Senior Back-End Engineer: Data

About the role

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 Senior 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

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.

Posting text as published by Helm Health.

The evidence behind this listing

Workplace

Remote Employer field

Seniority

senior From the job title

Employment type

full time

Location as listed

Remote, US

Technology

pythonsqlpostgresqlbigquerydockerkubernetesgoogle cloud platformdbt

Pay and work authorization

Stated pay

$150k–225k/yr Employer field

Visa sponsorship

Not stated

Security clearance

Not required

Citizenship

Not required