Senior Data Engineer

Leidos is seeking a mission-driven Senior Data Engineer to support the NDOC DOMEX Technology Platform. The role centers on improving data intelligence pipelines for OSINT operations and document media exploitation, with work spanning Elasticsearch and graph-based data platforms, scalable ingestion and ETL, and stateful services deployed in Kubernetes within an agile delivery environment.

Location

Bethesda, MD (onsite)

Compensation

USD 131,300 - 237,350 per year

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize scalable data management solutions that support advanced analytics and AI/ML workloads.
• Build and maintain Elasticsearch and graph-based data platforms for efficient storage, discovery, and analysis of complex hierarchical data.
• Design and optimize Elasticsearch indices for large-scale hierarchical classification structures, enabling high-performance search, aggregation, and update operations.
• Design, implement, and maintain a graph data store for hierarchical graph structures optimized for large, dense batch updates and high-throughput analytics.
• Develop scalable ingestion pipelines that support scalable graph analytics.
• Design data schemas, indexing strategies, and partitioning approaches to maximize query performance, scalability, and storage efficiency.
• Collaborate with infrastructure and platform engineering teams to deploy, operate, and optimize Elasticsearch and graph database services in Kubernetes using cloud-native technologies.
• Partner with Data Scientists and AI/ML engineers to ingest, curate, manage, analyze, and securely expunge datasets throughout the data lifecycle.
• Develop automated data loading, transformation, validation, and quality assurance pipelines for production analytics workflows.
• Optimize graph and search infrastructure for high availability, resilience, and performance under large-scale analytical workloads.
• Collaborate with software engineers and system architects to integrate graph and search services into microservice-based applications.
• Participate in SAFe Agile activities, including sprint planning, design reviews, architecture discussions, and technical demonstrations.
• Support delivery of high-quality software by ensuring sound engineering practices and compliance with policies.
• Coordinate with test teams to develop and monitor automated system integration tests.
• Engage with cross-functional teams to identify and develop high-value integrations with other systems and applications.
• Provide software component input to system design, including hardware/software trade-offs, software reuse, selection of COTS/GOTS in place of new development, and requirements analysis and synthesis from system level to individual software components.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related field and 12–15 years of relevant experience, or Master’s degree with 10–13 years of experience.
• Active Top Secret/SCI clearance and ability to obtain and maintain a Polygraph.
• Elasticsearch/OpenSearch architecture, including index design, mappings, analyzers, and query optimization.
• Experience with graph databases: JanusGraph, Neo4j, TigerGraph, Amazon Neptune, or Memgraph.
• Data modeling for hierarchical and highly connected datasets.
• Large-scale ETL/ELT pipeline development.
• Kubernetes deployment and operations for stateful data services.
• Distributed storage systems and high-volume data ingestion.
• Python or Java for data engineering and automation.

Preferred Skills

You will stand out if you have experience with one or more of the following:

• Experience supporting AI/ML and data science workflows.
• Apache Kafka or similar streaming technologies.
• Experience with Linux, containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure-as-Code.
• Graph analytics frameworks and algorithms, including graph traversal, centrality, community detection, similarity analysis, and link prediction.
• Experience with Keycloak and security best practices (authN/Z, secrets management).
• Experience building and maintaining microservices in Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as CloudFormation, Terraform, or Pulumi.

Technology Stack

• Elasticsearch, OpenSearch
• JanusGraph, Neo4j, TigerGraph, Amazon Neptune, Memgraph
• Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies
• Python, Java
• Elasticsearch/OpenSearch mappings, analyzers, query optimization, Elasticsearch indices
• Graph data store
• Microservice-based applications
• SAFe Agile

Benefits

• Health and Wellness programs
• Income Protection
• Paid Leave
• Retirement

Posting Details

Original posting date: July 27, 2026

Security and Application Integrity

• Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process.
• Leidos will only communicate with you through emails generated by the Leidos.com automated system.
• If you receive an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or other personal information, email [email protected].
• If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Non-Discrimination Commitment

Leidos will provide consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.