Data Engineer / Backend Developer

Lexical Intelligence, LLC•Bethesda, MD

1d•$125,000 - $145,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Lexical Intelligence provides software and services related to processing large-scale biomedical information sources. Our NLP and analytics software is used by policy and decision makers to evaluate and prioritize current and emerging areas of research. Lexical Intelligence is seeking a Data Engineer / Backend Developer to design, build, and maintain scalable web applications and content management solutions that support enterprise operations and data distribution. This person will drive back-end development, API integrations, and content management framework improvements for cloud-native platforms supporting dynamic data workflows. This role owns key components of back-end application logic, content modeling, and data delivery pipelines, with a strong emphasis on system reliability, maintainability, and clear architecture across the platform. This is a hands-on role responsible for developing robust services, database interactions, content management workflows, and API endpoints to fulfill key functional and mission requirements. The role includes modernizing legacy back-end components, optimizing system performance, and improving content architecture for efficient access and administration.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related discipline, and 5+ years of professional experience in Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, or Data Architecture
Strong knowledge of data integration patterns, data lifecycle management, and modern cloud-based data architecture
Experience designing or implementing data quality frameworks, validation rules, and data observability solutions
Experience working with large, multi-entity datasets and reconciling data across disparate sources
Ability to work independently to deliver data solutions while collaborating within a cross-functional engineering team
Strong hands-on experience with pipeline automation, orchestration, and data framework development
Strong technical writing and documentation skills with meticulous attention to detail.
Proven ability to communicate requirements effectively to engineers, data scientists, and program leadership
Java proficiency required
Experience developing backend data processing systems and working in Linux-based environments; strong proficiency with JSON and API-based data integration

Nice To Haves

Masters degree in a related discipline
Familiarity with large-scale data platforms, biomedical data, or research-focused systems, including data privacy considerations for sensitive or regulated data
Experience supporting public-facing federal systems or APIs
Databricks familiarity
One or more of the following certifications: AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate, Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate/Professional
Cloud architecture / DevOps experience or knowledge

Responsibilities

Design and implement data quality, validation, and observability frameworks, including rules, SLAs, and anomaly detection across ingestion and enrichment pipelines
Build systems to track and report on data completeness, record counts, and changes over time to ensure integrity and detect unexpected variation
Support downstream NLP and analytics pipelines by delivering high-quality, well-structured, and consistently enriched data
Contribute to the modernization of legacy data processing frameworks into reusable, scalable platform components
Develop APIs and data integration services to expose and operationalize curated datasets
Design and implement data mapping, transformation, and normalization across heterogeneous data sources
Implement and modernize automated data ingestion frameworks, including batch pipelines and crawler-based ingestion
Monitor, optimize, and instrument data pipelines for performance, reliability, and transparency
Design and maintain data lineage, metadata, and documentation to provide transparency into data coverage, completeness, and flow
Collaborate with governance and security teams to ensure compliance standards are met and to support ongoing ATO requirements through documentation and system design