Posted today · be early
Freelance Data Engineer (Postgres / Systemintegration)
Juni Technology
WorldwideremotePosted today
Skill Required
Data-EngineerData-Integration-EngineerIntegration-EngineerData-Platform-EngineerFreelance-Data-EngineerFreelance-Data-EngineeringFreelance-Data-Workflow-EngineerContract-Data-EngineerPostgreSQL-ConsultantData-Engineering-ConsultantData EngineerPostgreSQLElasticsearchGitAPIsSQLContract
Key highlights
- Freelance
- Postgres (plpgsql, triggers, RLS)
- Remote within EU
- Initial 3-month contract
- Written English required
Role overview
JUNI is a non-profit ecosystem for science and spin-offs in Berlin. They operate their programs across seven SaaS tools (Newsletter, Events, Community, CRM, Forms, Applications, Coworking) supported by a Postgres database intended to be the single source of truth for person and organization data. The core of the role is building the connection layer between these tools and the database to make the path from first contact to milestone measurable, ensuring resolved datasets per person/organization and append-only interaction logs.
Responsibilities
- Build the layer that connects systems with a database in both directions.
- Help define and refine the data model.
- Clarify data discrepancies between sources (e.g., what counts as a person, event timing, duplicate reporting) and determine when the model needs adjustment versus adapting to a source.
- Think through the architecture and argue for specific designs rather than just implementing specifications.
- Inbound: Integrate every system into the database with multiple pipelines per system and handle identity resolution across systems.
- Outbound: Manage states created internally and push them to the executing platform.
- Maintain clean bidirectional synchronization, ensuring platforms that report back or contradict are handled (e.g., unsubscribed users must not be re-added).
- Reporting: Ensure KPI data arrives in a BI tool (building dashboards is not part of the role).
- Search: Make the data stock searchable in natural language.
- Documentation: Document decisions in writing and maintain pipelines in GitHub.
Requirements
- Deep experience with integration against Third-Party APIs and Webhooks, including: pagination, retries, signature verification, rate limits, undocumented payload structures, delayed/swapped events, and sources that fire on every change without specifying what changed.
- Experience with bidirectional synchronization between systems holding the same field, including loop avoidance, echo suppression, and clear conflict resolution logic.
- Experience with Postgres as an application database (not just as a target), specifically plpgsql functions, triggers, constraints, and RLS to enforce write rules. (SQL experience limited to post-load transformations is insufficient).
- Idempotency as a habit: pipelines must be able to run again without changing anything as an acceptance test.
- Clean working habits with Git (migrations, PRs, review).
- Experience working with personal data under GDPR and understanding how this restricts data ingestion.
- Written English proficiency for predominantly asynchronous work and readable documentation.
Nice to have
- n8n or another orchestrator
- Supabase
- Relevant work on a search index (Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Meilisearch, or comparable; cluster operation is not required)
- Experience as the sole person on a system
- German
Benefits
- Remote and predominantly asynchronous collaboration
- Initial planned real conversations during onboarding to learn systems and relationships
Additional details
- Frontend: Not part of the role; none exists and none is planned.
- Employment type: Freelance.
- Start date: As soon as possible.
- Duration: Initially three months, then evaluated based on need.
- Location: Berlin or Remote within the EU.
- Originally posted on Himalayas
