Data Engineer / Backend Developer

Job Description

Job Description

Data Engineer / Backend Developer

Lexical Intelligence provides software and services related to processing large-scale biomedical information sources. Our NLP and analytics software is used by policy and decision makers to evaluate and prioritize current and emerging areas of research.

Lexical Intelligence is seeking a Data Engineer / Backend Developer to design, build, and maintain scalable web applications and content management solutions that support enterprise operations and data distribution. This person will drive back-end development, API integrations, and content management framework improvements for cloud-native platforms supporting dynamic data workflows.

This role owns key components of back-end application logic, content modeling, and data delivery pipelines, with a strong emphasis on system reliability, maintainability, and clear architecture across the platform.

This is a hands-on role responsible for developing robust services, database interactions, content management workflows, and API endpoints to fulfill key functional and mission requirements. The role includes modernizing legacy back-end components, optimizing system performance, and improving content architecture for efficient access and administration.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement data quality, validation, and observability frameworks, including rules, SLAs, and anomaly detection across ingestion and enrichment pipelines
• Build systems to track and report on data completeness, record counts, and changes over time to ensure integrity and detect unexpected variation
• Support downstream NLP and analytics pipelines by delivering high-quality, well-structured, and consistently enriched data
• Contribute to the modernization of legacy data processing frameworks into reusable, scalable platform components
• Develop APIs and data integration services to expose and operationalize curated datasets
• Design and implement data mapping, transformation, and normalization across heterogeneous data sources
• Implement and modernize automated data ingestion frameworks, including batch pipelines and crawler-based ingestion
• Monitor, optimize, and instrument data pipelines for performance, reliability, and transparency
• Design and maintain data lineage, metadata, and documentation to provide transparency into data coverage, completeness, and flow
• Collaborate with governance and security teams to ensure compliance standards are met and to support ongoing ATO requirements through documentation and system design

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related discipline, and 5+ years of professional experience in Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, or Data Architecture
• Strong knowledge of data integration patterns, data lifecycle management, and modern cloud-based data architecture
• Experience designing or implementing data quality frameworks, validation rules, and data observability solutions
• Experience working with large, multi-entity datasets and reconciling data across disparate sources
• Ability to work independently to deliver data solutions while collaborating within a cross-functional engineering team
• Strong hands-on experience with pipeline automation, orchestration, and data framework development
• Strong technical writing and documentation skills with meticulous attention to detail.
• Proven ability to communicate requirements effectively to engineers, data scientists, and program leadership
• Java proficiency required
• Experience developing backend data processing systems and working in Linux-based environments; strong proficiency with JSON and API-based data integration

Preferred Qualifications

• Masters degree in a related discipline
• Familiarity with large-scale data platforms, biomedical data, or research-focused systems, including data privacy considerations for sensitive or regulated data
• Experience supporting public-facing federal systems or APIs
• Databricks familiarity
• One or more of the following certifications: AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate, Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate/Professional
• Cloud architecture / DevOps experience or knowledge

All candidates will be required to undergo a background check, must be authorized to work in the United States, and must be able to obtain and maintain an NIH badge with Public Trust Level Two suitability. 

Location

Preference will be given to candidates within reasonable commuting distance of Bethesda, MD. Candidates outside the greater Washington, D.C. / Maryland / Virginia area may be responsible for their own transportation costs for badging, equipment retrieval, and in-person attendance when required.

Salary and benefits

We offer a competitive salary and a generous benefits package, including at no cost: full health and dental for you and your dependents, HSA account, 401k, short- and long-term disability insurance, life and accident insurance, paid time off, and 11 federal holidays.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy 

Lexical Intelligence, LLC, provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.