What It’s Like to Work on BlackLine’s AI Product Engineering Team
Whether he’s developing a new chatbot or consulting a team member about Snowflake best practices, Dylan Kaufman spends his workdays navigating nuance — and unlocking impact for teammates and customers.
About a year ago, Kaufman was hired by BlackLine as a staff I software engineer to work on the company’s customer data platform. After a few months, he transitioned to the AI product engineering team, where he tackles a wide range of tasks including developing BlackLine’s new Verity Prepare product, an AI assistant for preparing account reconciliations, and serving as the company’s Snowflake subject-matter expert.
A hybrid employee, Kaufman frequently collaborates with software engineers, product managers and program managers asynchronously while working on projects to improve and expand the company’s product line. While he enjoys many aspects of his role, there’s one he considers the most rewarding: “Getting new things working on a regular basis.”
Below, Kaufman shares more about his day-to-day work at BlackLine and the tools and team members he leans on to drive success.
What Does BlackLine Do?
BlackLine’s cloud-based software automates and streamlines critical finance and accounting processes like monthly financial close, account reconciliations and intercompany accounting.
What a Staff Data Engineer Does at BlackLine
I have worked here for almost a year, initially as a staff I software engineer working on our Customer Data Platform (data warehouse/lake), particularly focused on Snowflake, including data model and pipeline design, CI/CD patterns for managing Snowflake code and objects, and more. After several months, I switched over to AI product engineering, where I’ve been working on a chatbot for data analysis and our new Verity Prepare product, an AI assistant for preparing account reconciliations.
What is Verity Prepare?
Verity Prepare is BlackLine’s new AI assistant for preparing account reconciliations. The AI-driven workflow can analyze new accounts, identify high-risk items, gather supporting documentation, draft explanations for discrepancies, and prepare a reconciliation for a human accountant’s review and approval. Dylan Kaufman works on the product as part of BlackLine’s AI product engineering team.
What a Typical Day Looks Like for a Data Engineer at BlackLine
At this point, I spend most of my time either in meetings for our current project or working on design or development. I make extensive use of AI (Claude Code) on a daily basis, using it to generate new code, ranging from Terraform setup and GitHub actions to CRUD API and other back-end code development and automated generation of unit and integration tests. I’ve also been contributing to various internal tools written in Go and Python.
What tools do data engineers use at BlackLine?
According to Dylan Kaufman, a staff data engineer on BlackLine’s AI product engineering team, key tools in his workflow include Visual Studio Code and Claude Code. He also uses AI to generate code for Terraform setup, GitHub Actions, CRUD APIs and automated unit and integration tests, and contributes to internal tools written in Go and Python.
How BlackLine Data Engineers Collaborate, What Tools They Use and How Success Is Measured
What does collaboration look like on BlackLine’s AI product engineering team?
I am a hybrid employee, so I work with most of my direct teammates — software engineers, a product manager and a project/program manager — via Microsoft Teams or email. As the company subject-matter expert for Snowflake, I also work with a variety of other colleagues who are doing things related to Snowflake, including internal users and product and engineering teams integrating Snowflake with their parts of the product.
What tool or technology is indispensable in your workflow?
I pretty much live in Visual Studio Code with Claude Code.
Which KPI defines success for your role?
I am focused mostly on improving software features and capabilities to increase sales and decrease attrition by improving and expanding our product line.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a data engineer do at BlackLine?
A data engineer at BlackLine works on the company’s customer data platform and AI product engineering projects. In Dylan Kaufman’s case, that includes Snowflake data model and pipeline design, CI/CD patterns for Snowflake code and objects, a chatbot for data analysis and Verity Prepare, BlackLine’s AI assistant for preparing account reconciliations.
What tools do data engineers use at BlackLine?
Key tools include Visual Studio Code and Claude Code. Kaufman also uses AI to generate code for Terraform setup, GitHub Actions, CRUD APIs and automated unit and integration tests, and contributes to internal tools written in Go and Python.
How does BlackLine use AI in its products?
BlackLine uses AI in products like Verity Prepare, an AI assistant for preparing account reconciliations. Verity Prepare can analyze new accounts, identify high-risk items, gather supporting documentation, draft explanations for discrepancies and prepare a reconciliation for a human accountant’s review and approval.
