Data Engineer

Defense Unicorns is a company focused on delivering mission value by streamlining software delivery for their customers. They are seeking a Data Engineer to design data workflows and pipelines, ensuring data quality and compliance with industry regulations while working within AWS cloud and on-prem environments.

Responsibilities:

• Designing data workflows, pipelines, and pathways to support ETL/ELT, while ensuring data-quality and exchange of sensitive information across AWS cloud and on-prem environments
• Implementing systems engineering principles to ensure the reliability, scalability, and maintainability of data layer systems, including backup and recovery strategies
• Architecting, deploying, and operating data streaming technologies (Kafka, Redpanda, Kinesis, etc ) on Kubernetes with an emphasis on declarative definitions to reduce complexity in day-2 operations
• Working with a platform team to implement best practices for configuration management, security, and performance optimization within Kubernetes and AWS environments
• Working with a platform team to automate infrastructure provisioning, monitoring, and scaling using tools such as Terraform working with cybersecurity SMEs to incorporate best practices and techniques to defend our data layer against potential threats
• Ensuring that our data layer systems are compliant with industry and DoD regulations, standards, and best-practices
• Staying up-to-date with industry trends and emerging technologies related to Kubernetes, containerization, and data engineering

Requirements:

• U.S. Citizenship is required
• Demonstrated experience (minimum 5 years) in building and maintaining production data pipelines, databases, and data exchange services on Kubernetes
• Experience in designing, deploying, and operating Kafka / Redpanda data streaming solutions on Kubernetes
• Experience in creating data pipelines from scratch with the ability to process data in large volumes and manage data stores
• Experience with containerization technologies such as Docker and container orchestration systems like Kubernetes
• Knowledge of systems engineering principles to ensure the reliability, scalability, and maintainability of data layer systems
• Familiarity with API Security, Container Security, AWS Cloud Security
• Familiarity with cybersecurity principles and best practices for securing data layer systems
• Excellent problem-solving skills, with the ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex ideas to both technical and non-technical team members
• The selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background check ('CBI') and must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret-level DoD security clearance
• Experience with machine learning and generative AI models