Data Architect

T-Rex Solutions • Suitland, MD

7d

About The Position

T-Rex Solutions is seeking a Data Architect to support the 2028 Census Test, an end-to-end rehearsal of operations for the 2030 Decennial Census. The role will help verify and refine enterprise processes and data systems for a large-scale national survey. The solution centers on an AWS Redshift data lake and is intended to shift processing from batch-based operations toward incremental processing of individual responses as they are collected, while expanding the use of administrative data.

The Data Architect will design and guide data structures for the Census Enterprise Data Lake, supporting more than 350 million person records, over 18 million address records, and associated administrative data. The position works closely with client teams, system owners, statistical organizations, senior management, and other contractors to translate business needs into scalable data-driven solutions and maintain alignment with the Census Bureau Enterprise Master Data Model. It provides technical and management leadership on major assignments, establishes plans and goals, and develops roadmaps and technical strategy for an enterprise data framework.

Requirements

• At least 7 years of experience developing enterprise-scale data architecture and data engineering solutions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Expertise using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and/or other cloud environments.
• Expertise with data warehouses such as Redshift, Snowflake, or similar technologies.
• Expertise with cloud data services and structures beyond data warehouses, such as data lakes, Iceberg tables, document databases, key-value databases, and time-series databases.
• Strong general data engineering knowledge, including data transformation, data loading, procedure writing, and querying.
• Solid skills in distributed and concurrent data processing, including using partitions and indexes to improve performance.
• Strong background with data infrastructure and services such as AWS EMR clusters, AWS RDS, EC2, and S3.
• Ability to design scalable data models in hybrid environments combining big-data platforms and traditional databases.
• Ability to evaluate design and implementation from a data security perspective.
• Strong data management and transformation skills to develop efficient solutions for business outcomes.
• Hands-on knowledge of data fabric architectures, data meshes, data analytics, big-data platforms, and data visualization.
• Solid understanding of software engineering principles, design methodologies, technology architecture, and IT industry best practices.
• Solid understanding of Agile methodologies and experience working in an Agile development environment with development and architecture teams.
• Ability to obtain Public Trust (MBI) clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Expertise recommending analytical and reporting tools in the federal market.
• Expertise with data transformation and migration using AWS technologies and open-source tools.
• Experience adopting AI/ML technologies and applying them to enterprise datasets.
• Hands-on experience with data engineering and data science efforts such as data ingestion, cleansing, and transformation.

Responsibilities

• Design the data architecture for the Census Enterprise Data Lake supporting 2030 Census processing.
• Analyze data workflows and detailed requirements and map them to big-data artifacts in a cloud environment.
• Review the high-level decennial data architecture across more than 50 enterprise systems.
• Produce conceptual, logical, and lineage data models for management and technical users.
• Work with system owners to identify key data entities and relationships based on business context.
• Build prototypes to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the big-data design approach.
• Review Census datasets and conduct empirical studies as needed to develop an optimal data infrastructure.
• Identify complex relationships across datasets and define corresponding data objects for incremental processing.
• Coordinate with system teams and contractors to design structures that support data population, updates, maintenance, search, and comparison with administrative data for quality assurance and other purposes.
• Coordinate with statistical organizations to design data structures that facilitate analysis.
• Coordinate with the Census Bureau data architect to align with the Enterprise Master Data Model.
• Work closely with client teams to understand business needs and identify key solution areas.
• Provide technical and management leadership on major tasks or technology assignments; establish goals and plans that meet project objectives.
• Develop roadmaps and technical strategy for developing and delivering a new enterprise data framework.
• Translate business requirements into data-driven solutions, including architecture design, component standardization, technical process flows, and cost-effective implementation approaches.
• Participate as needed in software development activities, particularly planning, analysis, design, integration, and presentation.
• Apply data architecture principles and design methods to requirements within a complex, large-scale enterprise data framework.
• Coordinate with senior management on project activities, including business analysis, client collaboration, product provisions, and project staffing.
• Provide high-level support for system design, development, integration, and coordination.

Benefits

• PTO available immediately upon joining, prorated based on start date.
• Paid parental leave.
• Individual and family health, vision, and dental benefits.
• Annual budget for training, professional development, and tuition reimbursement.
• 401(k) plan with company match, fully vested after 60 days of employment.
• Performance bonuses.
• Competitive salary.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior