Senior Data Engineer

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is looking for an experienced and hands on Senior Data Engineer to join our talented Data Management Division (DMD). STScI is the science operations center for several NASA missions and the DMD is responsible for a multi-petabyte astronomical data archive, the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescope (MAST), which maintains the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Kelper, GALEX and TESS mission data. It will maintain mission data for the future James Webb Space Telescope(JWST), launching in 2021 and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman), launching in 2026.  

You will be leading or involve in design and implementing data management solutions for finding stars and galaxies in the universe.  Your responsibility as the Senior Data Engineer will be to design and develop solutions for data archiving, catalog data searching, implement and optimize data systems. Your duties may include preparing science data ingestion, maintaining the existing database system, developing new data solution for handling large scale dataset.

You know how to examine new data system requirements and standard methodologies of data management. The ideal candidate has experience in handling large data lakes involving RDBMS and NOSQL solutions. You have excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.

Responsibilities in the Role:

Design and implement effective database solutions and models to store and retrieve structured and unstructured data with high volume, high velocity, high variability and high veracity (4 V’s)

Assess the current data management systems, profile or and identify existing functional or performance issues, implement solutions to cope with such issues

Lead or involve in designing and implementing proof of concept projects, including introducing new data management technologies, new database infrastructure, improving systems scalability and maintainability

Design and develop database schema, indexing, data migration scripts, functions or store procedures, support DATA API development activities

Review SQL queries and making recommend areas of improvement

Involve in day-to-day operations, lead or involve in trouble shooting and debugging, fix production issues in a timely manner

Monitor the system performance by performing regular tests, troubleshooting and integrating new features

Experience, Skills and Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or an equivalent relevant field with a minimum of 5+ years of experience in data management.

Strong knowledge of RDBMS database structure

Hands on experience and good knowledge of any NoSQL database

Demonstrated quantitative and qualitative data engineering experiences with data modeling, ETL and scripting development

Strong SQL development experience including building and modifying stored procedures, functions, tables, views, triggers and indexes

Proficient in the composition of Advanced SQL (analytical functions) and query performance tuning

Experience with big data technologies

Experience transforming data in various formats, including JSON, XML, CSV, and zipped files.

Experience with both normalized and dimensional data models, structured and unstructured data, and hands-on knowledge of data integration techniques.

Experience with designing and implementing core architecture and capabilities for data management and processing from prototype to operational applications

Experienced with agile software development and familiar with CI/CD tools

Good skills to interact, communicate, present and influence with both technical and science teams

Candidates must be a US citizen or Permanent Resident. ITAR clearance is required.

Desirable but not mandatory:

Hands-on experiences to build and run large clustered and relational or NoSQL databases, such like Massive Parallel Processing technology based database clusters

Hands-on python programming experience

Experience with AWS services including S3, EC2, Lambda, EMR, RDS, Data-pipeline and other big data technologies

Experience developing software using cloud-native principles like Dev-Ops, and Microservices

To Apply: Share your experience by completing an on-line application. Please upload a cover letter and resume on one PDF document for review. Applications received by July 2, 2021 will receive full consideration.

Direct Link to Job Posting – Senior Data Engineer

STScI offers a flexible and welcoming workspace for all. We offer an excellent and generous benefits package.

Explore our benefits here: Benefits 

*COVID-19 UPDATE: STScI has most staff working virtually from home during the COVID-19 crisis through June 2021. The safety of our staff and community is our top priority. We will continue to interview and screen candidates in this new virtual landscape. Offers of employment can be extended and new hires will onboard virtually. Employees are required to be residents in the Baltimore-Washington area within a limited time from their start date.*

AURA, as a leader in the astronomical community, is committed to diversity and inclusion. AURA develops and supports programs that advance our organizational commitment to diversity, broaden participation, and encourage the advancement of diversity throughout the astronomical scientific workforce. Learn more at www.aura-astronomy.org/diversity.asp

As a recipient of U.S. Government funding, AURA is considered a government contractor and is subject to Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action regulations. As an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, AURA and all of the centers, do not discriminate based on race, sex, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity/gender identity expression, lawful political affiliations, veteran status, disability, and/or any other legally protected status under applicable federal, state, and local equal opportunity laws. The statements below as well as the requests for self-identification are required pursuant to these regulations. We encourage your participation in meeting these federal reporting requirements that are included for protection and to assist us in our record keeping and reporting. Your responses are kept strictly confidential.

STScI sees the diversity of our staff as a strategic priority in our desire to create a first-rate scientific community. We reflect that deep commitment in strongly encouraging women, minorities, veterans and disabled individuals to apply for these opportunities.

Veterans, disabled individuals or wounded warriors needing assistance with the employment process can contact us at [email protected]. EOE/AA/M/F/D/V

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