Senior Data Engineer

Location Arlington, VA

Compensation $145,000–$175,000 per year

Commitment W-2 Employee

• Full-Time
  
  

Work arrangement Hybrid

Seniority Senior

Security Clearance Secret (Preferred)

Education Bachelor's degree

Experience 7+ years

Citizenship United States Citizen + clearance eligible

Travel Up to 10%

About The Role

weElevateIT is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to support a federal defense audit readiness engagement focused on automated transaction monitoring, compliance analytics, data pipeline development, and audit evidence generation. The candidate will serve as lead data engineer, building and maintaining lakehouse pipelines (bronze/silver/gold) in Databricks or similar platforms to enable continuous monitoring of high-volume financial and operational transaction data. This role partners closely with the Solution Architect, audit professionals, and operations leads while providing hands-on technical leadership to supporting data-engineering staff.

What you'll do

• Lead the architecture and build-out of the lakehouse environment, including bronze ingestion, silver transformation, and gold evaluation pipelines in Databricks or similar data environments.
• Build and maintain data ingestion, transformation, and validation pipelines for high-volume transactional datasets.
• Implement rule logic and data quality checks using Python, SQL, PySpark, or comparable tools.
• Translate control logic and root-cause-based rule specifications into testable data validation outputs.
• Support process automation, audit evidence outputs, and artifact data generation.
• Develop and validate dashboard data models, reporting metrics, and operational analytics outputs.
• Support Unity Catalog lineage, data quality checks, and audit trail requirements for evidence-producing workflows.
• Troubleshoot pipeline defects, data quality issues, source-feed inconsistencies, and rule output exceptions.
• Assist with dry-run evaluation of live transactions and go-live readiness activities.
• Document pipeline logic, data transformations, test results, and technical assumptions.
• Partner with the Solution Architect and functional teams to troubleshoot issues and improve automation reliability; mentor supporting data-engineering staff.
  
  

What we're looking for

Required

• U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a Common Access Card (CAC), including a favorable federal background investigation. Ability to obtain a Secret clearance is preferred for potential future scope changes.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Analytics, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
• Minimum 7 years of data engineering, data platform, or analytics engineering experience, including technical lead responsibilities.
• Experience supporting federal, defense, GovCon, or regulated environments.
• Strong hands-on experience with Python, SQL, and enterprise data platforms such as Databricks and Palantir.
• Experience building pipelines, data validation logic, data quality checks, and source-to-target reconciliation routines.
• Ability to work with technical and non-technical stakeholders to troubleshoot issues and explain data outputs clearly.
• Strong documentation habits and ability to work in a delivery-focused, deadline-driven environment.
  
  

Preferred

• Experience with Databricks, Unity Catalog, Qlik, Palantir, or UiPath-integrated workflows.
• Experience working with federal financial, accounting, audit, compliance, or transaction-monitoring datasets.
• Experience supporting dashboard development, metric validation, reporting data models, or operational scorecards.
• Familiarity with audit evidence generation, compliance monitoring, internal controls, or financial data reconciliation.
• Exposure to secure data environments, role-based access controls, data lineage, or audit trail requirements.
  
  

SkillsAnalytical Problem SolvingAttention to detailCompliance analyticsCross-functional collaborationDashboard Data SupportData lineageData Pipeline DevelopmentData Quality testingData TransformationData ValidationPython developmentSource-to-Target ReconciliationStrategic thinkingStructured Query Language (SQL) developmentTechnical design documentationTransaction MonitoringTroubleshootingWritten communication

Skills (preferred)Audit evidence generationAudit trail requirementsCompliance monitoringDepartment of Defense (DoD)/Department of War (DoW) ExperienceFederal Financial ManagementFederal Government ExperienceFinancial data reconciliationInternal ControlsMetric validationReporting data modelsRole-based access controls

TechnologiesCloud or Secure Analytics platformsDatabricksMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft TeamsPySparkPythonStructured Query Language (SQL)Unity Catalog

Domain knowledgeAudit Evidence GenerationCompliance MonitoringData GovernanceData LineageException ReportingFederal Audit ReadinessFederal Data EnvironmentsFederal/defense analytics platformsFinancial Transaction DataLakehouse Data ArchitectureOperational reporting

Benefits401(k) with immediate company contribution — no vesting period, so every dollar is yours from day oneCompetitive salary, commensurate with experience and clearance levelComprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, with employer contributions toward premiums (your share paid pre-tax)Professional development and certification support to keep your skills at the cutting edge of AI, automation, and emerging techUnlimited PTO — take the time you need, with the trust and flexibility to manage your own schedule

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