Forward Deployed Data Engineer

Abacus Insights•Boston, MA

5h•Remote

About The Position

Abacus Insights is expanding its services for health plans and is seeking a Forward Deployed Data Engineer to join multidisciplinary teams working directly with clients. This role involves going on-site to clients, understanding their environments and source systems, and building data models, pipelines, and integrations to transform fragmented payer data into a governed, analytics-ready foundation, often utilizing Snowflake. The position requires navigating ambiguous situations, applying technical judgment and healthcare fluency, and collaborating with core delivery teams while adhering to Abacus data-modeling practices. This role is a blend of senior data engineering, client consulting, and payer data expertise.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, solution engineering, or a related technical role.
Strong expertise in data modeling, ETL/ELT, integration, databases, data pipelines, and analytics solution design.
Proficiency in SQL, Snowflake, Databricks, Spark, cloud data services, APIs, and integration frameworks; hands-on Snowflake experience strongly preferred.
Experience with healthcare payer, government, claims, eligibility, member, provider, encounter, and care management data.
Familiarity with healthcare interoperability standards and exchange patterns, including FHIR, HL7, EDI, and APIs.
Proven ability to work directly with external clients, senior stakeholders, and ambiguous requirements.
Strong facilitation, requirements-gathering, communication, and structured problem-solving skills.
T-shaped professional with deep technical expertise, broad systems understanding, and sound business judgment.
Self-starter with strong analytical instincts, pragmatic problem solving, and the ability to work on-site with clients as needed.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a consulting, professional services, or other client-facing delivery environment.
Snowflake or Databricks certifications.
Experience with data governance, master data management, or data quality frameworks.
Familiarity with CMS, Medicaid, or Medicare data requirements.

Responsibilities

Design and implement data models, ETL/ELT pipelines, and integrations to bring client payer data into governed, analytics-ready foundations, with a particular focus on Snowflake.
Translate business requirements into scalable technical designs, from ingestion and standardization through analytics-ready data products.
Serve as a trusted technical advisor to client data, IT, and business stakeholders, including senior leaders, and work on-site with clients as engagements require.
Lead discovery sessions and workshops, gather requirements, and bring structure to open-ended problems.
Communicate technical tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Work with core payer datasets—claims, eligibility, member, provider, encounter, and care management data—and advise clients on data quality, mapping, and integration approaches across commercial, government, and other lines of business.
Navigate healthcare interoperability standards and exchange patterns, including FHIR, HL7, EDI, and APIs.
Partner closely with the healthcare SME, AI/product engineer, and core delivery teams on every engagement.
Preserve and apply Abacus data-modeling standards and best practices across client work.
Capture reusable patterns, accelerators, and lessons learned, and contribute to the playbooks and practices that support new and expanded service offerings.