Data Engineer - AI Semantic Analytics

Data Engineer - AI Semantic Analytics

It takes powerful technology to connect our brands and partners with an audience of hundreds of millions of people. Whether you’re looking to write mobile app code, engineer the servers behind our massive ad tech stacks, or develop algorithms to help us process trillions of data points a day, what you do here will have a huge impact on our business—and the world.

A Little About Us:

The Yahoo Consumer Data Team manages a petabyte-scale data ecosystem that powers insights across Yahoo’s media products and drives improvements to user engagement and experience. We partner across multiple organizations at Yahoo to translate data into meaningful product impact.

Our team is evolving how data is accessed and consumed by moving toward semantic analytics and natural language-driven insights that enable faster, more intuitive decision-making. Your work will directly influence product strategy and help modernize how teams interact with data at scale. Along the way, you’ll collaborate with talented engineers and analysts while contributing to innovation at one of the internet’s pioneering companies.

Summary:

We are seeking an entry-level Data Engineer with a strong interest in semantic analytics, AI-assisted querying, and natural language interfaces over large-scale data systems.

This role will begin as a customer-facing analytics position, where you will work directly with internal stakeholders to translate business questions into structured data insights using semantic layers and natural language query frameworks built on top of BigQuery or MCP services. As you grow in the role, you will transition into more backend-focused responsibilities, helping design and optimize the semantic layer, query orchestration services, and data infrastructure that power these experiences.

The ideal candidate is curious about AI-driven analytics workflows, enjoys working closely with business partners, and is eager to build modern data access systems that bridge natural language and large-scale data platforms.

Responsibilities:

• Partner directly with internal stakeholders to gather analytical requirements and translate business questions into actionable data insights.
• Leverage semantic analytics frameworks and MCP services to enable natural language queries against BigQuery datasets.
• Develop, test, and optimize SQL queries and semantic models that support scalable and reliable analytics workflows.
• Contribute to the design and refinement of metadata layers, data dictionaries, and query abstractions to improve usability and consistency.
• Support the development of AI-assisted analytics workflows that integrate tools such as Claude, Copilot, Cursor, or similar coding assistants.
• Monitor data accuracy, performance, and reliability across analytics pipelines and query services.
• Collaborate with data engineers and platform teams to improve backend systems powering semantic query services.
• Assist in automating reporting and insight generation using modern BI and AI-enhanced tools.
• Troubleshoot query performance issues and improve cost efficiency within BigQuery environments.
• Stay current on best practices in AI-driven analytics, semantic data modeling, and cloud data infrastructure.

Qualifications:

• BS in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• Strong interest in AI-driven analytics, semantic data layers, and modern data access patterns.
• Familiarity with SQL and cloud data warehouses such as BigQuery (or equivalent platforms like Snowflake/Redshift).
• Understanding of data modeling principles and structured analytics workflows.
• Exposure to AI-assisted development tools such as Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar is highly desirable.
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Comfortable in a customer-facing or stakeholder-facing role with clear communication skills.
• Curiosity and willingness to grow from analytics support into backend data engineering work.

The material job duties and responsibilities of this role include those listed above as well as adhering to Yahoo policies; exercising sound judgment; working effectively, safely and inclusively with others; exhibiting trustworthiness and meeting expectations; and safeguarding business operations and brand integrity.

At Yahoo, we offer flexible hybrid work options that our employees love! While most roles don’t require regular office attendance, you may occasionally be asked to attend in-person events or team sessions. You’ll always get notice to make arrangements. Your recruiter will let you know if a specific job requires regular attendance at a Yahoo office or facility. If you have any questions about how this applies to the role, just ask the recruiter!

Yahoo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, gender, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected category. Yahoo will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. Yahoo is dedicated to providing an accessible environment for all candidates during the application process and for employees during their employment. If you need accessibility assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability, please submit a request via the Accommodation Request Form (www.yahooinc.com/careers/contact-us.html) or call +1.866.772.3182. Requests and calls received for non-disability related issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

We believe that a diverse and inclusive workplace strengthens Yahoo and deepens our relationships. When you support everyone to be their best selves, they spark discovery, innovation and creativity. Among other efforts, our 11 employee resource groups (ERGs) enhance a culture of belonging with programs, events and fellowship that help educate, support and create a workplace where all feel welcome.

The compensation for this position ranges from $76,500.00 - $159,375.00/yr and will vary depending on factors such as your location, skills and experience.The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary annual bonus or commissions. Our comprehensive benefits include healthcare, a great 401k, backup childcare, education stipends and much (much) more.

Currently work for Yahoo? Please apply on our internal career site.

Key skills/competency:

• Data Engineering
• AI Semantic Analytics
• Natural Language Processing
• SQL
• BigQuery
• Cloud Data Warehousing
• Data Modeling
• Stakeholder Management
• Python (implied)
• Problem-Solving