Senior Data Engineer SME

Overview

Iron EagleX (IEX), a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics Information Technology, delivers agile IT and Intelligence solutions. Combining small-team flexibility with global scale, IEX leverages emerging technologies to provide innovative, user-focused solutions that empower organizations and end users to operate smarter, faster, and more securely in dynamic environments.

Responsibilities

Job Description:

Iron EagleX (IEX) delivers cutting-edge technical and analytical solutions to support our nation's defense and intelligence missions. We're driven by a commitment to innovation, collaboration, and delivering measurable results for our customers. At IEX, we empower our teams to make an impact while providing the tools and flexibility to grow professionally.

We are seeking a skilled Senior Data Engineer SME to support a high-profile engagement with the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO). This role will contribute to efforts to develop high-impact assessments for senior policymakers using data-driven analyses and key findings.

The mission driven Senior Data Engineer SME with a strong expertise in Databricks and background in national security to lead a strategic initiative for the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO). This role is focused on optimizing and automating data pipelines and access controls, improving data movement and Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) operations, and delivering data-driven insights to help military customers respond to an evolving geopolitical, military, and technology landscape with near-peer competitors.

Location: Arlington, VA

This position is contingent upon the award of an OSD CDAO contract. Work is expected to begin in Mid-August 2025.

Job Duties Include (but not limited to):

• Develop data architecture and pipelines in Databricks for high-volume, high complexity datasets
• Work with data scientists, functional analysts, military customers, and other technical team members to perform advanced analytics on structured and unstructured data sources
• Implement data engineering solutions in accordance with DoD security protocols
• Support the deployment of AI/ML models into production environments and integrate into DoD cloud platforms
• Serve as the technical SME to junior engineers and analysts and help upskill staff and team members on Databricks best practices
• Maintain data storage capabilities, data movement processes, data access protocols, and data visualizations needed to ensure insights are easy to digest and delivered at the speed of mission
• Implement data quality best practices, optimize data access control, and manage metadata collection, categorization, cataloguing, indexing, storage, and tagging
• Demonstrate expertise in the unique environment of Department of Defense (DoD) data movement operations to include the Advana platform
• Build and maintain the infrastructure to support extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) of data from a wide variety of data sources.
• Extract data from multiple data sources, relational SQL and NoSQL databases, and other platform APIs, for data ingestion and integration.
• Configure and manage data analytic frameworks and pipelines using Databricks
• Apply distributed systems concepts and principles such as consistency and availability, liveness and safety, durability, reliability, fault-tolerance, consensus algorithms.
• Administrate cloud computing and CI/CD pipelines to include Azure, Google, and Amazon Web Service (AWS).
• Coordinate with stakeholders, including product, data and design teams to assist with data-related technical issues and support their data infrastructure needs

Qualifications

Required Skills & Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in data engineering with at least 3 years in Databricks, Spark, and distributed data systems
• Proficiency with Python, SQL, Spark, and Delta Lake
• Bachelor's Degree in a STEM field with a preference towards Computer Science and Software Engineering
• Experience with Natural Language Processing
• Due to US Government Contract Requirements, only US Citizens are eligible for this role.

Education & Certifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a STEM field with preference towards Computer Science and Software Engineering.
• A Certified Data Management Professional certification is preferred.

Security Clearance:

• An active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility is required

Benefits:

• National Health, vision, and dental plans
• 20 days of PTO and 11 paid holidays
• Life Insurance
• Short - and long-term disability plans
• 401(K) retirement plans
• Incentive and recognition programs
• Relocation opportunities

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans