Data Migration Specialist (3 Months Contract)

Overview

Monolith AI is seeking a talented Software Developer for an intensive 3-month migration project transitioning existing client environments to our next-generation platform. This role requires a developer who excels at rapidly understanding undocumented systems, extracting clarity from complex database structures, and building practical migration tooling in Python. You\’ll work closely with our 15-person technical team (currently doubling), collaborating extensively with Customer Success and Product to ensure migrations meet defined business requirements while maintaining high velocity.

Responsibilities

• Rapid System Understanding: Rapidly grasp existing PostgreSQL database schemas through code inspection, team discussions, and reverse engineering. Understand new platform database architecture and how legacy data maps to the new structure.
• Migration Tool Development: Build Python migration scripts to convert legacy notebooks to the new platform; work with pickle files and S3 object storage to understand serialized data structures; implement validation against defined Customer Success requirements (data integrity).
• Cross-Functional Requirements Gathering: Collaborate with Customer Success to understand client migration requirements and acceptance criteria; partner with Product to define and iterate on acceptable migration outcomes; balance technical constraints with business needs to establish pragmatic migration standards.
• Product Context & Impact Analysis: Understand how database entries and S3-stored objects drive UI behavior and user workflows; learn system behavior through discussions and knowledge transfer with the team.
• Migration Execution & Knowledge Transfer: Learn existing system behavior, identify legacy data structures distribution across new platform tables/storage, and document migration processes; create runbooks and enable team to execute and troubleshoot migrations post-contract.
• Testing & Validation: Test migration outputs against Customer Success acceptance criteria; validate migrated notebooks meet defined business requirements; identify and communicate gaps between migration output and requirements for product decisions.
• Velocity & Communication Management: Maintain rapid project pace with a tight 3-month timeline; provide frequent progress updates to the tech lead on development speed and blockers; proactively communicate risks, timeline concerns, and decision points.

Requirements

• 3+ years of professional software development experience
• 2+ years working with Python in production environments
• Experience working with PostgreSQL databases and complex data structures
• Demonstrated ability to reverse engineer and understand undocumented systems
• Previous work in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments

Technical Skills

• Programming: Strong Python proficiency including handling pickle files, data processing, and object serialization
• Databases: Solid understanding of PostgreSQL including complex data structures, relationships, and schema interpretation
• APIs: Familiarity with Flask and/or FastAPI frameworks and RESTful API concepts
• Cloud Storage: Experience with S3 or similar object storage services for reading/writing data
• System Investigation: Ability to read and understand existing codebases to extract system behavior
• Version Control: Proficiency with Git and collaborative development workflows

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with data migration or system modernization projects
• Background working with legacy systems or technical debt remediation
• Familiarity with Jupyter notebooks or similar computational environments
• Previous contract or consulting roles requiring rapid onboarding
• Experience in startup or scale-up environments with evolving requirements
• Knowledge of data serialization formats and their trade-offs
• Prior work extracting understanding from poorly documented codebases
• Experience balancing technical perfection with business pragmatism

Soft Skills

• Communication Excellence: Exceptional verbal communication for knowledge transfer through discussions; clear articulation of technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders (Customer Success, Product)
• Rapid Learning & System Investigation: Ability to quickly understand complex, undocumented systems through code inspection and experimentation; comfort with ambiguity
• Velocity & Pragmatism: Thrives in fast-paced environments with a 3-month delivery window; makes practical trade-offs between thoroughness and speed
• Collaboration & Stakeholder Management: Partners effectively with Customer Success and Product; team player; builds relationships quickly for knowledge transfer
• Adaptability & Ownership: Comfortable with evolving requirements; takes full ownership of deliverables; maintains composure in a dynamic organization
• Results-Oriented Mindset: Focuses on meeting defined business requirements; prioritizes work that directly impacts migration success and timeline

Note

Key challenges include extracting understanding from undocumented legacy systems, balancing speed with quality in a tight timeline, and navigating requirements through multiple stakeholders.