Senior Systems Engineer; AWS Data Engineer

Overview

Syms Strategic Group (SSG) is seeking a talented Senior Systems Engineer (Amazon Web Services (AWS) Data Engineer).

Location:

Remote

Department:
Veterans Affairs (VA)

Type:
Full Time

Min.

Experience:

Experienced

Security Clearance Level: Public Trust (MBI)

Military Veterans are highly encouraged to apply!

• Lead the next phase of the healthcare data platform modernization.
• Continue the evolution from a MSSQL XML object store toward a scalable, cloud-native AWS data architecture.
• Enable business stakeholders and analysts to run performant, SQL-based reports and queries against the healthcare data seamlessly.
• Evaluate and decide the right AWS data strategy for the team’s platform.
• Evaluate and recommend the optimal AWS-native data storage and query architecture for the XML object store data, assessing options such as S3 + Athena, Aurora, Dynamo
  
  DB, Redshift, and Open Search based on query patterns, reporting needs, cost, and scalability.
• Design and build the reporting and query layer that allows business stakeholders and non-technical users to run relational SQL queries against healthcare data using familiar tooling.
• Architect the migration path for XML object store data from MSSQL into the target AWS platform, defining storage formats, partitioning strategies, and data organization for optimal query performance.
• Build and maintain AWS data catalog(s), schemas, and metadata management so that object store data is discoverable and queryable by business users.
• Optimize query performance and cost across chosen AWS services – partitioning, compression, file formats, and query pattern tuning.
• Work directly with business stakeholders and analysts to understand reporting requirements and translate them into durable, performant data models and query patterns.
• Collaborate with backend C#/.Net engineers to ensure data flows cleanly from EDI processing pipelines into the new data layer.
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines for data infrastructure using AWS-native tooling (Code Pipeline, Code Build, Code Deploy).
• Apply Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices using AWS CDK, Cloud Formation, or Terraform.
• Document architecture decisions, data flows, and data dictionaries clearly for both technical and non-technical audiences.

• 8+ years’ experience in software or data engineering with a strong AWS focus.
• Proven experience architecting and executing cloud data platform migrations in production enterprise or healthcare environments.
• A track record of evaluating and selecting AWS data services to meet business reporting and query requirements.
• Experience delivering reporting or analytics solutions that serve non-technical business users.
• Deep hands-on AWS experience across data-oriented services (S3, Athena, Glue, Aurora, Dynamo
  
  DB, Redshift, Open Search, Lambda, IAM, Cloud Watch).
• Strong SQL skills, with an ability to design relational query layers over semi-structured or non-relational data (XML, JSON).
• Experience working with XML-heavy data stores (parsing, querying, and transforming XML at scale).
• An ability to evaluate trade-offs across AWS data services and make architecture recommendations based on cost, performance, and business requirements.
• Familiarity with AWS analytics and reporting services, including Athena, Quick Sight, Redshift, or equivalent BI tooling.
• Proficiency with Git and Git Hub, branching strategies, pull requests, and collaborative workflows.
• Familiarity with CI/CD practices and AWS-native tooling (Code Pipeline, Code Build, Code Deploy).
• IaC experience (AWS CDK, Cloud Formation, or Terraform).
• A strong ability to communicate technical architecture decisions and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience gathering and translating business reporting requirements into technical data models.
• Comfort driving ambiguous architecture decisions to resolution with limited direction.
• Experience with Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and JIRA.
• Strong documentation habits, including architecture diagrams, data dictionaries, and migration runbooks.

• None required however AWS Certification(s) are a plus.

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