diff --git a/posthog/temporal/batch_exports/temporary_file.py b/posthog/temporal/batch_exports/temporary_file.py
index f955f45553727..46cfb26b418ca 100644
--- a/posthog/temporal/batch_exports/temporary_file.py
+++ b/posthog/temporal/batch_exports/temporary_file.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 """This module contains a temporary file to stage data in batch exports."""
+
 import abc
 import collections.abc
 import contextlib
@@ -14,8 +15,25 @@
 import pyarrow.parquet as pq
 
 
+def replace_broken_unicode(obj):
+    if isinstance(obj, str):
+        return obj.encode("utf-8", "replace").decode("utf-8")
+    elif isinstance(obj, list):
+        return [replace_broken_unicode(item) for item in obj]
+    elif isinstance(obj, dict):
+        return {replace_broken_unicode(key): replace_broken_unicode(value) for key, value in obj.items()}
+    else:
+        return obj
+
+
 def json_dumps_bytes(d) -> bytes:
-    return orjson.dumps(d, default=str)
+    try:
+        return orjson.dumps(d, default=str)
+    except orjson.JSONEncodeError:
+        # orjson is very strict about invalid unicode. This slow path protects us against
+        # things we've observed in practice, like single surrogate codes, e.g. "\ud83d"
+        cleaned_d = replace_broken_unicode(d)
+        return orjson.dumps(cleaned_d, default=str)
 
 
 class BatchExportTemporaryFile:
@@ -131,7 +149,13 @@ def write_record_as_bytes(self, record: bytes):
     def write_records_to_jsonl(self, records):
         """Write records to a temporary file as JSONL."""
         if len(records) == 1:
-            jsonl_dump = orjson.dumps(records[0], option=orjson.OPT_APPEND_NEWLINE, default=str)
+            try:
+                jsonl_dump = orjson.dumps(records[0], option=orjson.OPT_APPEND_NEWLINE, default=str)
+            except orjson.JSONEncodeError:
+                # orjson is very strict about invalid unicode. This slow path protects us against
+                # things we've observed in practice, like single surrogate codes, e.g. "\ud83d"
+                cleaned_record = replace_broken_unicode(records[0])
+                jsonl_dump = orjson.dumps(cleaned_record, option=orjson.OPT_APPEND_NEWLINE, default=str)
         else:
             jsonl_dump = b"\n".join(map(json_dumps_bytes, records))
 
@@ -405,7 +429,13 @@ def __init__(
 
     def write(self, content: bytes) -> int:
         """Write a single row of JSONL."""
-        n = self.batch_export_file.write(orjson.dumps(content, default=str) + b"\n")
+        try:
+            n = self.batch_export_file.write(orjson.dumps(content, default=str) + b"\n")
+        except orjson.JSONEncodeError:
+            # orjson is very strict about invalid unicode. This slow path protects us against
+            # things we've observed in practice, like single surrogate codes, e.g. "\ud83d"
+            cleaned_content = replace_broken_unicode(content)
+            n = self.batch_export_file.write(orjson.dumps(cleaned_content, default=str) + b"\n")
         return n
 
     def _write_record_batch(self, record_batch: pa.RecordBatch) -> None:
diff --git a/posthog/temporal/tests/batch_exports/test_temporary_file.py b/posthog/temporal/tests/batch_exports/test_temporary_file.py
index 4fd7e69c0c12f..8995486ec90e4 100644
--- a/posthog/temporal/tests/batch_exports/test_temporary_file.py
+++ b/posthog/temporal/tests/batch_exports/test_temporary_file.py
@@ -88,6 +88,15 @@ def test_batch_export_temporary_file_write_records_to_jsonl(records):
         assert be_file.records_since_last_reset == 0
 
 
+def test_batch_export_temporary_file_write_records_to_jsonl_invalid_unicode():
+    with BatchExportTemporaryFile() as be_file:
+        be_file.write_records_to_jsonl(["hello\ud83dworld"])
+
+        be_file.seek(0)
+        # Invalid single surrogate is replaced with a question mark.
+        assert json.loads(be_file.readlines()[0]) == "hello?world"
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "records",
     TEST_RECORDS,