Lead Data Engineer

Why choose between doing meaningful work and having a fulfilling life? At MITRE, you can have both. That's because MITRE people are committed to tackling our nation's toughest challenges—and we're committed to the long-term well-being of our employees. MITRE is different from most technology companies. We are a not-for-profit corporation chartered to work for the public interest, with no commercial conflicts to influence what we do. The R&D centers we operate for the government create lasting impact in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, healthcare, aviation, defense, and enterprise transformation. We're making a difference every day—working for a safer, healthier, and more secure nation and world. Our workplace reflects our values. We offer competitive benefits, exceptional professional development opportunities for career growth, and a culture of innovation that embraces adaptability, collaboration, technical excellence, and people in partnership. If this sounds like the choice you want to make, then choose MITRE - and make a difference with us.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. MITRE’s diverse work program provides opportunities to apply your expertise and creative thinking in challenging domains such as national security, intelligence, transportation, and healthcare. 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. Our organization values innovation and believes that keeping up with the latest research and technologies is essential.Expectations for this position are as follows: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 has experience in all of these areas.Data EngineeringDistributed Data Processing and Big Data Architectures, such as Spark, Hadoop, Ray, DaskData Storage and Data Lakehouse Architectures, such as RDBMS, Amazon S3, Iceberg, Delta LakeCloud-based Data Platforms, such as Databricks, Palantir Foundry, Microsoft Fabric, and Amazon EMRData Pipeline/ETL Development, Integration, and Orchestration, such as Airflow, Dagster, NiFiBatch and Streaming Data ProcessingData Modeling, Schema Design, and Data Quality AssessmentData Governance, Access Controls, and Secure Data HandlingPerformance Optimization and Reliability EngineeringSoftware DevelopmentComputer Programming and Databases – Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL requiredSoftware Engineering Best Practices (e.g., version control, testing, modular design)Linux-based Development Environments, Git, and Cloud PlatformsUse of Containerization and Orchestration, such as Docker and KubernetesBasic Qualifications:Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Information Technology, or 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.Active DoD Top Secret Clearance.Per the U.S. Government’s eligibility requirements for a clearance, U.S Citizenship is required.This position requires a minimum of 50% hybrid on-sitePreferred Qualifications: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Information Technology, or related field with 6 years of relevant experience; PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Information Technology, or related field with 3 years of relevant experience.Active DoD Top Secret Clearance with Counterintelligence (CI) Polygraph.This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):Top SecretThis requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):Top Secret/SCISalary compensation range and midpoint:$155,200 - $194,000 - $232,800 AnnualWork Location Type:HybridIt is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.Commitment to Non-DiscriminationAll qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.MITRE intends to maintain a website that is fully accessible to all individuals. If you are unable to search or apply for jobs and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of MITRE’s employment process, please email View email address on click.appcast.io for general support and View email address on click.appcast.io for intern positions. This service is for individuals requiring reasonable accommodation requests. Please note that vendor solicitations will not receive a reply.Benefits information may be found here.Copyright 1997-2026, The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. MITRE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. Material on this site may be copied and distributed with permission only. Job SummaryJob number: R117169Profession: Engineering