Institutional Data Engineer

Join a mission-driven team at the University of South Carolina, supporting reliable institutional analytics through enterprise data engineering, integrations, and modernization. This onsite role in Richland, SC helps keep institutional reporting accurate, consistent, and available, while contributing to improvements across the USC system.

What you’ll do

Design, develop, maintain, and optimize USC’s enterprise data infrastructure and analytical environments to enable trustworthy institutional analytics and reporting. You will build scalable data pipeline and ETL/ELT capabilities, support data quality and governance efforts, and help modernize analytics capabilities for the campus and the university system.

• Provide scalable, reliable access to institutional data.
• Improve data accuracy, completeness, and consistency through validation, reconciliation, and quality assurance processes.
• Design, develop, and maintain enterprise data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and system integrations, including automated workflows supporting reporting and analytics.
• Partner with data architects on technical standards and optimization of enterprise data models, data warehouses, curated datasets, and database objects that support scalable and secure access.
• Create and optimize database objects such as views and stored procedures to enhance performance and scalability.
• Monitor data architecture and system performance, troubleshoot issues, and implement corrective actions to ensure reliability and availability.
• Support integration of data across the Columbia campus and university system institutions to promote consistency and comparability of reporting.
• Implement automated monitoring and exception reporting to proactively detect data quality issues and resolve discrepancies across source systems, reporting environments, and analytical datasets.
• Collaborate with data stewards and functional offices to recommend, establish, and maintain data standards and business rules; support enterprise data governance and data stewardship practices.
• Maintain system and process documentation, technical specifications, and metadata.
• Perform routine maintenance, upgrades, testing, and deployment activities for data infrastructure and integration processes.
• Research and evaluate emerging technologies, tools, and methodologies that enhance institutional analytics and data management capabilities.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual processes and improve operational efficiency.
• Participate in cross-functional project teams and working groups; translate functional requirements into technical specifications and data solutions.
• Support modernization initiatives involving cloud technologies, advanced analytics, and data platform enhancements.
• Contribute to training and knowledge sharing, including mentoring junior engineers and technicians across the USC system.

What you bring

• Education/experience: Bachelor’s degree in a job-related field and 3 or more years of job-related experience (or an equivalent combination of job-related certification, training, education, and/or experience).
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to work well across distributed teams.
• Demonstrated proficiency with data engineering technologies and processes, including SQL, relational databases, ETL/ELT, and data warehousing.
• Strategic vision and operational excellence for IT service delivery.
• Comfort working in a collaborative culture that values curiosity and innovation.

Tools and technologies

SQL, relational databases, ETL/ELT technologies, data warehousing, IBM DataStorage, Informatica, SSIS, Cognos, Tableau, PowerBI, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, dimensional modeling, cloud technologies, database objects, data models, data warehouses, stored procedures, views, automation, dashboards, self-service analytics, and data integration environments.

Preferred qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Analytics, Information Systems, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field.
• Strong proficiency in ETL tools (IBM DataStorage, Informatica, SSIS) and BI tools (Cognos, Tableau, PowerBI), including recommended configuration and security practices in hardware and cloud-based server environments.
• Strong proficiency in SQL for querying, transformation, and optimization.
• Experience with Oracle, SQL Server, or PostgreSQL.
• Familiarity with data warehouse concepts and dimensional modeling.
• Strong analytical skills with attention to detail; excellent collaboration and communication skills.
• Experience in higher education or public sector environments.
• Experience working with enterprise data systems (HR, Finance, Student Information, Learning Management) and large-scale institutional datasets.

Benefits

• Health and life insurance
• Generous paid leave and retirement programs
• Paid Tuition
• Dependent Scholarships
• Annual Leave
• Sick Leave
• 13 Paid Holidays (including an extended December holiday)
• Paid Parental Leave
• Professional Development Opportunities
• Research Grant or time-limited positions may be eligible for all, some, or no benefits, based on the grant or project funding

Additional notes

• Safety-sensitive or security-sensitive positions may be subject to pre-employment and post-employment drug testing per University policy HR 1.95 (Safety Sensitive or Security Sensitive: No).
• Hazardous weather category: Non-Essential.
• Applications are only accepted submitted by October 31, 2026.
• Positions may be closed after five (5) business days at the discretion of the department.