Data Engineer

Strategic Innovation Group (SIG) is building an on-premises analytics platform for a federal government client within a FedRAMP Moderate environment. This role leads the data core of that platform by designing the centralized PostgreSQL data layer, ingestion architecture, and a reusable connector framework that feeds dashboards, analytic rules, and reporting for oversight users.

What you’ll build

You’ll help consolidate structured and unstructured data from agency financial-management, program-management, and payment systems, along with Government-wide data sources. The work includes governing a shared data vocabulary, implementing ingestion-time controls aligned to NIST SP 800-53 Moderate, and ensuring the platform supports deterministic, inspectable analytic SQL that runs on scheduled refresh.

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 Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, or comparable orchestration to collect, normalize, validate, and persist structured and unstructured data.
• Build configuration-driven connectors for REST APIs, flat files, database replication, and SFTP, designed to be reusable across agencies without source-code changes.
• Deploy connectors through the client’s program CI/CD pipeline (GitLab, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps) with automated build, test, and security scanning to a Rancher-managed Kubernetes platform.
• Implement PII anonymization, data-handling, and access controls at ingestion in coordination with the security lead, aligned to NIST SP 800-53 Moderate controls.
• Create analytic rules and threshold-based indicators as deterministic, inspectable SQL that runs on scheduled refresh, with documentation for each rule’s criteria and data.
• Lead data-quality methodology: identify, categorize, track, resolve, and report data defects and anomalies across the lifecycle.
• Capture metadata and data lineage, and expose data-currency indicators (source, last refreshed, next refresh) to the user interface.
• Set engineering standards for the data team for coding, code review, testing, and documentation; review the work of other data engineers.
• Troubleshoot pipeline failures, data discrepancies, and query performance bottlenecks.
• Produce technical documentation, data dictionaries, and runbooks, and deliver knowledge transfer so client staff can operate and extend pipelines with minimal contractor reliance.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, code reviews, demonstrations, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a 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-level SQL and PostgreSQL data modeling, including normalized and analytic schemas, partitioning, indexing, and performance tuning.
• Strong Python with hands-on experience using Airflow, Dagster, or Prefect.
• Experience designing reusable, configuration-driven ingestion from heterogeneous sources with schema validation and data-quality checks.
• Experience deploying pipelines in Docker/Kubernetes environments using 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 environments and collaborating with technical and non-technical stakeholders in a federal contracting context.
• Strong written communication for data-model documentation, runbooks, and knowledge transfer.
• U.S. Citizen with an Active TS or eligible for a Top Secret (Tier 5) clearance. No third party. No H1B or Green Card holders.

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, a 401(k) with match, life insurance, short- and long-term disability, and an HSA

Role context

SIG is a fast-growing 8(a) government contractor based in Arlington, Virginia. This onsite position helps deliver an MVP and an expandable foundation for the analytics platform. You’ll collaborate with the program manager, solutions architect, data governance lead, application developers, configuration manager, security lead, and client stakeholders in an Agile environment.