AWS Data Engineer

Paysign is seeking an AWS Data Engineer to build and maintain data pipelines, analytics infrastructure, and reporting solutions that support our payment processing and healthcare platforms. This role works across relational databases, data warehousing, streaming, and lakehouse technologies to deliver reliable data for business intelligence, transaction reconciliation, and regulatory reporting. A core part of the role is delivering and maintaining reporting and dashboards (Tableau or similar) on top of that data. The position operates within a Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) where data handling, encryption, access controls, and audit compliance are governed by PCI-DSS requirements.

Key Responsibility Areas

Relational Database Operations (RDS / MariaDB / MySQL)

• Administer and optimize RDS instances running MariaDB and MySQL across multiple environments including CDE-designated databases
• Manage database replication, backup strategies, recovery procedures, and performance tuning with CDE encryption and access control requirements
• Support schema changes, index optimization, and query performance analysis for operational databases
• Monitor database health, storage utilization, and connection management
• Implement and maintain database-level access controls, audit logging, and encryption at rest/in transit for CDE data stores

Data Warehousing & Analytics (Redshift / Athena / Iceberg / Parquet)

• Manage and optimize data warehouse infrastructure using Redshift and Athena
• Design and implement Apache Iceberg table architectures with proper partitioning, compaction, and lifecycle management on S3
• Build and maintain Parquet-based data lake layers for efficient analytical workloads
• Write and optimize complex SQL for analytical queries, data transformations, and reporting
• Ensure CDE data in analytics platforms maintains proper tokenization, masking, or encryption controls and that access is restricted to authorized personnel

Reporting & Business Intelligence (Tableau or similar)

• Build, publish, and maintain reports and dashboards in Tableau (or an equivalent BI tool such as Power BI, Looker, or QuickSight) for business intelligence, transaction reconciliation, and regulatory/client reporting
• Manage BI-tool connectivity and data sources against Redshift, Athena, and MariaDB, including extract/refresh scheduling, live connections, and performance tuning
• Design semantic/reporting layers and curated datasets that give business and client-facing teams reliable, self-service access to data
• Implement row-level security, data-source permissions, and access governance so reporting honors least-privilege and CDE data-classification rules
• Partner with reporting, finance, and client teams to translate reporting requirements into accurate, performant, and maintainable datasets and dashboards

Data Pipeline & Replication (DMS / Kafka / Kinesis)

• Design and build data pipelines using AWS DMS for database replication from operational sources to analytics platforms, including CDE-to-CDE data flows with encryption in transit
• Implement and manage streaming data pipelines using Kafka and/or Kinesis for real-time and near-real-time data delivery
• Build ETL/ELT processes using AWS Glue, Lambda, and Step Functions for transaction data normalization and reconciliation
• Implement data quality checks, monitoring, and alerting for pipeline reliability and SLA compliance
• Manage CDC (Change Data Capture) configurations for ongoing replication including binary log management
• Ensure data pipelines that handle cardholder data maintain CDE boundary compliance with proper encryption, logging, and access controls at every stage

Data Governance & CDE Compliance

• Support PCI-DSS compliance requirements for data retention, access logging, encryption, and CDE environment data handling
• Implement data access controls, column-level encryption, tokenization, and audit trails aligned with PCI-DSS and SOC 2 requirements
• Design and manage S3 data lake lifecycle policies for long-term retention with tiered storage and CDE data classification
• Maintain documentation of CDE data flows, data lineage, and cardholder data inventory for audit and compliance purposes
• Participate in CDE access reviews ensuring database and analytics platform permissions follow least-privilege principles

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in data engineering, database administration, or analytics engineering
• 2+ years of hands-on AWS experience with data services (RDS, Redshift, Athena, DMS, S3, Glue, Lambda)
• Strong SQL skills including complex queries, window functions, CTEs, and query optimization
• Experience with relational database administration (MariaDB/MySQL or PostgreSQL)
• Experience building and maintaining ETL/ELT data pipelines
• Hands-on experience building reporting and dashboards with Tableau (or an equivalent BI tool such as Power BI, Looker, or QuickSight), including connecting BI tools to warehouse/relational data sources
• Working knowledge of columnar file formats (Parquet, ORC) and data lake architecture
• Python scripting for data processing and automation

Preferred Qualifications

• AWS certifications (Data Analytics Specialty, Database Specialty, or Solutions Architect)
• Experience working in PCI-DSS Cardholder Data Environments (CDE)
• Experience with Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Hudi table formats
• Experience with streaming platforms (Kafka, Kinesis, or MSK)
• Experience with AWS DMS and CDC replication patterns
• Advanced Tableau skills (LOD expressions, Tableau Server/Cloud administration, published data sources) or equivalent in another BI platform
• Familiarity with data tokenization, masking, and encryption techniques for sensitive financial data
• Familiarity with Terraform for data infrastructure provisioning
• Experience in fintech, payment processing, or healthcare data environments
• Knowledge of SOC 2 compliance for data handling and governance