Data Engineer

About Varda

Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules. Varda's W-Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated by Varda in-house, including the pharmaceutical processing payloads, the capsules, the C-PICA heat shields, and the satellite buses.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics, there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.


Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal, with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, and Also Capital.


Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.


Join Varda, and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

About This Role

Varda is seeking a Data Engineer to join our team. In this role, you will support the development of data pipelines, storage, security, and quality that power the organization. You will learn and contribute to the current application ecosystem and data architecture. You will collaborate with team members across functions to help identify opportunities for process or application improvements.

You will assist in the implementation of these solutions through the product life cycle from opportunity identification to support and sustainment. You will work cross-functionally with team members across Varda to support initiatives that enhance company processes, execution insight, and infrastructure robustness. Projects will include a wide range of desired outcomes, including cycle time reduction, cost reduction, improved decision making, risk reduction, and any other key operational efficiency. Your contributions will immediately impact functional operations and have an opportunity to contribute to Varda's overall growth and success. This role will report to the Director of Enterprise Applications.

This is a full-time, onsite, exempt position located in our El Segundo headquarters.

Responsibilities

• Assist in building and maintaining ELT pipelines that ingest data from ERP, CRM, PLM, QMS, and other enterprise systems.
• Support enterprise data platform and enterprise application evaluations by researching external solutions and documenting findings.
• Assist with data storage tasks, including table format standards, partitioning strategies, and interoperability across the tool ecosystem.
• Establish data quality frameworks, lineage tracking, and pipeline observability, including SLA monitoring, proactive alerting, and production-grade logging.
• Support AI/ML workflows by designing feature pipelines, clean data products, and a governed knowledge layer that keeps data semantically aligned for reliable model and agent consumption.
• Work with application engineers and functional stakeholders to help translate requirements and business logic into technical specifications and data solutions.
• Operate effectively within regulated environments where your pipelines will be subject to compliance and auditability requirements enforced by FDA GMP, ITAR, and DCAA.
• Implement and enforce modern development practices, including source control, peer review, CI/CD pipelines, and automated build/test/deploy workflows (ex, GitHub Actions).
• Leverage AI-assisted development tooling to accelerate delivery and improve personal productivity.
• Learn and apply layered data architecture patterns to organize data assets for reliability and reuse.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related fields.
• 3+ years of experience in enterprise integration or data engineering roles (advanced degrees count towards years of experience).
• Experience with cloud data warehouse or Lakehouse platforms (ex, Snowflake, Databricks).
• Experience with relational (SQL) and non-relational (NoSQL) databases (ex, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB)
• Exposure to data transformation tools (ex, dbt).
• Proficiency in SQL and at least one general-purpose programming language (ex, Python).
• Exposure to Enterprise Systems such as MRP, CRM, ERP, etc.
• Foundational understanding of data modeling concepts (star schema, normalization, dimensional modeling).
• Familiarity with source control (Git) and basic CI/CD concepts.
• Ability to write clean, documented code and a willingness to learn data quality testing practices.
• Understanding of software architecture principles, data warehousing, and ELT workflows.
• Capability to gather business requirements from stakeholders and take a project from initial concept to finished product.
• Ability to work with end users to rapidly iterate on prototype applications by solving end-user issues.
• Ability to translate technical concepts to non-technical audiences for stakeholders, internal and external to the organization.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

• Experience with database administration, including schema design, performance tuning, and query optimization.
• Experience interfacing with engineering and manufacturing groups to understand system designs and translations to data needs.
• Experience supporting AI/ML pipelines, including feature stores, training data pipelines, or model monitoring infrastructure.
• Experience in a start-up or similar high-growth environment.
• Familiarity with workflow orchestration tools (ex, Airflow).
• Exposure to aerospace, defense, or pharmaceutical data environments.
• Experience working with ERP systems deployed in a design development environment.
• Exposure to Infrastructure as Code for cloud resource provisioning (e.g., Terraform).
• Relevant platform or tooling certifications (ex, dbt Certified Developer, cloud data platform certifications).

Compensation

• Data Engineer: $130,000 - $160,000
• Leveling and base salary are determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job
• performance
• You will be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards
• Offer compensation also includes the ability to purchase company stock through the Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Benefits

Varda offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support health, financial well-being, and a high-quality workplace experience. Below is an overview of what full-time employees receive (at this time, interns receive a subset of benefits):


Health & Wellness

• Flexible PTO policy + 12 paid holidays
• 100% company-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans for employees and dependents with FSA and employer-matched HSA options
• Voluntary accident, hospital, critical illness, and pet insurance
• $120/month wellness reimbursement for gym and fitness expenses
• 12 weeks of parental leave (with supplemental disability leave for CA mothers)
• Family building, pregnancy, parenting and menopause benefits via Maven Clinic
• Sponsored One Medical memberships for employees and their dependents

Financial & Retirement

• Substantial incentive equity in a fully funded space start-up
• 401(k) retirement plan with 6% employer match (immediately vested)
• $20/pay period cell phone reimbursement
• Relocation support for new hires, if needed

Workplace Experience & Perks

• Fully stocked kitchen with lunch provided daily and dinner provided twice weekly
• Company and team-bonding events, happy hours and mission-success celebrations
• Complimentary EV charging
• Dog-friendly office space

ITAR Requirements

Varda, like all employers, must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally, our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items, our policy is to only hire "U.S. persons" who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license.

"US person" means: U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e., individual admitted to the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum).

E-Verify Statement

Varda Space Industries, Inc. participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security E-Verify program. The E-Verify program is an Internet-based employment eligibility verification system operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Learn more about the E-Verify program.

E-Verify Notice Right To Work Notice

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Varda Space Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Candidates and employees are always evaluated based on merit, qualifications, and performance. We will never discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, martial status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.