Automation & Data Engineer

FairwAI · Remote (US) · 12-15 weeks · 15–20 hrs/week ·

Why this role exists

FairwAI runs real businesses with AI agents. Our first live deployment, a premium pet transport company, already runs outreach on autopilot. Agents research prospects, write personalized emails, and send about 700 a day. That’s more than 3,600 since September.

The front end works. The back end doesn’t exist yet. Data lives in spreadsheets, replies are triaged by hand, and we can’t trace a lead from send → reply → quote → booking → revenue. You’ll be the first engineer to build that system. It’s a real production system with real money on the line.

What you’ll build

Weeks 1–4: Foundation

Design the data model (prospects, sends, replies, quotes, bookings) and migrate everything off Google Sheets into Postgres or HubSpot
Ingest every sent email and reply from the Gmail API automatically

Weeks 5–8: Automation

Classify replies automatically (hot lead, not now, unsubscribe, bounce) and alert on hot leads within 15 minutes
Suppress bounces and unsubscribes automatically, with a list the sending agents check before every send
Track the lead → quote → booking → deposit stages

Weeks 9–12: Intelligence

Build a live funnel dashboard by segment, region, subject line and campaign
Build attribution and A/B reporting that shows which prospects and messages actually produce bookings
Expose clean endpoints our AI agents call directly
Stack

Python, SQL, Postgres or Supabase, Gmail / Google Sheets / HubSpot APIs, scheduled jobs, and the Claude API with MCP tooling. You choose the rest, and you defend your choices.

You’re a fit if you
Junior or Senior, preferably are in a graduate program (MS, MEng, MBA with a technical background, or PhD) in CS, data science, analytics, or a related field
Write production-quality Python and SQL
Have moved data between real APIs (OAuth, webhooks, pagination, rate limits)
Think in systems and measurements: you want to know why a number moved, not just that it did
Ship working things weekly and explain them in plain English

Bonus: CRM APIs, LLM or agent tooling, email deliverability (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), dashboarding (Retool, Streamlit, Looker, Metabase).

Not a fit if:

You want a well-defined ticket queue or a large team to lean on. This role is founding-level: high ownership, ambiguous problems, and direct access to leadership.

Success at week 12

Every send and reply lands in one database with no manual steps
Bounces and unsubscribes are suppressed with no human touch
Hot replies trigger an alert in under 15 minutes
A live dashboard shows the full funnel and which segments convert

What you get:

Ownership of a live, revenue-linked system, and a portfolio line most candidates won’t have: “Built the back end for an AI-run company”
Weekly working sessions with the Director
Hands-on work with production AI agents, not a demo
a strong reference, and a path to a paid role or extension for top performers

To apply (keep each answer under 150 words):

Describe a system you built that moved data between two or more APIs. What broke, and how did you fix it?

You have 3,600 sent emails and 75 replies in a spreadsheet. How would you find out what drives replies?

Link your GitHub or a code sample.

International students welcome. We support Curricular Practical Training (CPT) and Optional Practical Training (OPT) for F-1 students. Fellows on CPT can count this role toward their degree program, and we will provide the offer letter and any documents your school’s Designated School Official needs to authorize it. Fellows on OPT, including post-completion OPT, are welcome to apply. We may also be able to support STEM OPT extensions for eligible fellows, depending on the role and timing. Please mention your work-authorization status in your application so we can plan your start date around it.