Software Engineer (Data Platform)

Job Summary

The Software Engineer is an independent contributor who delivers features end-to-end, contributes to team-level improvements, and operates effectively across multiple parts of the tech stack. The position shapes technical solutions, refines requirements with Product Managers, and improves code quality and code maintainability leveraging software engineering principles and practices.

The Data Platform specialization focuses on building, operating, and improving MBTA's data ingestion, storage, transformation, and serving systems. Engineers in this specialization develop pipelines, maintain OLAP databases or data lakes, support analytics workloads, and ensure reliability, observability, and data integrity across MBTA's data infrastructure. Work includes operating compute environments, developing data transformation logic, and applying modern data engineering principles to support MBTA's business intelligence and operational decision-making needs.

Duties & Responsibilities

The Software Engineer is responsible for:

• Performing a wide variety of software engineering tasks primarily in the relevant languages.
• Delivering and maintaining well-architected features from design through implementation.
• Demonstrating strong fundamental coding and debugging skills by writing reliable, maintainable code while demonstrating a strong understanding of possible tradeoffs to meet deadlines by effectively articulating impacts and proposing solutions.
• Contributing to on-call rotations and addressing routine incidents.
• Following engineering standards, including code reviews, documentation, and testing. Participating and offering constructive feedback to improve.
• Improving maintainability and reducing complexity through refactoring.
• Investigating defects and leading feasibility assessments to identify improvements.
• Protecting data security, compliance, and privacy across all work activities by following secure coding practices.
• Participating in team rituals (stand-ups, planning, retros).
• Working collaboratively with UX and PMs to refine requirements for difficult problems and reduce unnecessary scope.
• Participating in on-call rotation of technology systems and services.
• Performing all other duties and projects that may be assigned.

• No direct reports.

Minimum Requirements & Qualifications

The Software Engineer must have:

• A bachelor's degree from an accredited institution.
• Two (2) years of relevant professional experience in software engineering.
• Experience independently delivering features end-to-end to solve problems.
• Experience applying software engineering principles and practices to quickly and creatively achieve team or project goals.
• Experience with monitoring, on-call, incident response, and reliability engineering.
• Strong debugging and investigative skills.
• Experience with software testing best practices and CI/CD.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business requirements into technology.
• Strong communication skills.
• Demonstrated proficiency in at least one or more programming languages.
• As part of the selection process, candidates will be asked to complete and pass job-related technical assessments, which may include a software design diagramming exercise and/or a timed coding exercise.
• Ability to participate in on-call rotation of technology systems and services.

• A high school diploma or GED with an additional seven (7) years of directly related experience substitutes for the bachelor's degree requirement.
• An associate's degree from an accredited institution and an additional three (3) years of directly related experience substitutes for the bachelor's degree requirement.
• A master's degree in a related subject substitutes for two (2) years of general experience.
• A nationally recognized certification, or statewide/professional certification in a related field substitutes for one (1) year of experience.

Preferred Experience & Skills

The Software Engineer should have:

• More than four (4) years of relevant professional experience in software engineering.
• Solid understanding of APIs, data flows, and failure modes.
• Experience with Elixir.
• Experience with AWS.
• Experience in public sector, transportation agency, and/or civic technology team.
• Experience with Terraform / OpenTofu / Infrastructure as Code tools.
• Experience in agile software development practices.
• Knowledge of transit data standards (such as GTFS, GTFS-RT, TODS, TIDES).

• Experience developing or operating data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, or other data infrastructure.
• Experience with open-source data tools such as Airflow, ClickHouse, or dbt.
• Strong understanding of data structures, formats, and performance considerations for analytical workloads.
• Experience building or maintaining data ingestion, transformation, or orchestration pipelines.
• Experience with Python in a data engineering or analytics context.
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or Pulumi for data stack management.
• Familiarity with transit data standards (GTFS, GTFS-RT, TODS, TIDES) as applied to analytics workloads.
• Strong understanding of data structures and formats for analytical workloads.

Job Conditions

The Software Engineer must be able to:

• Effectively read, comprehend, communicate, and respond to instructions, orders, signs, notices, inquiries, etc. in English.
• Be at least eighteen (18) years of age, except if participating in an approved high school internship / co-op program.
• Commute to assigned work locations in the Boston, MA metro area, as required by the role.
• Provide internal and external customers with courteous and professional experiences.
• Work effectively, independently, and as part of a diverse workforce team (or supervise, if required).
• Uphold the rights and interests of the MBTA while building and maintaining effective relationships with employees and co-workers.
• Adhere to rules, regulations, collective bargaining agreements (if applicable), and policies of the MBTA, including the EEO, anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and anti-retaliation policies.
• Have a satisfactory work record for the two (2) years immediately prior to the closing date of this posting (unless if current student or recent graduate), including overall employment, job performance, discipline, and safety records (infractions and/or offenses occurring after the closing of the posting and before the filling of a vacancy may preclude a candidate from consideration for selection).
• Pass a Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) check, comprehensive background screening, and/or medical clinic screening, potentially including physical examination and drug and alcohol screenings.
• Work all shifts and/or locations assigned, directed, or necessary for this position, including (for some transit/operations roles) up to twenty-four (24) hours per day, seven (7) days per week as necessary to accommodate severe weather conditions, emergencies, or any other circumstances that may potentially impact service or the safety of service.
• Intern/co-op staff must be enrolled full or part-time in an accredited educational program and maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 for the entire duration of the internship/co-op. Additionally, interns/co-ops must have valid work authorization and U.S. Social Security Number prior to starting pre-employment screenings/pre-boarding, working in their positions, and throughout the duration of their program.

Disclaimers and Definitions:

1. General Disclaimer: The statements contained in this job description are intended to describe a summary, general nature, and complexity of typical job functions and do not represent an exhaustive list of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities required of staff assigned to this position.
2. Application Completion: It is each applicant's responsibility to ensure application details are entered completely and correctly, including updated work and education histories (past and current). Incomplete applications may not be considered. Attachments do not substitute for application fields. The recruitment team does not have access to existing employee data / history.
3. Application Deadlines: Applicants should apply as soon as possible, as the MBTA may stop considering applicants after a sufficiently large applicant pool is established.