Junior Data Engineer

Role Description

The CATT Lab is seeking an early career Data Engineer to join our Data Platform team. This individual will:

• Design, develop, and support over 40 relational database instances and distributed Cassandra and Hadoop instances.
• Apply knowledge, skills, and experience to create stable, secure, and reliable data platforms supporting custom data analytics applications.
• Learn new skills and stay current with industry best practices and emerging technologies.
• Work on complex data problems in the GIS domain collaboratively with a brilliant research and development team.

Can be 100% remote (US based only).

Qualifications

• B.S. Degree in Computer Science or related field.
• Relevant academic or internship experience with design, development, and administration of data platform solutions.
• Experience writing ETL scripts and standalone applications in Python and/or Java.
• Expertise writing and tuning SQL queries.
• Experience deploying, configuring, maintaining, and upgrading production-level database servers and services.

Requirements

• Experience administering PostgreSQL servers, performance tuning, streaming replication, and PgBouncer failover configuration.
• Experience with non-relational data storage and processing solutions like Cassandra, Hadoop, Spark, Iceberg, Sedona, etc.
• Experience working with geospatial datasets, using geospatial extensions (such as PostGIS) and querying features.
• Experience with Linux (RHEL), including writing robust Bash scripts.
• Experience architecting and implementing backup and recovery strategies.
• Experience with Git, Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket.
• Experience with cloud platforms including AWS and GCP.

Benefits

• Salary Range: $80,000-$100,000.
• For more information on Regular Faculty benefits, select this link.

Additional Job Details

• Required Application Materials:
  • Resume/CV
  • LinkedIn profile link
  • Link to repository (GitHub or similar) to show work
  • References upon request
• This position requires the employee to maintain a work presence within the United States for the duration of employment, including while performing remote work.
• Best Consideration Date: 06/15/2026
• Posting Close Date: 08/23/2026
• Open Until Filled: Yes
• Financial Disclosure Required: No

Background Checks

Offers of employment are contingent on completion of a background check. Information reported by the background check will not automatically disqualify anyone from employment. Before any adverse decision, the finalist will have an opportunity to provide information to the University regarding disclosable background check information. The University reserves the right to rescind the offer of employment or otherwise decline or terminate employment if the information reported by the background check is deemed incompatible with the position, regardless of when the background check is completed.

Employment Eligibility

The successful candidate must complete employment eligibility verification (on Form I-9) by presenting documents that establish identity and work authorization within the timeframe required by federal immigration law, and where applicable, to demonstrate renewed employment authorization. Failure to complete employment eligibility verification or reverification within the timeframe set forth by law may result in suspension or termination of employment.

EEO Statement

The University of Maryland, College Park is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment. Please read the University’s Equal Employment Opportunity Statement of Policy.

Title IX Non-Discrimination Notice

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