Staff Data Engineer

Kin is redesigning insurance to be smarter, faster, and centered on the customer. We use intelligent pricing, offer seamless bundling, and make every step (from purchasing, servicing to claims) simple and friction-free, especially in the places traditional insurers often ignore.

We empower people to protect what matters most, starting with their homes and expanding to all they value, in a world where climate risks, rising costs, and outdated systems leave too many behind. Our approach has fostered amazing growth, attracted marquee investors, and earned us accolades, including being named to:

• Built In Chicago's Best Places to Work, Midsize Companies (2021-2025).

• Forbes' America's Best Startup Employers (2021- 2024, Ranked #37 in 2024).

• Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

• Forbes’ Fintech 50.

Simply put, our people are what make us great – we need forward-thinking, inspired game-changers like you to join us in our mission.

As a Staff Data Engineer, you will be the technical lead for your team–ensuring the quality, integrity, and security of their data assets while taking on the more complex and ambiguous challenges. You’ll be responsible for building out a data lakehouse for enterprise reporting, which will involve the design and development of production-ready data pipelines, modeling raw data for downstream reporting, and quality assurance of the data warehouse. 

You’ll be the technical lead for your data engineering team, while serving as a technical driver on cross-functional project teams with members from AppEng, DataEng, BI, and Kin’s business. You’ll help to unblock teammates struggling with ambiguous or technical challenges, and offer mentorship and guidance. You’ll design solutions to produce effective reporting. You’ll implement data validation and QA best practices to ensure effective and scalable data lifecycle and management practices.  This involves:

• Designing and developing scalable data pipelines and models for downstream analytics and reporting

• Leading and collaborating with a cross-functional project team to implement data validation, QA standards, and effective data lifecycle management

• Optimizing pipeline performance, cost, and data quality in a large-scale data environment

• Migrating data warehouse (DBT, Redshift) architecture to Lakehouse (e.g: S3, Glue, Databricks, Unity catalog) architecture

• Mentoring data engineers and promoting best practices in software engineering, documentation, and metadata management

• Ensuring data security and compliance with regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, GLBA) through robust pipeline design and access monitoring

• Translating ambiguous business requirements into technical solutions using marketing domain knowledge
  

• 7+ years of hands-on data engineering experience related to:

  • Data structures and cloud platform environments and best practices (AWS strongly preferred, Azure, or GCP)

  • ETL performance tuning and cost optimization

  • Data lake and lakehouse patterns including open table formats (e.g. Iceberg, Hudi, Delta)

• Proficiency in Python (Pandas, NumPy, etc.) and SQL for advanced data processing and querying

• Experience influencing technical strategy, optimizing systems for scale, and reviewing team designs

• Expertise in distributed data processing/storage (e.g., Apache Spark, Kafka, Hadoop, or similar)

• Excellent communication skills and ability to explain complex concepts clearly and concisely

• Detail-oriented with strong data intuition and a passion for data quality

• Proven ability to model data and build production-ready ETL pipelines handling TBs of data.

• Great time management and prioritization skills
  

• You want to work on cutting-edge data solutions in a high-impact, regulated industry

• You enjoy leading and collaborating with talented teams to solve complex problems and drive business outcomes

• You want to learn from and mentor team members in a dynamic, growth-oriented environment with opportunities to innovate

• You value making a real world impact on people’s lives through the use of data and technology

• You’re outcome oriented, as well collaborative. Taking ownership and prioritizing key outcomes is important, but so is taking an emotionally intelligent approach to working with others.
  

• You are uncomfortable with ambiguity or unclear requirements. We solve a lot of new problems where requirements are not well defined. 

• You would rather avoid start-up environments where processes may not be well-defined. Change is a way of life at Kin. We’re still establishing some of our processes and evolving how we manage data. 

• You see perfection as the only option. We move fast, and we make mistakes. We learn and grow through experimentation and mistakes. While we hold ourselves to high standards, we don’t demand perfection.

• You keep to yourself. We have a collaborative culture where we solve problems together, learn from, and support each other. You’re part of a team here at Kin.
  

We offer a comprehensive benefits program, allowing you to choose the benefits that are best for you and your family including: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance and Disability Insurance options, Employee Assistance Program, as well as elective voluntary benefits such as accident insurance, hospital indemnity, critical illness, legal assistance and pet insurance. Kinfolk become eligible for benefits on the first day of the month following their start date.

In addition to these benefits, we also are excited to offer the following:

• Competitive salary and company equity through Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), granted as part of our standard compensation package and based on role and level.

• 401K with company match of up to 4% of eligible earnings

• Flexible PTO for exempt employees (employees typically take 15-20 days annually), along with 8 company-observed holidays

• A paid parental leave program that provides 100% salary continuation of up to 14 weeks for birthing parents and 8 weeks for non birthing parents

• Continuing education and professional development opportunities

For Sales Agents and Customer Service Agents: These roles sit in any of the following 30 states: AL, AZ, CO, FL, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, and WI.

For all other positions, these roles can sit in any of the following 40 states: AL, AR, AZ, CA (exempt only), CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, and WI. Please only apply if you are able to live and work full-time in one of the states listed above.

State locations and specifics are subject to change as our hiring requirements shift.

Kin is the only pure-play, direct-to-consumer digital insurer focused on the growing home insurance market. We make policies convenient and affordable through a technology platform that delivers a seamless user experience, customized options for coverage, and fast, high-quality claims service. Kin is a fully licensed carrier that offers coverage through its reciprocal exchanges which are owned by its policyholders. To learn more, visit www.kin.com.

Kin is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We don't just accept difference – we honor it, nurture it, and celebrate it. We don’t discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.