Data Engineer/Architect

Data Engineer/Architect

Type: Full-time Salary range: $125,000 – $175,000 per year

Position Summary

The Data Engineer / Architect will design and build the data foundations that AI use cases depend on, assessing data readiness, defining how authoritative data sources are accessed and governed, and delivering reliable, secure pipelines that the solution architects and AI product engineers build on.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience designing and building production data pipelines and data platforms supporting analytics, machine learning or AI solutions.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python, including data modeling for relational, dimensional and lakehouse environments.
• Working knowledge of cloud data services on Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS), such as Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric or Synapse, AWS Glue or Amazon Redshift.
• Hands-on experience preparing data for large language model applications, including document processing, embeddings and vector stores such as Azure AI Search or Amazon OpenSearch.
• Background implementing data governance, security and access controls for sensitive data in federal or regulated environments.
• Strong written and verbal communication with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Bachelor's degree in a related field, with 5+ years of relevant professional experience.

Plusses

• A master's degree is preferred.
• Experience with VA or other federal health data systems and data sharing agreements.
• Microsoft Certified Azure Data Engineer Associate, Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional, AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate or similar.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Assess data availability, quality and readiness for candidate AI use cases during discovery, and flag data risks that affect feasibility.
• Design data architectures for prioritized use cases, including source-to-target data flows, storage patterns and data models suited to analytics and AI workloads.
• Build and maintain data pipelines that ingest, cleanse, transform and deliver data from the client's enterprise systems and authoritative data sources.
• Prepare and structure unstructured content (documents, policies, knowledge articles) for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), including chunking, metadata, embeddings and vector index design.
• Define data access, privacy and handling controls for sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), in line with federal and client requirements.
• Establish data quality checks, lineage and monitoring so pilots produce trustworthy, measurable outcomes.
• Partner with the AI Solutions Architect and AI product engineers to hand off documented data interfaces, and contribute reusable data patterns to the program's workflow library.

Clearance

Must be able to obtain and maintain a federal Public Trust background investigation and agency-issued PIV credential.

Location

Remote (must reside in United States)

Pay: $125,000.00 - $175,000.00 per year

Benefits

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Flexible schedule
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan

Application Question(s)

* Will you now, or in the future, require sponsorship from an employer?

Work Location: Remote