Data Engineer

We’re looking for a Data Engineer who can build and scale the infrastructure powering our data platform, with a strong foundation in distributed systems and cloud-native tooling. You’ll design and operate the pipelines that move, process, and prepare multi-terabyte and streaming datasets - including audio and video - for Reality Defender’s detection models, and you’ll work closely with ML engineers and researchers to keep that data flowing reliably at scale. Responsibilities include:

• Design, build, and operate large-scale data processing pipelines handling multi-terabyte and streaming datasets, including audio/video transcoding, feature extraction, and preprocessing workflows.
• Deploy, scale, and troubleshoot containerized workloads on Kubernetes and AWS in production environments.
• Build and maintain distributed data processing jobs using frameworks such as Spark and Ray.
• Design and operate workflow orchestration systems (e.g., Airflow) with dependency management, retries, monitoring, and alerting for production pipelines.
• Administer and tune enterprise databases, including performance tuning, backup/recovery, access control, and scaling strategies.
• Partner with ML engineers and researchers to support training pipelines, model retraining triggers, feature stores, and other MLOps workflows.

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and AWS, including deploying, scaling, and troubleshooting containerized workloads in production environments.
• Proficiency with high-performance/distributed computing frameworks such as Spark and Ray for processing large-scale datasets.
• Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Airflow (or comparable systems like Dagster, Prefect, or Luigi) to schedule and manage complex data pipelines.
• Strong programming skills in Python and SQL; experience with Golang is a plus.
• Demonstrated track record building and operating large-scale data processing pipelines, ideally handling multi-terabyte or streaming datasets.
• Experience working with audio or video data at scale is a strong plus (e.g., transcoding, feature extraction, or preprocessing pipelines).
• Familiarity with common data transformation patterns applied to large datasets (ETL/ELT, batch and stream processing, data validation and quality checks).
• Experience designing and maintaining job orchestration systems, including dependency management, retries, monitoring, and alerting for production pipelines.
• Bonus: experience orchestrating machine learning workflows (training pipelines, model retraining triggers, feature stores, or MLOps tooling).

Pulled from the full job description

• Parental leave
• 401(k)
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance
• Health savings account
• Dental insurance, * Healthcare plans with 100% premium coverage for employees and partial coverage available for dependents
• Dental and Vision plans with 100% premium coverage for employees and their dependents
• Short/Long-term disability and life insurance plans with 100% premium coverage for employees
• FSA/HSA and 401k programs
• Equity compensation
• 20 days of PTO per year
• 12 weeks of Parental Leave
• Learning and Development budget
• Monthly wellness benefits
• Annual company-sponsored offsite

For employees working from Reality Defender’s HQ in NYC, we offer the following benefits:

• Daily in-office lunch through UberEats
• Commuter benefits
• Remote Fridays
• Happy Hours and other local events

Compensation Range: $140K - $180K

Reality Defender is an award-winning cybersecurity company helping enterprises and governments detect deepfakes and AI-generated media. Utilizing a patented multi-model approach, Reality Defender is robust against the bleeding edge of generative platforms producing video, audio, imagery, and text media. Reality Defender’s API-first deepfake detection platform empowers teams and developers alike to identify fraud, disinformation campaigns, and harmful deepfakes in real time.

Backed by world class investors including DCVC, Illuminate Financial, Y Combinator, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Accenture, Rackhouse, and Argon VC, Reality Defender works with leading enterprise clients, financial institutions, and governments in order to ensure AI-generated media is not used for malicious purposes.