Senior Data & AI Platform Engineer

Randstad is seeking a Senior Data & AI Platform Engineer for an onsite role in Washington, DC, supporting a premier national transportation leader. This pivotal role is designed for a technical visionary who will architect and scale a unified, self‑service data ecosystem using a modern Databricks lakehouse architecture. You will bridge the gap between complex data engineering and advanced AI, leading the design of automated pipelines, MLOps frameworks, and API‑first integrations while mentoring a talented team of engineers.

This is a unique opportunity to modernize critical infrastructure and drive data‑driven innovation for an organization that connects communities across America.

• Architectural Leadership: Lead the evolution of a scalable Data & AI platform, integrating Databricks
  , SAP (Datasphere/S/4), and Denodo virtualization into a governed, self‑service ecosystem.
• Solution Delivery: Act as a hands‑on lead developer for complex data pipelines, feature stores, and API‑driven integrations that power enterprise‑wide analytics and digital experiences.
• MLOps & Automation: Design and implement production‑grade MLOps pipelines
  , including versioning, CI/CD, and monitoring to accelerate the deployment of intelligent models.
• Engineering Excellence: Establish and enforce standards for ingestion, transformation, and "governance‑as‑code" controls embedded directly into technical workflows.
• Mentorship: Foster a culture of excellence by providing technical guidance, code reviews, and professional development for junior and mid‑level engineers.
• Strategic
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Partner with architects, product owners, and governance leads to align technical solutions with the broader enterprise data roadmap.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related technical field (equivalent experience considered).
• Experience: 4 6 years of deep technical experience in data engineering, software development, or data architecture.
• Technical Proficiency: Advanced expertise in Python and SQL with significant experience in Apache Spark and modern Lakehouse architectures (Databricks preferred).
• AI/ML Expertise: Proven experience building MLOps pipelines and internal platform services such as feature stores or semantic layers.
• Modern Infrastructure: Strong understanding of API‑first and event‑driven architectures
  , secure service‑to‑service communication, and RBAC security.
• Agile Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead multi‑functional teams through technical challenges within a scaled Agile environment.
• Soft Skills: Exceptional communication and problem‑solving abilities, with the capacity to explain complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.