Data Engineer

Strategic Innovation Group LLC is hiring a Senior Data Engineer to lead the data core of a new analytics platform for a federal government client in an on-premises FedRAMP Moderate environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement a centralized PostgreSQL data layer with a governed schema and shared data vocabulary defined with the data governance lead.
• Architect a scalable ingestion pipeline in Python using an orchestration framework such as Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, or comparable to collect, normalize, validate, and persist structured and unstructured data.
• Ingest and normalize data from agency financial-management, program-management, and payment systems, plus Government-wide data sources.
• Build configuration-driven connectors (REST APIs, flat files, database replication, SFTP) that are reusable across agencies without source-code changes.
• Deliver connectors through the program CI/CD pipeline (GitLab, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps), including automated build, test, and security scanning to the client’s Rancher-managed Kubernetes platform.
• Implement PII anonymization, data-handling practices, and access controls during ingestion in coordination with the security lead, aligned to NIST SP 800-53 Moderate controls.
• Implement deterministic, inspectable analytic rules and threshold-based indicators as SQL for scheduled refresh, and document the data and criteria behind each rule.
• Lead data-quality error detection: identify, categorize, track, resolve, and report defects and anomalies across the full lifecycle.
• Capture metadata and data lineage, and provide data-currency indicators (source, last refreshed, next refresh) for the user interface.
• Establish coding, code-review, testing, and documentation standards for the data team; review the Data Engineer’s work; coordinate with application developers on API access to the data core.
• Troubleshoot pipeline failures, data discrepancies, and query performance bottlenecks.
• Create technical documentation, data dictionaries, and runbooks, and perform knowledge transfer so client staff can operate, maintain, and extend pipelines with minimal contractor reliance.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies, sprint planning, code reviews, demonstrations, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
• 8+ years of professional data engineering experience, including 3+ years as a technical lead or senior engineer on a production data platform (or 6+ years with a Master’s degree).
• Expert SQL and PostgreSQL data modeling, including normalized and analytic schemas, partitioning, indexing, and performance tuning.
• Strong Python for pipeline development and hands-on experience with Airflow, Dagster, or Prefect.
• Experience designing reusable, configuration-driven ingestion from heterogeneous sources with schema validation and data-quality checks.
• Experience deploying pipelines in containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes) with Git-based version control and CI/CD.
• Experience handling PII and sensitive financial or program data under NIST SP 800-53 (or equivalent) controls.
• Experience working in Agile software development and collaborating with technical and non-technical stakeholders in a federal contracting environment.
• Strong written communication for data-model documentation, runbooks, and knowledge transfer.

Technologies

• PostgreSQL
• Python
• Airflow, Dagster, Prefect
• REST APIs, SFTP
• GitLab, Jenkins, Azure DevOps
• Rancher, Kubernetes, Docker
• CI/CD, Git-based version control
• NIST SP 800-53
• SQL

Location

• Arlington, VA (onsite)

Compensation

• USD 135,000 - 155,000 per year

Benefits

• Great work/life balance
• Eligibility for performance-based participation in cash bonuses
• Potential to participate in growth of the company through incentives
• Excellent benefits: health, dental, vision, generous PTO, 401(k) with match, life insurance, short- and long-term disability, and an HSA

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal civilian, financial-oversight, budget, or program-management IT systems.
• Experience integrating data from enterprise financial systems (e.g., SAP S/4HANA, Oracle, or comparable ERP) and Treasury or payment platforms.
• Experience with grants management or federal financial systems (e.g., GrantSolutions, eRA, Treasury payment systems) highly preferred.
• Experience extracting structured data from unstructured documents (PDF, DOCX) at scale.
• Experience with metadata management, data-lineage, and data-catalog tooling.
• Experience deploying to Kubernetes (Rancher preferred) in an on-premises federal environment with restricted internet access.
• Familiarity with Splunk log integration and NIST SP 800-53 audit-logging requirements.