Fora Financial

Role Description Fora Financial is at an inflection point, modernizing our legacy stack to build the foundation for AI-native analytics. To lead this effort, we are hiring a Staff Data Engineer to build and own the platform backbone for governed reporting and trusted AI workflows. This is a hands-on Staff IC role on a small Data & AI team. You will make strategic architecture calls—from ingestion patterns and Snowflake design to data contracts and SLAs—and then get into the weeds to build, harden, or rebuild pipelines. We are looking for a systems thinker who understands business impact and operational burden, and who can partner closely with Analytics, Engineering, and vendors to turn fragmented source systems into trustworthy data products. What you will own - Architecture & Strategy - Data platform architecture: ingestion patterns, warehouse design, environment strategy, orchestration, access governance, and reliability standards. - Freshness strategy: deciding which data needs real-time, near-real-time, daily, or ad hoc refreshes — and designing accordingly. - Streaming vs. batch decisions: making pragmatic tradeoffs across business value, cost, complexity, failure modes, and operational burden. - Execution & Reliability - Source ingestion: batch, incremental, API-based, file-based, CDC, and streaming patterns where they make sense. - Pipeline reliability: dependencies, retries, alerts, backfills, incident response, runbooks, monitoring, and support expectations. - New source onboarding: requirements → source profiling → ingestion design → QA → documentation → support ownership. - Legacy migration: helping retire brittle reporting paths such as Azure Data Factory, SQL backup workflows, TRS Daily, and other duplicate pipelines. - Governance & Quality - Snowflake platform operations: roles, permissions, service accounts, connector ownership, environment separation, performance, cost, and governance. - Data contracts: schema-change handling, new-field availability, upstream SLAs, source defects, and escalation paths. - Data quality and observability: freshness, volume movement, nulls, duplicates, reconciliation, anomaly detection, and critical business-rule checks. - AI-enabled leverage: using AI and automation to improve debugging, documentation, pipeline scaffolding, testing, monitoring, and operational workflows. Qualifications - Deep data engineering judgment: You have designed, built, and operated production platforms, not just individual pipelines. - Hands-on depth: You seamlessly move from architecture discussions to Python, SQL, deployment scripts, and production debugging. - Strong ingestion fundamentals: APIs, CDC, backfills, idempotency, schema drift, and failure recovery. - Snowflake fluency: Warehouse design, RBAC, performance tuning, and cost controls. - Data quality discipline: You know which checks matter and make quality visible before users find issues. - Independent ownership & communication: You can sequence ambiguous work, write useful design docs, align technical decisions with business outcomes, and carry problems to resolution. - AI-native leverage: You actively use LLMs and agents to accelerate engineering work without outsourcing judgment. Nice to have - Lending, fintech, or financial-services data experience. - CDC, Debezium, Fivetran, Airbyte, Azure Data Factory, dbt Cloud, Dagster, Airflow, Prefect, or equivalent tooling. - Snowflake performance tuning, RBAC, data sharing, warehouse cost optimization, or Iceberg. - Data observability with Monte Carlo, Elementary, dbt tests, custom monitors, or similar. - Data contracts, source SLAs, or schema-change processes with Engineering teams. - AI-native analytics, semantic layers, MCP servers, agent QA, or governed context retrieval. - Lightweight internal tools, scripts, or agents that reduce repetitive platform work. Compensation and logistics - Base salary: $175,000–$200,000 - Fully remote within the US; Eastern or Central time zones preferred. - Reports to the VP of Data & AI. - Final compensation is based on scope of past ownership, technical judgment, and ability to set direction independently. Benefits - Company-subsidized medical, dental, and vision plans. - 401(k) plan with company match. - Life insurance at no cost to employees. - Generous time off plan, including rollover vacation days. - Health care and dependent care flexible spending accounts. - Commuter benefits. - Remote working model. - Weekly breakfast, snacks, and Friday lunches provided onsite.

• Build and own the platform backbone for governed reporting and trusted AI workflows. • Make strategic architecture calls and build, harden, or rebuild pipelines. • Partner closely with Analytics, Engineering, and vendors to turn fragmented source systems into trustworthy data products. • Ensure our data infrastructure integrates securely and reliably with core operational systems. • Handle requirements, source profiling, ingestion design, QA, documentation, and support for data integrations. • Manage dependencies, retries, alerts, incident response, and monitoring for pipeline reliability. • Help retire brittle reporting paths and manage Snowflake governance, data contracts, and data observability.

• dbt at Fora: project structure, conventions, CI/CD, tests, contracts, documentation, and performance. • Data models across bronze, silver, and gold layers. • The semantic layer (dbt MetricFlow or equivalent): metric definitions, dimensions, governance, and adoption. • Production operation of the transformation layer: jobs, dependencies, failures, retries, alerts, environments, and release hygiene. • Python tooling for validation, dbt utilities, lightweight automation, and integrations. • Data quality, test coverage, and observability for modeled tables. • Partnership with Risk & Analytics to formalize business metrics currently spread across SQL, Tableau, and analyst knowledge.

Role Description We are seeking an Application Support Engineer to provide front-line and advanced application support for our proprietary loan management platform. This role is internal customer-focused and centers on diagnosing, troubleshooting, and resolving application and system issues while delivering a high-quality support experience. The Application Support Engineer will work closely with users, product, and engineering teams to ensure timely resolution of incidents and continuous improvement of our support processes in a modern, cloud-based environment. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship. All applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the US. Key Responsibilities - Serve as a primary point of contact for technical application support, working directly with users to identify, diagnose, and resolve issues. - Triage incoming support cases, determine severity and impact, and manage issues through resolution. - Troubleshoot application issues across the full support stack, including user workflows, web browsers, application services, and databases. - Provide hands-on support for web browser-related issues, including cache/cookie problems, compatibility issues, and use of browser developer tools. - Investigate and resolve data issues using SQL Server, including writing SQL queries to analyze and correct data discrepancies. - Support and troubleshoot applications built on the .NET (C#) framework, focusing on issue resolution rather than feature development. - Monitor, investigate, and document application issues within Azure cloud environments. - Use Azure DevOps to log, track, and update incidents, defects, and support-related work items. - Escalate complex issues to engineering teams with clear documentation, reproduction steps, and technical findings. - Validate fixes and communicate resolution updates clearly to users. - Support application releases by assisting with smoke testing, post-deployment validation, and user communications. - Create and maintain support documentation, runbooks, and knowledge base articles. - Manage multiple active support cases while meeting response and resolution expectations. Qualifications - 3+ years of experience in technical support, application support, or production support roles. - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent professional experience. - Excellent customer service and communication skills, with the ability to explain technical issues in clear, user-friendly language. - Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail. - Ability to remain calm, organized, and effective while handling multiple issues and priorities. - Collaborative mindset and comfort working closely with engineering and product teams. - Experience working in an Agile or fast-paced support environment is a plus. Requirements - Strong experience supporting applications built with .NET / C#. - Working knowledge of Microsoft Azure cloud platforms, with experience supporting cloud-hosted applications. - Experience using Azure DevOps for incident tracking, issue management, and collaboration with engineering teams. - Proficiency with SQL Server, including writing and executing SQL queries for troubleshooting and data correction. - Strong understanding of web technologies and practical experience troubleshooting modern web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari). - Familiarity with application logging, monitoring, and basic performance troubleshooting. Benefits - Competitive Base Salary- $70,000 - $100,000 based on experience.

• Participate in product management lifecycle process including technical requirements, success criteria, product implementation and launch. • Own and manage assigned product/project initiatives and issues/bugs addressing prioritization as well as any contentions. • Works closely with Business, Product, and Technology stakeholders for prototyping and technical development and delivery of products, understanding how new product ideas will leverage the capabilities of the company’s proprietary technology platform. • Perform as Product Owner for Agile Sprint delivery, managing requirements, acceptance criteria, stakeholder signoffs, and prioritization of user stories as well as bugs/issues. • Responsible for BAU Ops enhancements, analysis, issues prioritization as well as requirements management. • Responsible for business requirements gathering/management, throughout the entire agile delivery lifecycle, and conveying to technical resources for implementation. • Involved with elicitation, organization, translation, of both business level and functional requirements. Probing and challenging stakeholders to get to the right level of detail including identification of success criteria metrics. • Perform as product owner for a Sprint and Scrum team, prioritizing and managing backlog and grooming based upon Prioritization Committee decisions. • Confirm interpretation of requirements with stakeholders followed by user story communication and clarification for technology stakeholders. • Development and execution of independent verification and validation test cases and plans, as well as production-based operational acceptance testing. • Obtain Level of effort estimate from development engineering team, any resourcing contention, and communicate to Project Prioritization Committee. • Act as a liaison between key business stakeholders and technical resources. • Partner closely with project manager/scrum master.

• Participate in the product management lifecycle including technical requirements, success criteria, product implementation, and launch. • Own and manage assigned product and project initiatives and issues/bugs, addressing prioritization and contentions. • Work closely with Business, Product, and Technology stakeholders for prototyping, technical development, and delivery of products, ensuring new ideas leverage the company’s proprietary technology platform. • Perform as Product Owner for Agile sprint delivery, managing requirements, acceptance criteria, stakeholder signoffs, and prioritization of user stories, bugs, and issues. • Drive BAU operational enhancements, including analysis, issue prioritization, and ongoing requirements management. • Own business requirements gathering and management throughout the Agile delivery lifecycle and convey requirements clearly to technical resources for implementation. • Elicit, organize, and translate business-level and functional requirements while probing stakeholders to ensure appropriate detail and definition of success metrics. • Perform as Product Owner for a sprint and Scrum team, prioritizing and grooming the backlog based on Prioritization Committee decisions. • Confirm interpretation of requirements with stakeholders followed by clear user story communication and clarification for technology teams. • Develop and execute independent verification and validation test cases and plans, including production-based operational acceptance testing. • Obtain level-of-effort estimates from development engineering teams, manage resourcing contentions, and communicate updates to the Project Prioritization Committee. • Act as a liaison between key business stakeholders and technical resources. • Partner closely with the Project Manager / Scrum Master.

• Serve as a primary point of contact for technical application support. • Triage incoming support cases and manage issues through resolution. • Troubleshoot application issues across user workflows and databases. • Provide hands-on support for web browser-related issues. • Investigate and resolve data issues using SQL Server. • Monitor, investigate, and document application issues within Azure environments. • Use Azure DevOps to track incidents and defects. • Support application releases with testing and validation.