Customer Engineer

About the Role

MotherDuck is seeking a Senior Customer Engineer to join our mission of making data warehousing delightful and frictionless for developers and data practitioners. In this role, you will own the technical depth and execution required to help prospects and customers harness the full power of the MotherDuck platform built on DuckDB. You will act as the primary technical partner during the sales process, designing architectures and validating feasibility directly within the cloud-native DuckDB ecosystem. This position requires a hands-on problem solver who thrives at the intersection of software engineering and data strategy. You will translate complex business requirements into clear, compelling, and technically robust data solutions. Ultimately, your success will be measured by your ability to de-risk technical decisions and drive confident adoption through expert guidance.

What You'll Do

Partner with sales executives and stakeholders to define and execute the technical narrative for strategic opportunities in the data and analytics space. Design and validate scalable data architectures using DuckDB, MotherDuck, and modern open-source components to solve demanding analytical workloads. Lead the creation of high-impact demonstrations and proof-of-concept implementations that clearly articulate the performance and operational advantages of the platform. Conduct deep technical discovery sessions to uncover customer requirements, constraints, and success criteria for data-intensive applications. Collaborate closely with Product and Engineering teams to synthesize customer feedback and influence the prioritization of platform features and capabilities. Serve as the trusted technical authority throughout the customer lifecycle, guiding prospects from initial evaluation through deployment and optimization in production environments. Evaluate and recommend integration patterns that enable seamless interoperability with existing tools in the modern data stack. Leverage emerging AI technologies to automate routine analysis, generate reusable code artifacts, and amplify the impact of technical engagements. Articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences, ensuring both technical and executive stakeholders understand the value and feasibility of proposed solutions. Champion best practices around data modeling, query optimization, and cost-effective resource utilization in cloud-native analytical systems.

Requirements

Must possess a minimum of 5 years of professional experience as a data engineer, analytics engineer, or in a closely related technical role with substantial hands-on SQL and Python. Must have at least 2 years of direct experience in pre-sales, solutions engineering, or a customer-facing technical advisory capacity within the data or analytics ecosystem. Must demonstrate a proven track record of designing, building, and optimizing Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) workloads for high performance and scalability. Must have real-world experience building and automating workflows using AI systems, extending beyond simple tool usage to include agentic automation and advanced productivity patterns. Must be highly proficient with core data platform tools including BigQuery, Snowflake, dbt, and orchestration frameworks such as Airflow. Must have hands-on experience with agentic development environments such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or similar tools used to enhance engineering productivity. Must be comfortable communicating complex technical designs to both technical and non-technical audiences, with the ability to present confidently in live settings. Must possess deep knowledge of data warehouse architecture, including performance tuning, execution planning, and dimensional as well as entity-relationship modeling. Must have successfully operated in a fast-paced, iterative startup environment where ambiguity and rapid change are the norm. Nice to have experience with DuckDB and/or MotherDuck, or a demonstrated ability to rapidly master and apply new data platforms with depth.

What People Should Be Saying If You're Doing Ducking Awesome

"They can land any POC like a pro... our prospects leave every demo flapping their wings in excitement." "They just get the modern data stack and know how to explain it without a 30-slide deck." "They made complex data pipelines feel like a walk in the park... with breadcrumbs." "They're the go-to for any technical deep dive. Calm under pressure, sharp as a beak." "Our customers ask for them by name. Total ducking rockstar." "They always bring clarity, confidence, and a splash of charm to every sales call." "They turned our most skeptical prospect into a lifelong fan... and did it with a smile." "They've automated half their own prep work with AI and still somehow seem to do more than anyone else on the team."

What We Provide

Feather-ruffling compensation - competitive salary and stock options so you have a stake in our flock's success. Top-notch healthcare coverage - 100% paid medical, dental, and vision for employees, plus 85% coverage for dependents (because we care about your whole nest). Flexible PTO - take the time you need to recharge, explore, or just have a lazy day by the pond. 401k plan - because even ducks need to plan for the future. Flexible work environment - spend most of the week in the office collaborating with the flock, and work from wherever you're most productive the rest of the time. Specifics are role dependent and as agreed upon with your management.