Forward Deployed Data Engineer

Forward Deployed Data Engineer

Location: Hybrid | Groton,CT
Clearance: Active U.S. Secret Clearance Required
Employment Type: Full-time, salaried, with full benefits

The Company & Mission:

Join a mission-driven defense technology company at the forefront of maritime domain awareness and national security innovation. This team is building next-generation platforms that combine artificial intelligence, advanced sensor systems, and real-time data processing to support critical U.S. defense operations.

The organization operates with a flat structure, empowering engineers to work directly with leadership and take full ownership of high-impact systems. You'll collaborate across hardware, software, and mission teams to deliver solutions that are actively deployed in operational environments.

This is an opportunity to work on real-world systems that directly impact warfighter capabilities - including AI-powered platforms integrated with sonar data and edge-deployed sensor networks.

What This Role is All About:

As a Forward Deployed Data Engineer, you'll build the next-generation data management and AI platform for maritime domain awareness - working on-site with customers to write code, integrate systems, and solve hard problems in the field. You're part engineer, part technical advisor, and wholly accountable for making the mission succeed.

This is a highly hands-on role spanning real-time and batch data systems. You'll implement streaming and offline pipelines, parse binary message formats, build performant data warehouses, and design data models that power high-performance queries - all in support of systems deployed to U.S. submarines and integrated with the sonobuoys we manufacture. We ship fast, we sweat the details, and our work has real operational impact.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Implement real-time data pipelines with MQTT and Redpanda for stream processing
• Implement offline data pipelines using Dagster for batch processing
• Parse and process binary message formats from various data sources
• Build data warehouses using Postgres, Apache Iceberg, Parquet, and S3
• Design data models that allow for high-performance queries
• Validate and normalize data sources
• Improve local development and CI/CD using modern tooling and GitHub Actions
• Work on-site with customers and mission stakeholders to integrate systems and solve real-world problems

What You Bring:

• Expertise in time-series data processing and analysis (windowing, resampling, interpolation, etc.)
• Proficiency in Python and Rust for data engineering workflows
• Experience with binary message parsing
• Experience with row-based and columnar-based data formats
• Experience with OLTP and OLAP databases
• Knowledge of distributed systems, streaming architectures, and batch processing patterns
• Hands-on experience with a batch orchestrator such as Dagster/Airflow
• Hands-on experience with a streaming platform such as Redpanda/Kafka
• Hands-on experience with binary message formats such as Protobuf

Bonus Points:

• Experience with IoT devices and sensors
• Digital signal processing experience
• Geospatial analysis and GIS experience
• Familiarity working in monorepos

Benefits:

• Equity participation
• 401(k) with company match
• Unlimited paid time off (PTO)
• Paid parental leave
• Paid holidays
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
• Short- and long-term disability coverage
• Professional development and certification reimbursement
• Technology stipend for home office setup
• Mission-driven work with direct real-world national security impact