Staff Software Engineer, Afresh
Data / Tech Lead, Distribution Center
$168-253k
+ Meaningful early-stage equity
More information about location
SaaS for grocery store operations
Open for applications
SaaS for grocery store operations
101-200 employees
Open for applications
$168-253k
+ Meaningful early-stage equity
More information about location
101-200 employees
Company mission
To eliminate food waste and make fresh food accessible to all.
Role
Who you are
- If you're looking for a role where your work directly translates into massive scale and social good, and you want to be part of the team that defines how the world eats, there is no better time to join us
- We encourage all highly-qualified candidates to apply, even if they don’t meet every listed qualification
- Significant experience designing and maintaining ETLs that process large-scale datasets
- Proficiency with Python, PySpark, SQL, and experience working on platforms/tools like Databricks, Snowflake, or DBT
- 2+ years experience in a technical lead role (e.g. Tech Lead or Engineering Manager), with a willingness to mentor and help others grow
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work with ambiguous or incomplete requirements to deliver concrete, impactful solutions
- A focus on practical outcomes—you're skilled at balancing technical rigor with the need to get things done
- Experience working directly with complex, unclean datasets and finding innovative ways to process and analyze them
- A knack for identifying areas where tooling or automation can simplify workflows and reduce manual effort
- Excellent communication skills—you’re able to explain your ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
- We’re looking for someone who thrives on tackling complex data problems and takes pride in building systems that work seamlessly at scale. If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you!
What the job involves
- As a Staff Data Engineer, on the Distribution Center (DC) Solutions team, you’ll play a technical lead role in building and scaling the data integrations needed to support our suite of DC products
- You will design and implement ETLs that reliably process large volumes of customer-provided data and build tools/improve the platform to make customer integrations faster, more accurate, and more scalable
- Your work will have a direct and visible impact on our ability to onboard customers more easily and quickly and power our machine learning grocery solution
- Engineering & Data Pipelines: Design, build, and optimize robust ETLs using PySpark and DBT to process large-scale customer datasets while developing tools and frameworks to streamline data integrations and improve scalability
- Technical Leadership & Strategy: Define the technical vision for DC data architecture, mentor engineers, and manage external contractors to ensure the team delivers high-quality, practical solutions for current and future needs
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner with product, engineering, and applied science teams to scope work and deliver data solutions that address real-world challenges in customer data quality and product feature requirements
Our take
Outdated inventory systems remain a major issue for grocers, particularly when it comes to fresh food. Many still rely on manual processes or rigid software that struggles to account for constantly changing factors like demand, shelf life and supply fluctuations. The result is over-ordering, wasted food and unnecessary costs, all problems that become even harder to manage at scale.
Afresh is tackling this with an AI-powered platform built specifically for fresh food operations. Its system helps grocers forecast demand, manage inventory and make smarter ordering decisions across categories like produce, meat and bakery. What started as a replenishment tool has expanded into a broader operating system, supporting planning, buying and day-to-day decision-making across store teams.
The company has grown quickly too, now supporting more than 12,000 grocery departments across North American and partnering with major retailers like Albertsons, Meijer and Wakefern. Following a year of strong growth and new product launches, Afresh is expanding its reach across the food supply chain, with ambitions that go beyond the store level. As pressure mounts on grocers to reduce waste and improve margins, Afresh is ready to be a key player in bringing AI-driven decision-making to the entire fresh food ecosystem.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
6% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Apr 2026
$34m
LATE VC
Aug 2022
$115m
SERIES B
Total funding: $181.8m
Company benefits
- Comprehensive health plans
- Generous parental leave
- Equity packages
- 401k matching
- Flexible vacation policy
- Professional development program
- Work from home stipend
Company HQ
Yerba Buena, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Matt Schwartz
(Co-Founder & CEO)Prior to co-founding Afresh in 2016, Matt worked as a Consultant for Bain & Company.
Nathan Fenner
(Co-Founder & CPO)Nathan has a Bachelors, Masters and MBA from Stanford University. Post studying, they became a Lecturer at Stanford in the Mechanical Engineering department before working at Liquid Robotics for 5 years.
Kristina Kemmer
(CTO)Kristina joined Afresh in 2023 as a Senior VP of Engineering, moving into the role of CTO in 2025. Prior to Afresh, she spent 4 years at Zapier as a Director/VP of Engineering and 2 years at InVision as an Engineering, then Senior Engineering Manager.
Adam Litle
(CRO)Prior to joining Afresh in 2025, Adam was the CEO of Sound Agriculture for over 5 years. He also served as the CRO at Granular for nearly 3 years and worked as a VP of Sales at Monetate for 1 year.
Share this job
View 12 more jobs at Afresh