STEM OPT Data Engineer Jobs
Data Engineer roles sit squarely within STEM OPT eligibility, letting you work for up to 36 months total on F-1 authorization as long as your employer is enrolled in E-Verify. Your 24-month extension kicks in after the initial 12-month OPT period, giving you a long runway to build production-grade pipelines and transition to long-term sponsorship.
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Get Access To All JobsBuild the crawlers and AI search algorithm behind Rotto: millions of candidate profiles, thousands of career pages, every day.
- $130k to $160k USD
- Early employee equity
- NYC
- In person
- Full time
- Health insurance
- 20 days PTO
- Visa sponsorship
- Relocation
Stack: Crawling · Scraping · Python · Playwright · Postgres · Vectors · Proxies · Anti-bot
About Rotto
Rotto is an AI search engine for recruiting. A recruiter describes the hire in plain English, and a hybrid semantic and lexical retrieval engine parses the intent, embeds it, and ranks millions of candidate profiles in real time.
It is built by the same team behind Migrate Mate, the job board for international talent in the US, which earned our founders Forbes 30 Under 30. We are a team of seven. We've raised $3M and are now hiring to scale Rotto and launch new products.
We move very fast with basically zero bureaucracy. You will work directly with the founders (& engineering team) every day. We work five days a week, 10 to 11 hours a day, in person, and occasionally on Saturdays. This is an ASAP hire: we would like you to start within weeks of an offer.
What you will work on
- Scrapers that pull jobs from thousands of company career pages and job boards, every day.
- The Postgres search that ranks millions of candidate profiles from a plain-English prompt.
- The cloud infrastructure both run on, and the cost and latency of every request.
What we are looking for
We don't care about years of experience, education or pedigree. We just want you to be cracked at owning & scaling backend systems.
Must haves
- You have built and run web scrapers in production (ideally against job boards).
- You have scaled cloud infrastructure in production.
- You obsess over detail and are great at making tradeoffs, e.g. cutting latency without raising the cost of a search.
- You are AI native but not AI reliant: you use AI to move fast, and understand what it writes well enough to change it without AI.
Nice to haves
- Strong Python.
- Headless browsers (Playwright, Selenium or similar), proxies and anti-bot work.
- Tuning Postgres or vector search: indexes, query plans, pgvector.
- You have worked at a web scraping, data provider or job board company.
- You have worked at (or founded) an early-stage startup.
Is this you?
You'll thrive if
- You learn unusually fast and can be useful on an unknown topic within a day.
- Not knowing doesn't scare you, it excites you to learn.
- You are happy with little structure and manage yourself.
- You have a can-do attitude. You solve hard challenges without complaining.
- You communicate clearly and can explain the same idea to a customer and to a senior engineer.
- You push back on bad ideas, without questioning every decision.
Don't apply if
- You want a clear spec, a roadmap and a process to follow.
- You want to work remotely or hybrid.
- You want a 40-hour week. "Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week" - Elon Musk
- You need a big team around you before you can ship.
Work Authorization
We sponsor visas and will relocate the right person to New York. U.S. citizens, people with work authorization and people who need sponsorship can all apply.
US Citizens · Green Card Holders · E-3 · F-1 OPT · H-1B (transfer only) · H-1B1 · J-1 · O-1 · TN
How hiring works
- Apply: Two minutes, below.
- Assessment: If you are a fit, we email you a technical assessment.
- Code review call: We go through your code together.
- Culture-fit interview: We want to get to know you as a person.
- In-person trial: Work with us in NYC. We'll cover costs. Based on your schedule.
- Offer: You could be starting at Rotto within weeks.
Applications close when we find the right fit.
Build the crawlers and AI search algorithm behind Rotto: millions of candidate profiles, thousands of career pages, every day.
- $130k to $160k USD
- Early employee equity
- NYC
- In person
- Full time
- Health insurance
- 20 days PTO
- Visa sponsorship
- Relocation
Stack: Crawling · Scraping · Python · Playwright · Postgres · Vectors · Proxies · Anti-bot
About Rotto
Rotto is an AI search engine for recruiting. A recruiter describes the hire in plain English, and a hybrid semantic and lexical retrieval engine parses the intent, embeds it, and ranks millions of candidate profiles in real time.
It is built by the same team behind Migrate Mate, the job board for international talent in the US, which earned our founders Forbes 30 Under 30. We are a team of seven. We've raised $3M and are now hiring to scale Rotto and launch new products.
We move very fast with basically zero bureaucracy. You will work directly with the founders (& engineering team) every day. We work five days a week, 10 to 11 hours a day, in person, and occasionally on Saturdays. This is an ASAP hire: we would like you to start within weeks of an offer.
What you will work on
- Scrapers that pull jobs from thousands of company career pages and job boards, every day.
- The Postgres search that ranks millions of candidate profiles from a plain-English prompt.
- The cloud infrastructure both run on, and the cost and latency of every request.
What we are looking for
We don't care about years of experience, education or pedigree. We just want you to be cracked at owning & scaling backend systems.
Must haves
- You have built and run web scrapers in production (ideally against job boards).
- You have scaled cloud infrastructure in production.
- You obsess over detail and are great at making tradeoffs, e.g. cutting latency without raising the cost of a search.
- You are AI native but not AI reliant: you use AI to move fast, and understand what it writes well enough to change it without AI.
Nice to haves
- Strong Python.
- Headless browsers (Playwright, Selenium or similar), proxies and anti-bot work.
- Tuning Postgres or vector search: indexes, query plans, pgvector.
- You have worked at a web scraping, data provider or job board company.
- You have worked at (or founded) an early-stage startup.
Is this you?
You'll thrive if
- You learn unusually fast and can be useful on an unknown topic within a day.
- Not knowing doesn't scare you, it excites you to learn.
- You are happy with little structure and manage yourself.
- You have a can-do attitude. You solve hard challenges without complaining.
- You communicate clearly and can explain the same idea to a customer and to a senior engineer.
- You push back on bad ideas, without questioning every decision.
Don't apply if
- You want a clear spec, a roadmap and a process to follow.
- You want to work remotely or hybrid.
- You want a 40-hour week. "Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week" - Elon Musk
- You need a big team around you before you can ship.
Work Authorization
We sponsor visas and will relocate the right person to New York. U.S. citizens, people with work authorization and people who need sponsorship can all apply.
US Citizens · Green Card Holders · E-3 · F-1 OPT · H-1B (transfer only) · H-1B1 · J-1 · O-1 · TN
How hiring works
- Apply: Two minutes, below.
- Assessment: If you are a fit, we email you a technical assessment.
- Code review call: We go through your code together.
- Culture-fit interview: We want to get to know you as a person.
- In-person trial: Work with us in NYC. We'll cover costs. Based on your schedule.
- Offer: You could be starting at Rotto within weeks.
Applications close when we find the right fit.
See all 1,021+ STEM OPT Data Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new STEM OPT Data Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding STEM OPT Authorization as a Data Engineer
Verify your CIP code before applying
STEM OPT eligibility depends on your degree's CIP code, not just the field name on your diploma. Cross-check your school's recorded CIP code against USCIS's official STEM Designated Degree Program List before you accept any offer.
Filter employers by E-Verify enrollment status
Your STEM OPT extension is void if your employer isn't enrolled in E-Verify. Confirm enrollment through the official E-Verify employer search before signing an offer, not after. Many startups and smaller data teams aren't enrolled yet.
Target companies with active LCA filings for data roles
Employers who have filed Labor Condition Applications for Data Engineer or Data Analyst roles have already navigated DOL wage and compliance requirements. That track record signals they understand the full STEM OPT-to-H-1B visa pipeline and won't treat your authorization as a blocker.
Build your I-983 training plan around real deliverables
Your I-983 must map STEM learning objectives to specific job duties, not generic descriptions. Draft it around concrete deliverables like pipeline architecture, data modeling work, or ML infrastructure so your DSO can certify it without revision cycles.
Use Migrate Mate to identify E-Verify employers hiring data engineers
Search Migrate Mate to find Data Engineer roles at employers with verified sponsorship history. The platform surfaces DOL Labor Condition Application data by role and employer so you can target companies already familiar with STEM OPT workflows before you apply.
Time your H-1B registration to cover your OPT end date
If USCIS selects your H-1B registration before your STEM OPT expires, cap-gap protection extends your work authorization through September 30. Missing the registration window means a gap in authorization even if you have a valid offer and an enrolled employer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Data Engineer role qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
Yes, if your degree's CIP code appears on USCIS's STEM Designated Degree Program List. Degrees in computer science, information systems, electrical engineering, applied mathematics, and statistics are common qualifying fields for Data Engineer roles. The job title alone doesn't determine eligibility; your recorded degree CIP code does. Confirm the code with your DSO before submitting your extension application.
What E-Verify requirement applies to my STEM OPT employer?
Every employer that hires you under a STEM OPT extension must be actively enrolled in E-Verify, not just registered. Enrollment must be in place before your extension start date. You can confirm enrollment through the official E-Verify employer search tool. If your employer loses enrollment or is debarred during your extension period, you must stop working and report the change to your DSO within five business days.
What should my I-983 training plan include for a Data Engineer position?
Your I-983 must connect specific STEM learning objectives to actual job duties. For a Data Engineer role, that means documenting work on tasks like building ETL pipelines, designing data warehouses, implementing data quality frameworks, or developing ML infrastructure. Generic descriptions like 'working with data' won't satisfy USCIS review standards. Your employer's supervisor must sign the plan, and your DSO certifies it before your extension is approved.
How does cap-gap protection work if I'm a Data Engineer on STEM OPT?
If your employer files an H-1B petition on your behalf and USCIS selects it in the lottery before your STEM OPT authorization expires, cap-gap automatically extends your work authorization through September 30 of that year. You can keep working as a Data Engineer during that window without any interruption. If your petition isn't selected or your employer misses the filing deadline, cap-gap doesn't apply and your work authorization ends with your STEM OPT.
How do I find Data Engineer jobs at employers who support STEM OPT?
Search Migrate Mate to browse Data Engineer roles at employers with documented Labor Condition Application filing history. LCA data from DOL shows which companies have already gone through the wage attestation and compliance process for similar roles, which is a reliable signal that they're set up to support STEM OPT extensions and eventual H-1B sponsorship. Filter results to E-Verify-enrolled employers before you apply.