Principal Data Engineer, Operations Manager II (NCS) - Mayor's Office of Performance and Innovation

Baltimore City•Cocoa, FL

8d•$107,187 - $176,715•Onsite

About The Position

The Mayor's Office of Performance and Innovation (OPI) is seeking a mission-driven Data Engineer and Architect to help design and develop Baltimore's next-generation data infrastructure. As a core contributor on the team, you’ll co-develop a centralized, enterprise-wide data warehouse and the secure, reliable, and scalable data pipelines that feed it. Beyond contributing directly to our codebases, the successful candidate will influence data architecture, orchestration, tooling, and governance. This is a high-impact role for a technically skilled engineer who wants to use their talent for public good. This is an engineering role, but the successful candidate will work on an interdisciplinary team of analysts, designers, and managers to ensure products are adopted by agency staff, policymakers, and the public. The Baltimore Innovation Team was founded in 2017 as part of Bloomberg Philanthropies' Innovation Teams network. The team uses deep research around data and human-centered design to iterate creative solutions to large-scale challenges in Baltimore City government. Since inception, it has delivered on projects including police recruiting, youth justice reform, language access services, and the COVID-19 response. In 2023, additional investment helped scale our team to its current 11-person size.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field from an accredited college or university.
7+ years of professional experience in data engineering or related technical role.
Proficiency in Python for data engineering (Pandas, Polars, SQLAlchemy, Object-relational mapping, requests).
Strong SQL skills and experience working with PostgreSQL or other relational databases with an emphasis on geospatial data.
Experience building and maintaining data pipelines (ETL/ELT) using modern tools.
Experience with data model and database design.
Understanding of cloud data workflows, APIs, and modern DevOps tools for CI/CD, logging, and monitoring.
Ability to work collaboratively on GitHub and contribute to shared codebases.
Ability to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds and skillsets.
Strong documentation and communication skills, including the ability to explain complex data structures to non-technical audiences.
Commitment to privacy, accessibility, and ethical use of data.
Knowledge of the principles and practices of public and business administration, including the process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
Knowledge of methods and procedures for the collection or organization, interpretation and presentation of information.
Knowledge of the basic principles of accounting, budgeting, fiscal controls and statistics.
Knowledge of management practices and methods.
Ability to adapt and apply the concepts and techniques of administrative analysis to the needs of specific projects.
Ability to identify problem areas and recommend appropriate solutions based on logical consideration of alternatives.
Ability to interpret and apply a variety of laws, rules, regulations, standards and procedures.
Ability to prepare and present reports or recommendations clearly and concisely.
Ability to compile financial and operational data and to analyze charts reports and statistical and budgetary statements.
Ability to coordinate the activities of various organizational units.
Ability to plan, organize and direct the work of others.
Ability to research and write complex narrative and statistical reports.
Ability to speak and testify effectively before governmental and legal bodies and commissions, the media and community and business groups.
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with city officials, community and business groups.

Nice To Haves

Experience working on civic tech, open data, or public-sector digital products is a plus.

Responsibilities

Develop data models, data Lakehouse-style tiered layers, and orchestration frameworks.
Develop and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines using Python, PostgreSQL, and modern orchestration frameworks.
Implement data quality, monitoring, alerting, and logging mechanisms to ensure pipeline reliability, performance, and transparency.
Automate data ingestion from multiple data sources (e.g., APIs, flat files, databases) into centralized data models for reporting and analysis.
Support ad hoc data curation, visualization, and statistical needs in City Hall.
Translate business questions into technical solutions and data products that surface insights and guide action.
Lead human-centered design projects from discovery through implementation.
Directly manage a three-person project team.
Serve as the primary liaison to stakeholders across city government.
Balance strategic leadership with hands-on facilitation — guiding research, managing timelines, coordinating partners, and ensuring work remains grounded in resident needs while feasible within government systems.