Senior Data Engineer; Public Trust Security Clearance

Position: Senior Data Engineer (Public Trust) with Security Clearance
Location:

Bethesda, MD (Hybrid) Clearance:
Public Trust (Role may require additional background investigations)

Employment Type:

Full-Time US Citizenship is Required

Position Overview:

Praescient Analytics is seeking an experienced Senior Data Engineer to support a major federal data modernization and analytics program. This role is responsible for the design, development, optimization, and operational support of scalable, secure, and high-quality data pipelines that enable advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI-driven decision support in a regulated government environment. The Senior Data Engineer plays a critical role in the client's transition from legacy, on-premises systems to a cloud-native, open-source analytics ecosystem built on Microsoft Azure.

This position ensures that data is reliable, performant, well-governed, and readily consumable by data scientists, analysts, and AI/ML engineers supporting mission-critical use cases.

Key Responsibilities:

* Design, build, and maintain production-grade ETL/ELT pipelines to ingest, transform, and curate large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
* Develop data workflows using Python-based frameworks and Microsoft Azure services, ensuring scalability, reliability, and fault tolerance.
* Optimize data pipelines for performance, cost efficiency, and maintainability.
* Architect and implement data solutions within Microsoft Azure, including:
* Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2)
* Azure SQL and related data services
* Azure Synapse Analytics
* Design and manage workflow orchestration using Azure Data Factory (or equivalent) for scheduling, monitoring, and automation.
* Build and maintain Python-based data services and utilities using open-source libraries such as Pandas, Num Py, and related frameworks.
* Implement logging, monitoring, alerting, and performance tuning to support operational reliability.
* Apply data governance best practices, including data lineage, reproducibility, auditability, and compliance with federal standards.
* Maintain comprehensive documentation, including data dictionaries, pipeline designs, and process flows.
* Work closely with data scientists, AI/ML engineers, analysts, architects, and Agile project managers to ensure data pipelines meet analytical and operational requirements.

Required Qualifications:

Experience
* Minimum of 5+ years of experience designing, building, and operating data pipelines supporting analytics and/or machine learning.
* Demonstrated experience working with large-scale datasets in production environments.
* Proven experience supporting cloud-based data platforms.
* Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or related field - or equivalent professional experience. Technical Skills
* Strong proficiency in Python (Pandas required; Num Py, scikit-learn, and related libraries preferred).
* Advanced SQL skills and experience integrating relational data sources.
* Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure, including Azure Data Lake Storage and Azure SQL.
* Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Azure Data Factory.
* Familiarity with open-source data processing and ETL frameworks.
* Experience with logging, monitoring, and performance optimization for data systems.
* Proficiency with Git-based version control and collaborative development practices. Clearance:
Minimum of a Public Trust (U.S. Citizenship is Required)

Preferred Qualifications:

* Master's degree or higher in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or related field - or equivalent professional experience.
* Microsoft Azure certifications (e.g., Azure Data Engineer Associate) strongly preferred.
* Experience working in federal, public-sector, or other regulated environments.
* Familiarity with data engineering patterns for secure, scalable systems.
* Experience supporting AI/ML workloads, feature engineering pipelines, or near-real-time analytics. What you can expect from us:
* Real opportunity for career growth in an environment where your achievements will be celebrated
* Constant collaboration with numerous teams to ensure client success
* A team that respects and…