
Create and manage new data integrations across internal and external systems
Own business reporting: datasets, dashboards, metrics, and self-serve analytics
Ensure data quality, observability, governance, and documentation

Requirements for the role:

4+ years in a data engineering, data science, or full-stack data role
Expert on SQL and Python (required)
Experience with data modeling, warehouse architecture, and BI-oriented schema design
Hands-on experience with ETL/ELT tools (dbt, Airflow, Dagster, etc.)
Experience building or maintaining BI reporting (Metabase a plus)
Experience developing scalable backend heavy applications
Strong knowledge of statistics and experimentation
Based in SF or NYC

Our Commitment

Equal Opportunity. Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any. Cognition also considers applicants with criminal histories consistent with the SF Fair Chance Ordinance and similar local laws.

Data Privacy and Arbitration: By submitting your application, you agree to our Global Applicant and Job Candidate Privacy Notice. For US applicants, by submitting your application, you agree to the Applicant Arbitration Agreement.

How we rate this

Data Engineer at Cognition rates 67 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Data Engineer is an open job at Cognition.
Level rates this role AI Level 3 of 4: Works on AI.
The role is based in San Francisco.
The job was posted on November 26, 2025.
Applications are handled by Cognition. Apply on Cognition

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

CursorDevin

Also common in data engineer jobs at this level

AWS Spark Machine learning Databricks Azure Snowflake

Pay

Typical data engineer job: $150k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical data engineer figure when pay comes up. See data engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

What's a project where you used Cursor hands-on?
Walk me through how you've used Devin in your day-to-day work.
Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Cursor and Devin. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

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