Senior Data Engineer

About this role

Job Title: SeniorData Engineer
Location: Remote
Position Type: Full-Time
Clearance Required: Secret Clearance

About the company:
At VivSoft, we aim to solve complex federal problems using emerging and open technologies in a collaborative and rewarding environment. VivSoft is a diverse team of strategists, engineers, designers, and creators experienced in building high-performance, effective software, with a focus on impactful organisational design and software delivery dynamics. We build secure Software Factories based on DoD reference designs and NIST Frameworks for Cloud and DevSecOps. These factories deliver AI/ML Applications, Data Science Platforms, Blockchain and Microservices for DoD, Healthcare and Civilian Agencies

Job Summary:
We are seeking a Senior Data Engineer to support a United States Air Force (USAF) program responsible for building and operating a modern, scalable, and secure data platform. This role will lead the design and optimization of an enterprise lakehouse architecture on AWS, leveraging Apache Iceberg, Apache Spark, and cloud-native technologies to enable advanced analytics, AI/ML initiatives, and operational reporting. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in large-scale data platforms, distributed processing, data governance, and cloud infrastructure while providing technical leadership and mentoring across engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect, build, and manage a cloud-based lakehouse environment using Apache Iceberg, AWS S3, and AWS Glue Catalog.

• Develop and optimize Apache Spark data pipelines on EMR and Kubernetes environments.

• Design and implement event-driven data ingestion solutions using S3 events and Amazon SQS.

• Optimize query performance across Athena, Trino, and Spark SQL environments.

• Orchestrate data workflows and ETL pipelines using Apache Airflow.

• Manage infrastructure deployment and automation using Terraform.

• Develop, publish, monitor, and maintain data products and analytical dashboards.

• Implement data quality, governance, lineage, access controls, and cost management best practices.

• Create technical documentation, architectural designs, and operational runbooks.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineering team members.

Required Skills:

• Must possess an active Secret Clearance

• 8+ years of professional experience in Data Engineering or large-scale data platform development.

• Expertise in Apache Spark, including performance tuning, partitioning, memory optimization, and handling data skew.

• Strong proficiency in Python or Scala and advanced SQL development.

• Experience with open table formats such as Apache Iceberg (preferred) or Delta Lake.

• Strong understanding of distributed query engines, including Athena, Trino, and Spark SQL.

• Hands-on experience with AWS services, including S3, Glue, EMR, Athena, EC2, SQS, and event-driven architectures.

• Experience with Apache Airflow for workflow orchestration.

• Proficiency with Terraform and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

• Experience working with Kubernetes environments.

• Experience developing dashboards and data products using Grafana or similar visualization platforms.

• Strong understanding of data quality, data governance, lineage, and access control frameworks.

• Excellent technical leadership, mentoring, and stakeholder communication skills.

• Ability to translate business, operational, and analytics requirements into scalable data platform solutions.

• Strong collaboration skills with Data Scientists, AI Engineers, Cloud Engineers, and business stakeholders.

• Proven ability to lead technical discussions and mentor junior engineers.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Strong attention to detail regarding data quality, governance, lineage, security, and operational reliability.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience operating and maintaining Apache Iceberg tables at enterprise scale.

• Experience with Trino administration and performance optimization.

• Knowledge of dbt or similar data transformation frameworks.

• Experience with Helm and GitOps deployment methodologies.

• Experience evaluating and implementing modern data visualization platforms beyond Grafana.

• Familiarity with data catalog, metadata management, lineage, and governance tools.

• AWS Data Analytics Certification and/or Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA).

• Prior DoD, USAF, or Federal Government data platform experience.

• Experience supporting AI/ML, data science, or advanced analytics workloads in cloud environments.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision Plans (Healthcare benefits are 100% employer-paid for employees only)

• Life Insurance

• Paid Time Off (Flexible/Combined PTO, Bereavement Leave, 11 Company Paid Holidays)

• 401K Retirement Plan with employer match

• Professional Development Training Reimbursement

Salary Range: $160K to $180K per AnnuallyOriginally posted on Himalayas