Data Engineer

Job Description

Position Title: Data Engineer

Location: Strategy, Data, and Accountability

Salary: $99,486 - $134,599

Reports to: Senior Data Engineer & Infrastructure Architect

Bargaining Unit: N/A

Benefits Eligible: Yes

Telecommuting Eligibility: Eligible for telecommuting up to 40% (2 days per week)

The Data Services department is seeking a Data Engineer to modernize and expand our data infrastructure serving over 50,000 students. In this role, you will serve as the primary owner for data pipelines and domains. You will be expected to lead development and maintenance to data pipelines, understanding how changes affect downstream business processes and school-level users, and incorporating that context into design, testing, and deployment decisions.

This role offers the opportunity to work on meaningful technical problems while collaborating with a skilled team of engineers, analysts, and BI developers. You'll help shape our data strategy and contribute to best practices that will scale with the district's growing needs.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Analytics, or a related technical field, and/or equivalent experience

• 3-5 years of experience building and maintaining production data pipelines
• Strong proficiency in Python for data engineering workflows (pandas, SQL integration, API development)
• Expert command of SQL with experience in query optimization and database design in Microsoft SQL Server environments
• Experience implementing data quality frameworks and validation processes
• Demonstrated ability to write and maintain unit tests for both Python and SQL code
• Experience with version control systems (Git) and development best practices
• Strong documentation skills and ability to communicate technical approaches clearly

• Experience migrating legacy ETL processes (SSIS, stored procedures) to modern Python-based pipelines.
• Familiarity with educational data systems or urban public school districts.
• Experience with Continuous Integration / Continuous Development (CI/CD) practices for data pipelines.
• Knowledge of data architecture patterns (bronze/silver/gold, medallion architecture).
• Experience working in hybrid cloud/on-premises environments (Azure preferred).
• Demonstrated experience working in a multi-engineer agile or iterative development environment with regular sprints, stand-ups, and retrospectives with shared ownership, iterative handoffs, and production change management.

• Contribute to the redesign and migration of legacy SSIS pipelines to Python-based solutions, improving maintainability, performance, and scalability.
• Lead the design and development of scalable data pipelines that extract, transform, and load data from multiple sources into our enterprise data warehouse.
• Implement workflow orchestration for complex, multi-step data processes with appropriate monitoring, alerting, and error handling.

• Implement data validation frameworks throughout the data processing lifecycle, with particular attention to how data accuracy, timing, and availability affect downstream reporting, school operations, and end users.
• Develop and maintain unit testing practices for both Python and SQL codebases, ensuring reliability and preventing regressions.
• Monitor and optimize pipeline performance, query efficiency, and resource utilization.

• Collaborate with other data engineers and contract resources on shared initiatives, including coordinating handoffs, reviewing work for quality and consistency, and ensuring alignment with established architectural patterns.
• Create and maintain clear technical documentation for pipelines, business logic, and data transformations.
• Support urgent data requests and investigations as needed.

• Perform other duties as assigned by the Senior Data Engineer & Infrastructure Architect

Internal Applicants: If you are a current Detroit Public Schools Community District employee, you do not have to submit to a new security clearance, unless your new role requires a different type of criminal background check.

External Applicants: In alignment with Michigan law, if you are hired to fill a position, you will be required to submit to a Detroit Public Schools Community District criminal background check. Information regarding required background checks will be shared at point of hire.

Applicants must apply through the online application system. Only applications submitted through the online application system will be considered for any posted position and all applications require a resume to be considered.

Successful candidates are required to submit official transcript(s) at point of offer to hire. Teaching service outside of the Detroit Public Schools Community District must be verified by the applicant's prior employer(s) prior to hire. It is the…