Data Engineer – Data Architecture for Data Science & Machine Learning
The Pennsylvania State University3 months ago
Reston, VA, USASenior / Staff+
Base Salary
$146k - $319k/yr
Responsibilities
- Design and maintain scalable, high-performance database solutions for data science workflows and ML experimentation.
- Partner with data scientists to understand access patterns and develop storage strategies that accelerate analysis and model training.
- Serve as the internal PostgreSQL subject matter expert, including schema design, indexing, partitioning, replication, and query optimization.
- Evaluate and integrate relational, NoSQL, graph, time-series, and other database technologies based on data use cases.
- Optimize data pipelines for structured and unstructured data used in algorithm development.
- Ensure data integrity, security, and governance across storage systems.
- Implement monitoring, automation, and performance-tuning tools for database environments.
- Advise on data lifecycle management while balancing R&D accessibility, efficiency, and compliance.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of experience in data engineering, database architecture, or related technical roles.
- Expert-level proficiency with PostgreSQL, including query tuning, schema design, indexing, partitioning, and replication.
- Strong understanding of data modeling, normalization and denormalization tradeoffs, and query optimization.
- Experience with non-relational databases such as MongoDB, Cassandra, Neo4j, Redis, or DynamoDB.
- Familiarity with machine learning workflows and data usage for training, evaluation, and deployment.
- Experience with AWS RDS/Aurora, GCP Cloud SQL, or Azure Database.
- Proficiency in SQL and one or more scripting languages, with Python preferred.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills when working with data scientists, ML engineers, and software developers.
- Preferred: experience architecting hybrid data ecosystems across relational, NoSQL, and analytical databases.
- Preferred: knowledge of data lake, data warehouse, and feature store architectures, including Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, or Feast.
- Preferred: familiarity with ETL/ELT frameworks and orchestration tools such as Airflow or dbt.
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Science is required; the posting also identifies Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field as relevant.
- Must be a U.S. citizen, eligible to obtain a government security clearance, and able to participate in the ARL drug testing program and applicable monitoring requirements.
- Successful completion of required background checks is required.
Benefits
- Full-time employees receive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
- Benefits include retirement plans, holidays, vacation, and sick time.
- Employees and eligible spouses and children may receive a 75% tuition discount.
- The position is fully on-site in State College, PA, or Reston, VA; remote or hybrid work is not guaranteed.
- The role supports work in secure environments involving Unclassified, Controlled Unclassified Information, and Classified information.
Tech Stack
Amazon DynamoDBAmazon RedshiftApache AirflowApache CassandraAWSAzuredbtGoogle BigQueryGoogle Cloud PlatformMongoDBNeo4jPostgreSQLPythonRedisSnowflakeSQL
Categories
Data Engineering
About The Pennsylvania State University
The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State is a University Affiliated Research Center that delivers contract research, prototyping, and systems engineering for U.S. national security and related sponsors. Its work spans undersea systems, communications, navigation, acoustics, fluid dynamics, and advanced materials and manufacturing. Founded in 1945 and based in State College, Pennsylvania, ARL operates within The Pennsylvania State University and is funded largely through federal contracts and grants.