Data Migration Specialist (3 Months Contract)

Monolith AI is seeking a talented Software Developer for an intensive 3-month migration project

transitioning existing client environments to our next-generation platform. This role requires a

developer who excels at rapidly understanding undocumented systems, extracting clarity from

complex database structures, and building practical migration tooling in Python. You'll work closely

with our 15-person technical team (currently doubling), collaborating extensively with Customer

Success and Product to ensure migrations meet defined business requirements while maintaining

high velocity.

Primary Responsibilities

• Rapid System Understanding
• Quickly grasp existing PostgreSQL database schemas through code inspection, team

discussions, and reverse engineering

• Understand new platform database architecture and how legacy data maps to the new

structure

• Work with pickle files and S3 object storage to understand serialized data structures
• Extract clarity from poorly documented legacy systems through hands-on

investigation

• Cross-Functional Requirements Gathering
• Collaborate with Customer Success to understand client migration requirements and

acceptance criteria

• Partner with Product team to define and iterate on what constitutes acceptable

migration outcomes

• Balance technical constraints with business needs to establish pragmatic migration

standards

• Clarify ambiguous requirements and drive decisions on edge cases and trade-offs
• Product Context & Impact Analysis Understand how database entries and S3-stored objects drive UI behavior and user

workflows

• Work with the existing team to learn system behavior through discussions and

knowledge transfer

• Identify how legacy data structures distribute across new platform tables and storage
• Migration Tool Development
• Build Python migration scripts to convert legacy notebooks to the new platform

format

• Work with Flask and FastAPI layers to understand API interactions and data flow
• Handle pickle file deserialization and data transformation logic
• Implement validation against defined Customer Success requirements (not 100%

data integrity)

• Velocity & Communication Management

• Maintain rapid project pace with tight 3-month timeline

• Provide frequent progress updates to the tech lead on development speed and

blockers

• Proactively communicate risks, timeline concerns, and decision points

• Make pragmatic technical decisions that balance quality with delivery speed

• Testing & Validation Against Requirements

• Test migration outputs against Customer Success acceptance criteria

• Validate migrated notebooks meet defined business requirements

• Identify and communicate gaps between migration output and requirements for

product decisions

• Process Documentation & Knowledge Transfer

• Document the migration process, key decisions, and data mapping logic

• Create runbooks for executing migrations and handling common issues

• Transfer knowledge primarily through discussions with the existing team

• Prepare materials enabling team to execute and troubleshoot migrations post-contract

Key Performance Indicators

• Migration Meets Defined Requirements Deliver migrations that satisfy Customer Success acceptance criteria

• Successfully validate migrated notebooks against agreed-upon business requirements

• Project Timeline Adherence

• Meet aggressive 3-month delivery timeline for functional migration tooling

• Maintain high velocity while communicating openly about progress with tech lead

• Effective Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Successfully partner with Customer Success and Product to clarify and iterate on

migration criteria

• Drive timely decisions on requirements and edge cases to avoid project delays

• Code Quality & Maintainability

• Produce clean, maintainable Python code that the team can support post-contract

• Create clear documentation enabling team execution of migration processes

• Communication & Knowledge Transfer

• Provide consistent progress updates and flag blockers early

• Successfully transfer migration knowledge to existing team through discussions and

documentation

Do you have experience in Software development?, * 3+ years of professional software development experience

• 2+ years working with Python in production environments
• Experience working with PostgreSQL databases and complex data structures
• Demonstrated ability to reverse engineer and understand undocumented systems
• Previous work in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments

Technical Skills* Programming:

Strong Python proficiency including handling pickle files, data processing,

and object serialization

• Databases: Solid understanding of PostgreSQL including complex data structures,

relationships, and schema interpretation

• APIs: Familiarity with Flask and/or FastAPI frameworks and RESTful API concepts
• Cloud Storage: Experience with S3 or similar object storage services for reading/writing

data

• System Investigation: Ability to read and understand existing codebases to extract system

behavior

• Version Control: Proficiency with Git and collaborative development workflows

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with data migration or system modernization projects
• Background working with legacy systems or technical debt remediation
• Familiarity with Jupyter notebooks or similar computational environments
• Previous contract or consulting roles requiring rapid onboarding
• Experience in startup or scale-up environments with evolving requirements
• Knowledge of data serialization formats and their trade-offs
• Prior work extracting understanding from poorly documented codebases
• Experience balancing technical perfection with business pragmatism

Necessary Soft Skills

Communication Excellence

• Critical for this role: Exceptional verbal communication for knowledge transfer through

discussions

• Clear articulation of technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders (Customer Success,

Product)

• Proactive in providing progress updates and surfacing blockers to tech lead
• Comfortable driving conversations to clarify ambiguous requirements and make decisions
• Strong active listening skills for extracting knowledge from existing team members

Rapid Learning & System Investigation

• Ability to quickly understand complex, undocumented systems through code inspection and

experimentation

• Comfortable with ambiguity and extracting clarity from incomplete information
• Pattern recognition for understanding how disparate code and data relate to system behavior
• Resourceful problem-solver who can piece together understanding from multiple sources

Velocity & Pragmatism

• Thrives in fast-paced environments with tight deadlines (3-month delivery window)
• Makes practical trade-offs between thoroughness and speed appropriately
• Knows when "good enough" meets requirements vs. when additional rigor is needed
• Self-directed with strong bias toward action and delivery

Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

• Partners effectively with Customer Success to understand business requirements
• Works iteratively with Product to define acceptable migration outcomes
• Team player who actively engages with tech lead and existing engineers
• Builds relationships quickly to facilitate knowledge transfer

Adaptability & Ownership

• Comfortable with evolving requirements and criteria as project progresses
• Takes full ownership of deliverables despite short contract timeline
• Flexible in approach when new information changes understanding
• Maintains composure and productivity in dynamic, growing organization (team doubling)

Results-Oriented Mindset

• Focuses on meeting defined business requirements rather than technical perfection
• Prioritizes work that directly impacts migration success and timeline
• Transparent about what's achievable within timeline constraints
• Accountable for commitments and proactive when risks emerge

Key Challenges in This Role

• Extracting Understanding from Undocumented Legacy System
• Must rapidly reverse engineer and understand complex PostgreSQL schemas and S3

object structures with limited documentation, requiring strong investigative skills

and ability to learn through code inspection and team discussions

• Balancing Speed with Quality in Tight Timeline
• Two-month delivery window requires making pragmatic decisions about what to

build vs. what to defer, while ensuring migrations meet Customer Success

requirements-demands constant communication with tech lead about velocity and

trade-offs

• Navigating Requirements Through Multiple Stakeholders
• Must work with Customer Success to understand business needs, Product to define

acceptance criteria, and engineering to understand technical constraints-all while

maintaining project momentum and driving timely decisions on edge cases