Senior Data Engineer

Who we are:

Raft (https://TeamRaft.com) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional small business with purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development, with headquarters in Reston, VA. Our range of clients include innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting edge tech stack, and cloud native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

We’re looking for an experienced Senior Data Engineer to support our customer and join our passionate team of high-impact problem solvers.

About the role:

• Become an expert in the customer’s data and data architecture
• Work with our government clients to understand their data needs and wants
• Consistently identify new data opportunities and present them to leadership. This can take the form of new approaches, data products, enhancements to existing processes, etc. 
• Formalize project requirements and develop roadmaps
• Actively develop new software and functionality while simultaneously collaborating and aligning with a team of approximately 5 to 10 peers

Support and lead initiatives such as:

• Kedro Data Processing Pipeline – Consolidate disparate data pipelines into a unified Python codebase built around the Kedro framework. 
• Entity Disambiguate Service –Architect and implement a graph-based entity disambiguation service. 
• Mock Data Generation Engine – Design and develop a Python framework tool to assist in mock data generation.

What we are looking for: 

• Minimum of 5 years of hands-on experience in data engineering or related field
• You can work with messy data. E.g. inconsistent data types, invalid entries, missing values, etc.
• Data pipeline experience. You should be able to write a set of scripts to migrate and transform data as needed from one place to another
• You have experience working with Docker and deploying containers to Kubernetes
• Software development experience and an understanding of version control and CI/CD
• You can explain data and data architecture concepts to non-technical folks
• Obtain Security+ within the first 90 days of employment with Raft

Highly preferred:

• Understanding of data security practices and policies, with the ability to design and implement security measures
• Solid understanding of statistics, this includes topics such as distributions, correlations, outliers, etc. 
• Familiar with Kedro
• Experience working with AWS

Clearance Requirements:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a public trust security clearance

Work Type: 

• Remote

What we will offer you:

• Highly competitive salary
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) and company match
• Unlimited PTO + 11 paid holidays
• Education & training benefits
• Annual budget for your tech/gadgets needs
• Monthly box of yummy snacks to eat while doing meaningful work
• Remote, hybrid, and flexible work options
• Team off-site in fun places!
• Generous Referral Bonuses
• And More!

Our Vision Statement: 

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission. 

Our Customer Obsession: 

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there? 

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm. 

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.