Data Engineer

Nelnet Servicing•Lincoln, NE

8d•$100,000 - $115,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Nelnet is a diversified and innovative company committed to enriching lives through the power of service as a student loan servicer, professional services company, consumer loan originator and servicer, payments processor, renewable energy solutions, and K-12 and higher education expert. For over 40 years, Nelnet has been serving its customers, associates, and communities. The perks of working at Nelnet go beyond our benefits package. When you join the Nelnet team, you're part of a community invested in the success of each individual. That support comes through in our work, as we are united by our mission of creating opportunities for people where they live, learn, and work. The Data Engineer designs and automates data infrastructure to support scalable storage, efficient movement, and reliable access to data for analytics and operational use. This position works alongside Analysts, Product Owners, and Developers to refine the data platform and technical solutions that will put the data at the company’s fingertips. The Data Engineer is responsible for designing and optimizing data capture, transformation, and modeling within the data warehouses to ensure efficient and reliable access to structured data.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience.
Experience with data integration tools, such as Python, Rivery, dbt, PowerBI Dataflows.
Experience with Snowflake.
Proficiency in SQL and Snowflake-specific features (e.g., streams, tasks, file formats, and performance tuning).
Understanding of data modeling principles (e.g., star/snowflake schemas, slowly changing dimensions, normalization).
Experience designing and maintaining reliable, scalable ELT pipelines using both tools and custom code.
Strong Python programming skills for automating data movement, transformation, and API-based ingestion.
Familiarity with PowerBI data architecture and experience managing dataflows and refresh logic.
Ability to troubleshoot and optimize data workflows across systems (e.g., query tuning, job monitoring, and logging).
Clear communication and documentation skills to support collaboration with analysts, engineers, and stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience in the finance sector preferred.

Responsibilities

Build, maintain, and optimize data pipelines to move data into and out of data warehouses efficiently.
Design, structure, and organize Snowflake databases and schemas to support easy access and analytical workloads.
Extract, parse, clean, and validate data from a variety of source systems (databases, APIs, flat files, etc.).
Implement robust, scalable and maintainable automated data ingestion ELT pipelines.
Ensure the ingested data is of high quality and maintains physical and logical integrity.
Participate in design and technical discussions.
Contribute to the implementation and management of data models.
Work closely with Data Analysts and other Data Engineers.
Take ownership of critical data pipelines, including responding promptly when unexpected data gaps or failures occur, even outside normal working hours if needed.