Fellow, Data Engineering

Overview

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) delivers high-impact technical solutions to complex national security issues. With over 50 years of business expertise and consistent growth, SPA is known for continuous innovation for its government customers, both in the U.S. and abroad. The company’s Fellows program aligns positions with capabilities and domains across all divisions. The Data Engineering Fellow serves as the corporate lead responsible for strategic leadership, guidance, and mentoring in data‑driven engineering, analytics, and architectures.

The Data Engineering Fellow reports to the Chief Capabilities Office (CCO) and will design and mature robust data architectures and analytic approaches that leverage structured, semi‑structured, and unstructured data to deliver actionable insights. This is a fractional, part‑time role expected to average approximately 40 hours per quarter (roughly one week of full‑time effort every three months), focused on high‑impact strategic contributions rather than day‑to‑day operations.

• Cultivation of market‑relevant SPA expertise in data engineering and analytics
  • Define expert knowledge and skills across Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels, sustaining structured repositories including white papers, case studies, and pedigreed data sets. Implement quality assurance within training, products, and development processes related to data engineering. Define an expertise assessment process leading to tiered certifications for the Capability.
  • Ensure high‑quality training at all expert levels by promoting best practices, emerging techniques, and professional development across SPA. Provide training through a community of practice and encourage personal expertise growth.
• Market & Client Visibility
  • Represent SPA expertise across market/client platforms, conferences, and social media.
  • Participate in strategy sessions for data‑driven solutions on high‑priority opportunities and support proposal development by contributing insights or identifying expertise partners.
  • Train the team in client engagement, professional presentations, and writing, supporting customer meetings and engagements as appropriate to the capture and business development process.
• Be at the cutting edge
  • Lead forward‑looking initiatives that support innovation, stay ahead of market trends, and position SPA as an industry thought leader. Focus areas include:
  • Strategic data and analytics guidance
    :
    Provide periodic strategic guidance on SPA’s enterprise data engineering and analytics strategy, ensuring alignment with government customer mission requirements and federal priorities.
  • Architecture and technical review
    :
    Review and advise on the design of data platforms and pipelines, including data lakes, warehouses, and streaming architecture.
  • Data governance and best practices
    :
    Advise on data modeling, quality, storage, and governance frameworks in alignment with federal data policies.
  • Advanced data engineering, analytics, and predictive modeling
    :
    Provide expert input on data curation, ingestion, normalization, and labeling for statistical models and machine learning solutions.
  • Visualization and decision support
    :
    Advise on the design of dashboards, geospatial products, and interactive visualizations that support senior decision‑makers.
• Data Engineering Support for Artificial Intelligence
  • Assist the Applied AI Fellow in incorporating data engineering best practices into emerging AI methods and architectures, guiding the curation and labeling of data to support AI enablement.

• Active DoD Secret clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret clearance.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
• 15+ years of progressively responsible experience in data engineering, enterprise data architecture, analytics, or related technical leadership roles.
• Demonstrated national‑level technical leadership and recognition as a subject matter expert in data engineering, enterprise data architecture, or advanced analytics.
• Extensive experience…