Data Platform Engineer (Senior) (Onsite)

Job Title: Data Platform Engineer (Senior) (Onsite)

Location: Linthicum, MD, 21090

Duration: Upto 7 Years

Position Description: The Senior Data Platform Engineer will be expected to architect, deploy, and operate the enterprise AWS data platform infrastructure that supports analytics and data-sharing initiatives. This role is infrastructure-focused, bridging DevOps/DataOps and data engineering to deliver a secure, governed, and performant platform for agency data consumers. The Systems Architect (Senior) is responsible for developing business, data, systems, and infrastructure models to develop enterprise architectures. His/her responsibilities include performing the following tasks:

• Developing plans for migrating architectures
• Developing technical reference models to include hardware/software standards
• Engineering integrated hardware and software solutions to meet mission requirements.
• Architect and maintain the core AWS data platform: S3-based data lake, Redshift Serverless or provisioned clusters, AWS Glue catalog, Athena, and Lake Formation.
• Design and enforce data access control, row/column-level security, and data sharing policies using AWS Lake Formation and IAM.
• Build and maintain DataOps pipelines, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform/CDK), and CI/CD workflows for platform deployments.
• Manage platform observability by implementing monitoring, alerting, and cost-governance dashboards (CloudWatch, AWS Cost Explorer, NewRelic).
• Evaluate, integrate, and operationalize new AWS platform services aligned with agency modernization roadmap.
• Support multi-account AWS environment management (AWS Organizations, Control Tower, Service Control Policies).
• Establish and enforce data platform standards, best practices, and technical runbooks.
• Collaborate with security/compliance teams to maintain FedRAMP compliance, NIST controls, and system authorization documentation.
• Provide Tier 2/3 platform support; triage and resolve performance, availability, and data quality incidents.
• Mentor junior data engineers and contribute to platform capability roadmap.

Education: This position requires a Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, Information Systems or a related field; or three (3) years of equivalent experience in a related field. (Note: A Master's degree in Information Technology is a plus.)

The following is also required:

• 8+ years of experience in data platform, cloud infrastructure, or DataOps engineering.
• Deep expertise with AWS data and analytics services: S3, Glue, Redshift, Athena, Lake Formation, EMR.
• Strong infrastructure-as-code skills (Terraform, AWS CDK, or CloudFormation).
• Experience managing multi-account AWS environments with governance guardrails.
• Solid understanding of data security: encryption at rest/in transit, IAM least-privilege, VPC networking for data services.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (CodePipeline, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) applied to data platform releases.
• Familiarity with FedRAMP, FISMA, or NIST 800-53 controls in an AWS context.

General Experience: The proposed candidate must have experience performing architecture related work on at least five IT systems.

Specialized Experience: The proposed candidate must have the following experience in performing a significant role in all aspects of architecture related work on at least two large IT systems:

• Experience with AWS Control Tower, Organizations, and Service Control Policies for enterprise governance.
• Familiarity with platform engineering concepts: data mesh, data products, and self-service analytics.
• Experience with Databricks on AWS or Amazon EMR Serverless.
• Knowledge of FinOps practices for cloud data cost optimization.
• Background in government IT modernization or digital transformation programs.

Preferred Certifications

• AWS Certified Data Analytics - Specialty
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional
• HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate