Application Guide

How to Apply for Data Engineering Manager

at Afresh Technologies

🏢 About Afresh Technologies

Afresh Technologies is an AI-driven platform that partners with major grocers like Albertsons and Meijer to reduce food waste in the fresh food supply chain. In 2025 alone, their software helped save 200 million pounds of food waste, and they've experienced record-breaking 70% growth. If you want to work at a mission-driven company where your engineering efforts directly translate into massive social and environmental impact, Afresh is the place.

About This Role

As the Data Engineering Manager, you'll lead the Core Data Engineering team responsible for integrating new grocery customers onto Afresh's platform and improving the processes and code that make integrations faster and more reliable. Your team will also build core dataflows that power new products. This role is critical because customer growth is accelerating, and you'll drive the scalability and reliability of data integration across all fresh departments.

💡 A Day in the Life

You'll start by reviewing your team's progress on active customer integrations, then jump into a design session for a new data pipeline to support a product launch. After a cross-functional sync with product and customer success, you'll pair with an engineer on optimizing an ETL job, and end the day by planning sprint priorities with your team.

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Interview Prep

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🎯 Who Afresh Technologies Is Looking For

  • Has 5+ years of data engineering experience with at least 2 years managing teams, ideally in a fast-growth SaaS or AI company.
  • Deeply experienced with data integration pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and handling large-scale, messy data (e.g., from grocery supply chains).
  • Strong in Python and SQL, with hands-on experience in cloud data warehousing (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery) and orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow).
  • Passionate about reducing food waste and excited to work on a product that directly contributes to social good.

📝 Tips for Applying to Afresh Technologies

1

Highlight specific examples of leading data integration projects that improved speed or reliability, especially in a high-growth environment.

2

Emphasize experience with customer-facing data pipelines and managing stakeholder expectations during onboarding.

3

Showcase your ability to balance hands-on coding with team management—mention any mentoring or process improvement initiatives.

4

Research Afresh's product suite (e.g., Fresh Buying, Full Store Suite) and mention how your experience aligns with scaling multi-product integrations.

5

Tailor your resume to include keywords like 'data integration,' 'customer onboarding,' 'ETL,' 'food supply chain,' and 'AI platform.'

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

["Your passion for reducing food waste and how your skills can directly contribute to Afresh's mission.", 'Specific examples of leading data engineering teams through rapid growth and scaling integration processes.', "Experience with complex, real-world data (e.g., supply chain, retail) and how you've improved data quality or pipeline reliability.", 'Your leadership philosophy and how you foster collaboration between engineering, product, and customer success teams.']

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Read about Afresh's products: Fresh Order, Fresh Store, and DC Fresh Buying to understand the data flows involved.
  • → Look into Afresh's blog or press releases about their 2025 growth and partnerships with major grocers.
  • → Understand the fresh food supply chain challenges (e.g., perishability, variability) and how data engineering can address them.
  • → Check Afresh's engineering culture on Glassdoor or LinkedIn to see what current/former employees say about the team.

💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 How would you design a scalable data integration pipeline for a new grocery customer with multiple data formats?
2 Describe a time you improved the speed or reliability of customer data onboarding. What metrics did you use?
3 How do you balance technical debt with the need for fast customer integrations in a growing company?
4 Walk us through how you'd debug a data quality issue in a pipeline that affects downstream ML models.
5 How do you prioritize projects across your team when multiple customers have urgent integration needs?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don't focus only on technical skills without showing leadership experience or a people-first mindset.
  • Avoid being generic about 'food waste'—show genuine interest and understanding of Afresh's specific impact.
  • Don't ignore the customer integration aspect; this role is heavily about onboarding, not just building internal data platforms.

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to Afresh Technologies!

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