Data and Automation Systems Builder

Location: 100% Remote (Global)

Timezone /

Hours:

Flexible working hours, with a requirement for partial overlap with US business hours (PT/ET) for synchronous team collaboration and meetings.

Engagement Type: Full-Time Independent Contractor

Since 2013, THE/STUDIO has been building the definitive operating system for product creation. We are combining modern SaaS technology with custom manufacturing to make producing physical goods as seamless, fast, and scalable as launching software.

We operate two core platforms:
Customize Now (our best-in-class, on-demand manufacturing platform) and Source Anything (our new SaaS product that enables customers to seamlessly work with global factories beyond our own network).

We are a profitable, previously Silicon Valley-backed, fully remote company, and we are not just looking to improve manufacturing, we are looking for a visionary operator to help us truly revolutionize the global supply chain.

We're not looking for a traditional data analyst. We don't need someone to sit between our systems and the business interpreting what the numbers mean. We need a builder who can take a stated requirement ("we need this tracked," "alert us when this breaks") and ship it: a dashboard, an automated pipeline, or a real-time alert.

A significant part of this role is exposing what’s already happening across our platforms: tracking when something enters a process, when it exits, and pinpointing where it gets stuck. This is closer to an automation and systems engineering role than classic business intelligence. You will work alongside our core engineering team and our Automation Engineer to connect, clean, and automate our entire data ecosystem.

We would rather hire someone scrappy and technical who figures things out (researches, builds, breaks things, and fixes them) than someone with a polished analytics background who needs well-defined problems handed to them.

You will own data across the entire organization. We are actively moving away from static dashboards and toward an AI-powered data engine where team members can type in natural-language queries, and the engine automatically fetches, processes, and analyzes the data in real time.

Ultimately, you will build the central data heart of THE/STUDIO—a system where automated, data-driven decisions execute seamlessly across our operations.

• Architect the AI Data Engine:
  Build toward our long-term vision of an AI-driven, natural-language query interface and contribute to automating operational decision-making across the business.
• Build Automated Pipelines & Dashboards:
  Design self-sustaining systems (e.g., Looker/Looker Studio or equivalent BI tools) where metrics populate automatically with zero manual pulling.
• Ship End-to-End Solutions Independently:
  Take raw requirements from managers and build working systems without needing a formal spec or data translator.
• Deploy Real-Time Alerting:
  Build triggers that instantly flag process breakdowns or deviations, moving from retrospective reporting to proactive mitigation.
• Expose Process Timestamps:
  Surface stage-by-stage system events (entry/exit timestamps) across our core platforms to identify and fix operational bottlenecks.
• Engineer Workflow Automations:
  Build and maintain automated workflows (e.g., via n8n) linking our raw data sources directly to reporting and alerting tools.
• Solve Root-Cause Data Issues:
  Fix data quality and integrity issues directly at the source.
• Leverage AI as a Default:
  Use modern AI tools as a core build accelerant in your day-to-day workflow.
• Document for Enablement:
  Create clear, lightweight documentation so non-technical managers can use and navigate tools independently.

• A Builder & Engineer Mindset:
  You thrive when handed an ambiguous problem, navigating it through research, experimentation, and execution.
• Technical Foundation:
  Hands-on fluency with SQL and cloud data warehouses (e.g., Big Query or equivalent).
  
  Note:
  
  This is a foundational baseline, not the entire job.
• Tooling Proficiency:
  Deep experience with BI dashboarding (e.g., Looker Studio) and workflow automation platforms (e.g., n8n, Make, or custom scripts).
• End-to-End Ownership:
  Proven track record of building and deploying functional tools from scratch, not just querying existing databases.
• AI-First Workflows:
  Heavy daily reliance on AI tools to accelerate development, write code, and build system prototypes.
• Direct…