Data Engineer, California College Guidance Initiative
About The Position
The California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) is seeking a Data Engineer to join its Cloud Infrastructure Team. The role contributes to the expansion, refinement, and ongoing development of CCGI’s infrastructure using Snowflake and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as its data analytics and engineering tools. The Data Engineer builds and maintains batch and streaming ETL/ELT workloads, containerized cloud workflows, data pipeline automation, and data models supporting warehousing and self-service business intelligence. The position also involves troubleshooting data access, developing technical documentation, and implementing security governance protocols. The role calls for someone comfortable with ambiguity who can advance projects, collaborate with subject matter experts, and take a leadership role in special projects when needed. Experience with K-12 or education data, or an interest in educational systems and equity, is encouraged. The position reports to the Director, Cloud Infrastructure and has no direct supervisory responsibilities. The Data Engineer joins a team of five experienced data engineers working remotely across California. The team oversees CCGI’s cloud-based data infrastructure, data warehousing, engineering and orchestration systems, and user-centered data product design and development. CCGI’s broader mission is to improve students’ transitions from K-12 to higher education and advance educational access and equity through CaliforniaColleges.edu. This is a full-time remote position for candidates who currently live full-time in California, with occasional travel. The salary range is $120,000 to $145,000; the posting also lists a budgeted hourly pay range of $142,000 to $145,000. Final compensation is based on education, experience, relevant skills, and internal equity.
Requirements
- Relevant bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Informatics, Information Systems, or another quantitative field.
- At least three years of experience as a Data Engineer or in a related role.
- Ability to build processes supporting data transformation, data structures, metadata, dependencies, and workload management.
- Advanced proficiency with cloud data warehousing and analytical tools such as Snowflake, Redshift, Spark, or Kafka.
- Expert SQL knowledge and understanding of relational databases, query authoring and optimization, with working familiarity across a variety of databases.
- Advanced proficiency with ETL tools such as Jupyter Notebooks, dbt, or Talend.
- Advanced proficiency with scripting languages such as Python, Scala, or R.
- Advanced proficiency building and optimizing data pipelines and datasets.
- Demonstrated success manipulating, processing, and extracting value from large structured and unstructured datasets.
- Demonstrated ability to develop strong technical documentation.
- Strong data analysis and decision-making skills, including the ability to turn abstract brainstorming into concrete proposals.
- Ability to advance projects without detailed supervision, prioritize tasks, and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
- Experience supporting and collaborating with cross-functional teams in a dynamic environment.
- Ability to develop and maintain trusting professional relationships, give and receive direct feedback, and model CCGI’s values.
- Ability to write accurately, appropriately for the audience, and concisely in task tickets and project-management tools such as Jira.
- Excellent verbal communication skills and ability to explain complex information to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Commitment to increasing educational access and equity.
- Must currently live full-time in California.
Nice To Haves
- Advanced certifications such as SnowPro Core, AWS Cloud Practitioner, or AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate.
- Experience working with K-12 data and/or education data.
Responsibilities
- Lead development, maintenance, and optimization of batch and streaming ETL/ELT processes, including data loading and processing workflows using event-driven architecture and workflow orchestration.
- Develop, containerize, test, and maintain workflows using AWS cloud services, Snowflake data warehouses, Python and SQL scripts, dbt, and shell scripts.
- Review, redesign, and expand data models supporting data warehousing and self-service business intelligence, creating automated pipelines from staged or streamed data through warehouse organization and access via reporting, alerts, or APIs.
- Design and implement automated data pipelines using Python and SQL, integrating systems such as Salesforce, Slack, and AWS services through serverless, cloud-server, and containerized systems.
- Participate in meetings, research, requirements collection, and data analysis, and collaborate with project stakeholders.
- Develop and maintain expert knowledge of CaliforniaColleges.edu data, systems, and business processes.
- Continuously improve data pipelines and architecture by staying current with industry trends and best practices.
- Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Benefits
- Paid holidays
- Sick and vacation leave
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Employee Assistance Program
- Defined benefit retirement plan (CalPERS)
- 403(b) and 457(b) retirement plans
- $50,000 Basic Life and Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance coverage for eligible employees
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Tuition reimbursement
- Voluntary Life Insurance
- Pet insurance
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
