Staff Back-End Engineer: Data

About Helm Health

Helm is a Series A start-up transforming health insurance with "Dynamic Copay" – a new insurance plan that lets members see simple, upfront prices for all medical care before making decisions. Our team is building the infrastructure to power these plans for health insurance payors. With Helm, our clients offer simpler health plans to their members, helping them navigate to higher-value care.

Our team has specialized in Dynamic Copay solutions since 2020, and Helm is the only independent platform in the market. We have grown rapidly since our launch, working with clients from local health plans to the nation's largest health insurers. The market is forming around us, making it an exciting time to join!

Role Overview

We're seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to join our Data team. You'll work alongside our Principal Data Engineer to build and improve the automated systems that power our data infrastructure — pipelines, data quality, integrations, and internal tooling that make the rest of the engineering org more effective.

Responsibilies

• Design and build automated data pipelines and ETL/ELT processes
• Improve data quality, validation, and monitoring across production systems
• Build internal tooling that accelerates engineering workflows and reduces manual data operations
• Work across PostgreSQL and BigQuery to optimize storage, query performance, and data modeling
• Collaborate with engineering teams across the org to understand data needs and build scalable solutions
• Participate in code reviews and architecture discussions
• Contribute to the on-call rotation for data systems
• Support data governance and access control practices to ensure compliance with HIPAA and other regulatory requirements across data systems
• Maintain clear documentation for data pipelines, schemas, and system dependencies to support team knowledge sharing and operational continuity
• Experience with dbt (data build tool) or similar SQL-based transformation frameworks

Requirements

• 5+ years in backend or data engineering
• Strong Python proficiency
• Strong SQL skills, particularly in PostgreSQL and BigQuery
• Experience designing and maintaining automated data pipelines
• Experience with data quality frameworks, validation, and monitoring
• Docker/Kubernetes
• Google Cloud Platform

Preferred Qualifications

• Go proficiency
• Experience with additional data stores at scale (CouchDB, CockroachDB, or similar)
• Health insurance or claims processing experience
• Terraform/Terraform Cloud
• Incident management and response experience
• Start-up experience

Characteristics

• Self-directed and comfortable working across systems to find and fix data problems
• Mission-driven — motivated by making healthcare simpler and more transparent
• Willing to ask questions and admit what you don't know
• Systems thinker — you see how data flows through an organization and instinctively look for ways to make it better

Internal Tools/Technology

• Cursor / Linear / GitHub / Notion / Whimsical
• Slack / Google Workspace / Zoom
• incident.io / Sentry
• Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini — we are an AI-forward engineering team
• macOS / Linux

Compensation

The target base salary range for this position is $150,000 - $225,000 and is part of a competitive total rewards package including equity and benefits. Individual pay may vary from the target range and is determined by several factors, including experience, skills, location, internal pay equity, and other relevant business considerations.

Benefits/Offerings

• Base salary + bonus + equity
• Unlimited PTO (mandatory 12 days)
• Computer + home office stipend
• 401(k) + matching
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Autonomy and tons of room for career growth

Occasional Travel

We meet quarterly as a company.

Please note that this is a fully remote opportunity.