Data Engineer at Reality Defender
Manhattan, NY
$140,000–$180,000
Jul 22, 2026
Manhattan, NY
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A data engineering role focused on building and scaling the infrastructure behind a deepfake detection platform. Day-to-day work involves designing and operating large-scale batch and streaming pipelines for audio, video, and other media data, managing containerized workloads on Kubernetes and AWS, and supporting ML engineers with training and retraining workflows. Suits engineers with hands-on distributed systems experience, particularly with tools like Spark, Ray, and Airflow.
Senior level · New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 65 people in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (database architects). range 40–140
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $134,433 (middle half $95,331–$179,625).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
SOC classification is a genuine judgment call: the role spans pipeline/warehouse building (15-1243) and general software engineering (15-1252). The emphasis on designing and operating large-scale data processing pipelines, ETL/ELT, workflow orchestration, and database administration tips it toward 15-1243, but the strong Python/Golang programming expectations and MLOps partnership make 15-1252 a credible runner-up.
Spark and Ray are presented as interchangeable examples of 'high-performance/distributed computing frameworks'; Ray is also listed separately as a preferred skill given it appears as a named alternative rather than a standalone gate.
Audio/video data processing experience (transcoding, feature extraction) is described as 'a strong plus' — not a hard gate — so it is captured under MLOps/bonus context rather than as a required skill.
MLOps tooling (training pipelines, model retraining triggers, feature stores) is explicitly labeled 'Bonus' in the posting.
Golang is explicitly called 'a plus' in the requirements section.
No compensation range is stated in the posting.
The role is based at Reality Defender's NYC HQ; 'Remote Fridays' implies primarily in-office, so remote is set to false.
Read the full posting
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