Senior Data Engineer – USAFacts, Bellevue, WA

 

The Organization

 

At USAFacts, we believe facts deserve to be heard. We are on a mission to provide a comprehensive and unbiased look at our country by the numbers. Democracy thrives on serious, reasoned, and informed debate. And we’re here for it.

 

Founded and funded by Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, USAFacts answers questions around government spending and outcomes. While these are basic questions, finding the answers is hard. But it’s also pretty exciting. We pull together data from thousands of jurisdictions to normalize, contextualize, and visualize these metrics so the data is approachable and understandable. We learn something about our country every day, how to make complex data understandable, and how to make the American people interested in the numbers. We’re a very collaborative group and are always learning from each other, too. The team is mission-driven. We have no political agenda nor commercial incentive; we do this work purely as a public service.

 

Oh, and to top it off? USAFacts was named to Fast Company’s List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023!

 

We’d love for you to bring your talents, your curiosity and come make a difference! 

 

The Opportunity

 

At USAFacts, we are committed to providing unbiased and transparent data about the United States. The role of a Sr. Data Engineer is to design, develop, and maintain the data infrastructure necessary for USAFacts to collect, process, and analyze large volumes of government data. They are responsible both providing technical leadership and mentorship, and for ensuring that data pipelines and storage systems are designed and implemented effectively to support USAFacts' products. The Sr. Data Engineer is also responsible for ensuring that data quality and integrity are maintained and collaborating to ensure the data needs of multi-disciplinary stakeholders are met. Overall, the Sr. Data Engineer plays a critical role in ensuring that our data infrastructure is efficient, effective, and scalable to meet our growing data needs. 

 

 

Key Priorities and Responsibilities

 

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead the development of the company's data architecture, including designing and maintaining scalable and reliable data systems and infrastructure.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including data scientists, analysts, and business stakeholders to understand their data needs and translate them into technical requirements.
• Implement data governance and quality processes to ensure the integrity and accuracy of data throughout its lifecycle. 
• Develop and maintain ETL/ELT processes to ingest data from tens of thousands of government sources into USAFacts' data systems. 
• Develop and maintain data processing and transformation pipelines to prepare data for analysis and reporting. 
• Optimize data storage and compute for efficiency and performance. 
• Monitor data systems and processes to identify issues and proactively implement improvements to prevent future problems. 
• Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in data engineering technologies and practices, and apply that knowledge to improve the company's data infrastructure. 

 

 

Qualifications

 

Skills and Experience:

•  7 to 10+ years in data engineering or a related field.
• Strong understanding of data architecture and data modeling principles, as well as proficiency in SQL and one or more programming languages like Python, Java, C#, or Scala. 
• Experience designing and implementing large-scale data systems and infrastructure. 
• ·Proficiency in ETL/ELT processes and tools, as well as experience with data integration and data warehousing and lakehouse concepts. 
•  Experience with cloud-based data technologies like AWS or Azure.
• Familiarity designing and implementing data governance and quality principles and practices. 
• Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to identify and resolve data engineering issues and system failures. 
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate technical information to non-technical stakeholders and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams. 
• Leadership skills, with the ability to mentor a team of data engineers, as well as experience leading data engineering projects from start to finish. 
• Strong attention to detail and ability to work with complex data sets and systems. 
• Ability to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in data engineering technologies and practices, and apply that knowledge to improve the company's data infrastructure. 
• A Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field. Professional certifications in data engineering technologies (Databricks, Spark, Lakehouse, AirFlow, SQL) and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) are a plus.

 

Compensation

The starting salary range for the Senior Data Engineer role is $163,000 to $204,000 based on aptitude and experience. Over time, the employee in this role may earn up to $245,000 per year with demonstrated skill in the role and context, progress and performance against goals, and increased experience.

 

Featured Benefits & Perks 

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employee and dependent premiums entirely paid for by Ballmer Group.
• 3 weeks of paid vacation annually.
• 1 paid holidays, plus paid days off for the weekdays between Christmas and New Year.
•  80 hours of paid sick leave annually.
• 401(k) with 6% employer contribution.
• 2:1 Ballmer Family Giving Match for charitable contributions.
• Professional development reimbursement up to $2,000 per year.
• $300 monthly incidentals stipend.
• Tax-Free Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Dependent Care (DCFSA) plans offered.
• Parking and transportation (Orca card) up to $250 monthly.

 

Location and Hybrid Work

The position is based in Bellevue, Washington and our organization practices intentional hybrid work with an in-office emphasis to build trust and prioritize the collaboration, connection, and interaction needed to accomplish pressing goals. All USAFacts employees are expected to work on-site Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays remain flexible work-from-home or office workdays. Our standard workday is 9:00 am - 5:00 pm PT, with core hours of 10:00 am - 3:00 pm in-person on in-office days. Employees work out their full schedule with their manager to align with the demands of the role.

 

More details on USAFacts can be found here:

 

https://usafacts.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/usafacts/

 

Ballmer Group and USAFacts are an equal opportunity employer and dedicated to building an inclusive workforce where diversity is valued. Individuals seeking employment at Ballmer Group are considered without regards to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, or sexual orientations.