Lead Data Engineer, Army NGC2
MITRE
Summary
MITRE's Data Science and Engineering department is looking for qualified applicants to bring their advanced data engineering skills to bear on solving problems of critical national importance. Employees may also participate in MITRE's internal research and development program, which provides funding for innovative applied research that addresses our sponsors' hardest problems.
Job description
Department Summary
MITRE's Data Science and Engineering department is looking for qualified applicants to bring their advanced data engineering skills to bear on solving problems of critical national importance. Employees may also participate in MITRE's internal research and development program, which provides funding for innovative applied research that addresses our sponsors' hardest problems.
Roles & Responsibilities
The successful candidate for this position is an experienced Data Engineer who combines strong foundations in computer science and software engineering with hands-on experience designing and implementing data systems to solve mission problems. This role requires practitioners with expertise in data modeling, processing, infrastructure engineering, and operational deployment.
Specific to this role, a successful candidate should be familiar with the following:
- Department of War data sources, data flows, data formats, integration, and interoperability.
- Tactical networks (i.e., denied, degraded, delayed, and intermittent connectivity) and how they affect data integration.
- Working with Department of War sponsors such as Army Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) and its industry partners to assess, shape, and rapidly iterate on Army and Joint data layer development and integration.
- Modeling and analyzing the flow of data objects from legacy systems to modern data platforms.
- Gathering insights at lab and field integration events with vendors to evaluate the data as it moves through each stage, documenting the rules at each stage that impact the successful transfer of all fields, and identifying existing gaps and recommending solutions.
Expectations for This Position
- Design, build, and operate secure, scalable, and maintainable data platforms and pipelines in cloud-based and self-hosted environments.
- Develop batch and streaming data-processing solutions for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
- Create data models, schemas, interfaces, and storage architectures that support mission and analytical requirements.
- Evaluate and improve data quality, lineage, governance, access controls, and secure data-handling practices.
- Translate sponsor and stakeholder needs into technical requirements and practical engineering solutions.
- Diagnose complex system, performance, reliability, and data-quality problems.
- Evaluate emerging data technologies and recommend their use when they provide meaningful mission or engineering benefits.
- Establish and promote software engineering practices such as automated testing, version control, code review, modular design, observability, and continuous integration.
- Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Contribute to applied research, prototypes, and technical publications, as appropriate.
- Lead technical workstreams or complex projects involving multiple contributors, dependencies, risks, and stakeholders.
- Mentor engineers and transfer technical knowledge across teams.
The candidate should have hands-on experience in several of the areas specified below; however, it is not required that a candidate have experience in all of these areas.
Data Engineering
- Distributed Data Processing and Big Data Architectures, such as Spark, Hadoop, Ray, and Dask
- Data Storage and Data Lakehouse Architectures, such as RDBMS, Amazon S3, Iceberg, and Delta Lake
- Cloud-based Data Platforms, such as Databricks, Palantir Foundry, Microsoft Fabric, and Amazon EMR
- Data Pipeline/ETL Development, Integration, and Orchestration, such as Airflow, Dagster, and NiFi
- Batch and Streaming Data Processing
- Data Modeling, Schema Design, and Data Quality Assessment
- Data Governance, Access Controls, and Secure Data Handling
- Performance Optimization and Reliability Engineering
Software Development
- Computer Programming and Databases – Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL required
- Software Engineering Best Practices (e.g., version control, testing, modular design)
- Linux-based Development Environments, Git, and Cloud Platforms
- Use of Containerization and Orchestration, such as Docker and Kubernetes
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Information Technology, or a related field with 8 years of relevant experience
- Advanced, hands-on proficiency with Data Engineering approaches, including distributed data processing, cloud-based data platforms, data lakehouse architectures, ETL orchestration, data modeling, and data governance
- Must have an active Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance
- Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI U.S Government issued Security Clearance
- Must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance
- Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL
- Minimum of 3 days per week on-site
Benefits
- Competitive benefits
- Career development
Company overview
MITRE is a not-for-profit corporation that operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) for various U.S. government agencies. Founded in 1958, MITRE serves as a critical bridge between government requirements and technological innovation, providing objective analysis and solutions to complex national security and public interest challenges. The organization's work spans multiple domains including cybersecurity, aviation, healthcare, defense systems, and critical infrastructure protection. MITRE operates two primary FFRDCs: one for the Department of Defense and another for the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Homeland Security. The corporation is renowned for developing technical standards and frameworks, most notably the MITRE ATT&CK framework for cybersecurity threat modeling. With a workforce of engineers, scientists, and technical specialists, MITRE focuses on solving problems of national importance through applied research, systems engineering, and advanced technology development, maintaining strict objectivity by not manufacturing products or competing with private industry.