Senior Data Engineer

Reston, Virginia100% RemoteContract$75/hr - $80/hrSenior Data EngineerLocation: 100% Remote (U.S. based) — must work core Eastern Time hours. Candidates based in Eastern or Central time zones only; Mountain and Pacific time zones will not be considered.Engagement Type: Long-term contract. W2 onlyAbout the Team Join a passionate, close-knit team supporting a dynamic suite of tools and programs that streamline and expedite the Higher Education recruitment and admissions process. The team is responsibly experimenting with AI to help institutions connect with millions of high school students each year, and prides itself on continuously innovating its products and services. You'll collaborate with a mix of full-time staff and contractors — including three architects and three-plus engineers — across multiple time zones to deliver a range of services and tools.About the Opportunity As a Senior Data Engineer, you bring a strong passion for software engineering excellence and a drive to turn that passion into consistent, high-quality product development. You're customer-obsessed, analytically sharp, and thrive working with native AWS services to solve challenging business problems. You'll partner closely with Product Owners, Architects, Developers, and fellow Engineers to design, define, and implement product features, conduct system-level validation, and verify functionality throughout the development lifecycle. This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, analytics, and quality engineering — you'll build robust data pipelines while also contributing to testing and automation practices that keep the platform resilient and performant. This role has a strong emphasis on Amazon Redshift — including Redshift Serverless, complex SQL development, and integrating Redshift with the broader AWS data ecosystem.What You'll DoDesign & Implementation (~70%)Build and maintain data pipelines and microservices using AWS services including Redshift, Lambda, S3, SQS, SNS, DynamoDB, QuickSight, and OpenSearch Write and optimize complex SQL for data extraction, transformation, and reporting Create and maintain automated functional and system tests that replicate real-world scenarios Develop code and test automation to support security features and technical scoping, ensuring high-quality, reliable feature delivery Support continuous integration practices and help the team continuously raise the bar on code quality Coordinate with other engineers, architects, UX, and infrastructure teams as needed Strategy & Communication (~20%)Help implement cloud-first architectural solutions and best practices Participate in agile ceremonies — sprint planning, backlog grooming, daily standups, and sprint demos Participate in peer reviews of software engineering artifacts Team Coordination (~10%)Mentor team members by developing training materials on current and future product architecture Provide constructive feedback on code and design artifacts to technical staff What You'll NeedIdeally 6+ years of software development experience in a production environment Expertise writing and optimizing complex SQL queries (SELECT, JOIN, GROUP BY, HAVING, window functions, etc.) Expertise integrating Redshift/Redshift Serverless with AWS services such as S3, Glue, Lambda, Athena, DynamoDB, and Kinesis, along with BI tools like Tableau, QuickSight, or Looker for real-time analytics and dashboards Expertise building serverless ETL pipelines with Lambda to automate data ingestion and transformation into Redshift Required: Python. Nice to have: React and Node.js Experience building event-driven, serverless cloud applications on AWS Solid technical grounding in cloud computing, DevOps, and microservices architecture Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into business-friendly language Proven ability to build strong working relationships with stakeholders and customers Strong analytical, conceptual, and problem-solving skills Ability to prioritize and execute effectively in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment Core Technology Focus Redshift/SQL, AWS Lambda, AWS S3, AWS SNS/SQS, AWS Step Functions, AWS DynamoDB, AWS CloudFormation, Python, Node.js, and applied Generative AI. This is a long-term remote contract opportunity with recurring engagement renewals. Interested candidates should apply with an updated resume highlighting relevant AWS and Redshift experience.You will receive the following benefits:Medical Insurance - Four medical plans to choose from for you and your familyDental & Orthodontia BenefitsVision BenefitsHealth Savings Account (HSA)Health and Dependent Care Flexible Spending AccountsVoluntary Life Insurance, Long-Term & Short-Term Disability InsuranceHospital Indemnity Insurance401(k) including match with pre and post-tax optionsPaid Sick Time LeaveLegal and Identity Protection PlansPre-tax Commuter Benefit529 College Saver PlanMotion Recruitment Partners (MRP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants must be currently authorized to work on a full-time basis in the country for which they are applying, and no sponsorship is currently available. Employment is subject to the successful completion of a pre-employment screening. Accommodation will be provided in all parts of the hiring process as required under MRP’s Employment Accommodation policy. Applicants need to make their needs known in advance.