AI & Data Platform Lead

About Us: At Near, we help top talent in Latin America find remote roles with US companies. Our mission is to create better lives by fostering a remote work culture that transcends borders.

About Our Client: Our client is a private equity-backed, U.S.-based industrial services and equipment manufacturer serving the steel, aluminum, and broader metals and chemical-processing industries across North America. With 300+ employees and over $100M in annual revenue, they design, build, and service specialized industrial machinery — units valued between $500K–$800K each — used by some of the largest steel mills, aluminum producers, and chemical processors in the world. The company is actively investing in its data and AI capabilities, building a modern analytics platform on top of its ERP system to support smarter, faster decision-making across the business.

About the Role: Join our client on their mission to define how a mid-market industrial leader uses AI — from the ground up. We're looking for an AI & Data Platform Co-Lead to help build their AI and automation function from scratch, working alongside an existing team member who's strong on automation, while owning the company's data platform end to end. This is a rare opportunity to shape a brand-new function with real autonomy: you'll bring the ideas rather than wait for tickets, work directly with the executive team, and see the impact of what you build across the business.

Note: This is a remote, contractor role.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own the company's data platform end to end, including ingestion, lakehouse architecture, dimensional modeling, and orchestration on Microsoft Fabric.
• Direct the work of an external technology partner supporting the data platform build.
• Identify manual, repetitive work across Operations, Commercial, and Finance, and design AI-enabled workflows to eliminate it.
• Build AI-enabled automations end to end, including error handling, monitoring, and fallback logic for when the model gets it wrong.
• Maintain the reliability of the platform and automations you build, owning issues after they ship.
• Collaborate with an existing team member on the company's broader AI and automation strategy.
• Ensure the data feeding executive-level Power BI dashboards is accurate and trustworthy.
• Teach non-technical team members to use AI tools effectively, extending your impact beyond what you build yourself.
• Ship visible, working solutions quickly, favoring fast iteration over long planning cycles.

What We're Looking For:

• Current, hands-on experience building with LLMs — you've shipped something real and can speak candidly about where it works and where it doesn't.
• Strong Python skills, with experience in APIs, integrations, and orchestration.
• Hands-on experience building a data platform on Microsoft Fabric — ingestion, OneLake, lakehouse architecture (bronze/silver/gold), dimensional modeling, orchestration, and monitoring. Experience with Databricks, Snowflake, or Synapse is a plus but does not substitute for direct Fabric experience.
• Strong SQL skills and solid dimensional modeling fundamentals.
• Working knowledge of Power BI and DAX.
• A demonstrated ability to influence people who don't report to you, remotely.
• Proficient English level, written and spoken.