AST SpaceMobile is building the first and only global cellular broadband network in space to operate directly with standard, unmodified mobile devices based on our extensive IP and patent portfolio and designed for both commercial and government applications. Our engineers and space scientists are on a mission to eliminate the connectivity gaps faced by today’s five billion mobile subscribers and finally bring broadband to the billions who remain unconnected.
Position Overview
We are seeking a Data Engineer to build and operate the data platform spanning both network/operational (OSS) and business/commercial data. The person in this role asks what can be learned from the data our network produces, and who else, internally or at external partners, needs governed access to it.
You will own ingestion, storage, transformation, and serving for data ranging from raw network level telemetry streams to SLA/KPI reporting, whole-sale usage and settlements. The role combines real streaming-engineering depth with the judgment to keep network operational data and derived commercial data properly governed as they converge onto a single platform.
Key Responsibilities:
- Build, develop and deploy data ingestion & streaming pipelines – Apache Flink, CDC-based ingestion, AWS Glue Schema Registry, in-stream validation and dead-letter handling
- Design and maintain raw, curated, and served data layers, balancing query performance (Athena/Redshift) against storage cost and freshness requirements
- Manage table maintenance, compaction, and partitioning strategy as data volume grows
- Build and maintain SQL transformations from curated to served layers, including dimensional models that join multiple sources of data
- Work on schema design for new data domains, translating target data models into working ingestion and transformation logic
- Implement data quality testing covering freshness, completeness, and schema conformance across every pipeline
- Build and maintain the BI/serving layer for internal stakeholders (dashboards, ad hoc query access, periodic reports)
- Lay the data foundation, clean, governed, well-modeled datasets, for AI/ML use cases (capacity forecasting, predictive maintenance) without necessarily owning the models themselves
- Maintain clear documentation of data models, pipeline architecture, and governance controls for both internal and partner-facing datasets
- Engage with other internal teams to clarify requirements, validate assumptions, and ensure delivered data outputs and artifacts satisfy their needs
Qualifications
Education:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field - or equivalent professional experience.
Experience:
A minimum of 4+ years of professional experience in data engineering, combining streaming and batch pipeline development, ideally including exposure to both operational/telemetry data and business/commercial data.
- Production experience with Apache Flink or an equivalent stream-processing engine, including CDC-based ingestion
- Hands-on experience with table formats such as Apache Iceberg or Delta Lake, and AWS Glue Data Catalog
- Strong SQL and hands-on experience for building tested, versioned transformation pipelines
- Experience with Protobuf and schema registries, and handling schema evolution without breaking downstream consumers
- Experience operating Apache Airflow for batch pipeline scheduling
- Working knowledge of S3, Glue, MSK, IAM, Athena/Redshift
- Experience implementing access control and data protection for datasets with mixed sensitivity levels (operational vs. commercial data)
- Proficiency in Python for pipeline tooling and glue code
- English proficiency at B2 level or above; able to collaborate effectively with peers and architects in a globally distributed team
Soft Skills:
- Comfortable being the seam between operational telemetry and business data, two domains that rarely share the same people or tooling
- High ownership of data correctness for systems this role doesn’t operate, staying accountable to what the data says even when the underlying system belongs to another team
- Clear communicator across analysts, architects, and partner-facing stakeholders with very different technical vocabularies
- Proactive and self-directed in identifying where data quality or access-control gaps could cause real problems before they do
Technology Stack:
- Apache Flink, Kafka/Protobuf (AWS MSK)
- Amazon S3, Apache Iceberg, AWS Glue Data Catalog
- Amazon Athena, Amazon Redshift
- Apache Airflow, dbt, AWS Glue Schema Registry
- OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana
- SQL, Python
- Git, Azure DevOps CI
Physical Requirements
- Ability to work in a standard office or remote home-office environment and use a computer for extended periods
- Ability to participate in occasional after-hours incident response actions
This job description may not be inclusive to the duties and responsibilities listed. Additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time or the scope of the job may change as needed by business demands.
AST SpaceMobile is an Equal Opportunity, at will Employer; employment is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
