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About This Role
AI Data Engineer Senior Consultant
Position Summary
Our Deloitte Human Capital team transforms technology platforms, drives innovation, and helps make a significant impact on our clients' success. We are hiring an AI Engineer to build and operate the data, features, and GenAI foundations that power Human Capital AI products and analytics. You will work with an AI Data Engineer (data ingestion, curation, governance, platform foundations) and a Lead AI Solutions Architect (end\-to\-end solution architecture, integration patterns, non\-functional requirements), partnering closely with product, data science/ML, security, and platform engineering to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable AI solutions.
This role is hands\-on and delivery\-oriented: you will ship production pipelines and services that support model training, real\-time inference, and LLM applications using Claude\-, GPT/Codex\-, and Gemini\-class models, and more implemented with strong governance, observability, and cost/performance discipline.
Recruiting for this role ends on 08/30/2026\.
Work you'll do
As an AI Data Engineer Senior Consultant on the HC Forward team, you will be responsible for building and operating the governed data, feature, and retrieval foundations that support artificial intelligence, machine learning, and generative artificial intelligence solutions.
- Partner with the Lead AI Solutions Architect and AI Data Engineer to translate Human Capital product requirements into technical designs and delivered solutions, including application programming interfaces, services, pipelines, and containerized or serverless components
- Build and operationalize large language model\-enabled capabilities, including copilots, knowledge assistants, summarization, and policy question\-and\-answer solutions using secure endpoints, tool calling, and reusable prompt and context patterns
- Implement retrieval\-augmented generation patterns, including document ingestion, chunking, embeddings, vector or hybrid search, and retrieval and evaluation telemetry
- Deliver governed datasets and feature engineering and serving patterns for machine learning training and real\-time inference, including online and offline consistency, caching, latency targets, and backfills
- Implement privacy, access, quality, lineage, monitoring, observability, testing, deployment, and incident response practices for production artificial intelligence and data solutions
A successful candidate would possess these skills:
- Ability to work independently and collaborate as part of a team
- Effective written and verbal communication skills
- Meticulous attention to detail and quality of work product
- Ability to build and sustain professional relationships
- Ability to lead projects or workstreams
- Ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks in a fast\-paced and dynamic environment
- Strong interpersonal skills and professional demeanor
- Ability to meet deadlines
- Ability to provide clear guidance to others
The team
HC Forward is a dedicated innovation partner accelerating the future of Human Capital by building market\-aligned products, platforms, and services that apply AI, data, and engineering to modernize HR experiences and outcomes.
Qualifications
Required:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Data Science, or another STEM field
- 4\+ years of experience building and delivering large language model or generative artificial intelligence solutions using Claude\-, GPT\-, or Gemini\-class models, including prompt design, context design, tool calling, evaluation, and production integration
- 4\+ years of experience implementing retrieval\-augmented generation, document processing, embeddings, and vector or hybrid search in enterprise environments
- 4\+ years of experience in data engineering, including data modeling, batch or streaming pipelines, structured and unstructured data processing, and feature engineering
- 4\+ years of experience building production inference services and enterprise integrations using application programming interfaces, Representational State Transfer (REST), GraphQL, event\-driven patterns, continuous integration and continuous deployment, infrastructure as code, Docker, Kubernetes, and monitoring tools
- Ability to travel 0\-25%, on average, based on the work you do and the clients and industries/sectors you serve.
- Limited immigration sponsorship may be available.
Preferred:
- Master's degree or doctorate in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Data Science, or a similar field
- Cloud or artificial intelligence or machine learning certification
- 4\+ years of experience with Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, Salesforce, or human resources data domains
- 4\+ years of experience operationalizing machine learning operations or large language model operations, including evaluation, monitoring, governance workflows, and model or prompt version management
- 4\+ years of experience using Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform for data platforms and scalable compute
- 4\+ years of experience translating business requirements into acceptance criteria and release increments
The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Deloitte, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $113,100 to $208,300\.
You may also be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.
Deloitte is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the recruiting process, please direct your inquiries to the Global Call Center (GCC) at [email protected] .
For more information about Human Capital, visit our landing page at: https://www2\.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/careers/articles/join\-deloitte\-human\-capital\-consulting\-jobs.html
\#HCFY26 \#IIOFY26
Salary Context
This $113K-$208K range is above the median for Data Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $160K across 37 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Data Engineers build the pipelines that feed AI models. They design ETL workflows, manage data lakes, and ensure training and inference data is clean, timely, and accessible. Without good data engineering, AI projects fail. It's that simple.
The AI era has expanded the data engineer's scope far beyond batch ETL jobs. You're building real-time embedding pipelines for RAG systems, managing vector databases, ensuring training data quality at scale, and building the infrastructure that lets ML teams iterate on data as fast as they iterate on models. Data quality is the biggest predictor of model quality, and you're the person responsible for it.
Across the 3,823 AI roles we're tracking, Data Engineer positions make up 1% of the market. At Deloitte, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: debugging a data pipeline that's producing stale embeddings for the RAG system, optimizing a Spark job that processes training data, building a data quality monitoring dashboard, meeting with the ML team to understand their next data requirements, and writing dbt models that transform raw event data into ML-ready features. The work is deeply technical and high-impact.
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
Skills Required
SQL, Python, and distributed systems (Spark, Airflow, dbt) are core. Cloud data platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift) are increasingly standard. Many AI-focused roles also want familiarity with vector databases and embedding pipelines. Understanding data modeling, pipeline orchestration, and data quality frameworks covers the essentials.
AI-specific data engineering skills include: building feature stores, managing training data versioning, implementing data lineage tracking, and building real-time embedding pipelines. Experience with streaming systems (Kafka, Flink) is valuable for real-time AI applications. Understanding ML data requirements (balanced datasets, data augmentation, evaluation set construction) makes you much more effective working with ML teams.
Strong postings specify the data stack, mention ML pipeline work, and describe the scale of data you'll be working with. Look for companies that understand the connection between data quality and model quality. Avoid roles that conflate data engineering with data analysis.
Compensation Benchmarks
Data Engineer roles pay a median of $208,300 based on 266 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($160K) sits 23% below the category median. Disclosed range: $113K to $208K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($275,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,880; Mid: $165,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $247,800; VP: $250,000.
Deloitte AI Hiring
Deloitte has 77 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Software Engineer, Research Engineer. Positions span Stamford, CT, US, Austin, TX, US, Jersey City, NJ, US. Compensation range: $121K - $372K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (590 positions) offer remote work, while 3,217 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,643 roles, $211,000 median); San Francisco (2,168 roles, $253,000 median); Los Angeles (1,792 roles, $191,580 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Data Engineer roles include Backend Engineer, Database Administrator, Analytics Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Data Engineer, ML Engineer, Data Platform Lead.
Master SQL and Python first. Then learn a distributed processing framework (Spark or its modern alternatives) and a pipeline orchestrator (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect). Build a portfolio project that demonstrates end-to-end pipeline construction: ingest, transform, validate, serve. If you want to specialize in AI data engineering, add vector databases and embedding pipelines to your skill set.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect SQL deep-dives (query optimization, partitioning strategies, data modeling), Python coding focused on data pipeline patterns, and system design questions about building scalable ETL workflows. Companies with ML teams will ask about feature stores, embedding pipelines, and training data management. Be ready to discuss data quality monitoring, pipeline orchestration, and how you'd handle schema evolution in a production data lake.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings specify the data stack, mention ML pipeline work, and describe the scale of data you'll be working with. Look for companies that understand the connection between data quality and model quality. Avoid roles that conflate data engineering with data analysis.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,823 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 112 entry-level, 1,798 mid-level, 1,516 senior, and 397 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (590 positions). The remaining 3,217 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($275,000 median, 41 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 55 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 434 roles).
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,823 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,629), Data Scientist (322), AI Software Engineer (279). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (112) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,798) and senior (1,516) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 397 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (590 positions), with 3,217 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $200,100. Top-quartile roles start at $253,500, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $275,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,979 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (899 postings), Rag (839 postings), Gcp (726 postings), Pytorch (595 postings), Prompt Engineering (595 postings), Claude (540 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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