Data Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Data Engineer
Remote
All candidates must live in California.
Posted: 6/1/22
The California College Guidance Initiative is looking for a data engineering expert to join the Infrastructure Team. As part of the Infrastructure Team, you will be a key strategic leader in the expansion, refinement, and continued development of CCGI’s infrastructure utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as continuing to build out our data analytics and engineering tools. This role will be instrumental in helping us scale our work statewide and open the door for expanded use of California’s official college and career planning platform for K-12th grade students, parents, and educators, CaliforniaColleges.edu.
The ideal candidate for this team has extensive experience building out complex data architectures, including the testing, maintenance, and refinement of all data pipelines.They have also experience successfully scaling up an organization’s data intake to terabytes and petabytes of data, as well as optimizing data delivery and automating manual processes. This person is comfortable working with structured and unstructured data and can troubleshoot data loading and processing tools via SQL, Python, shell scripting, AWS, etc, and take on a leadership role in special projects when needed.
Additionally, this person had extensive experience developing robust data documentation and data governance protocols.
There are no direct supervisory responsibilities for this position, but you must be able to proactively and successfully partner and collaborate with other subject matter experts on a project management basis. Lastly, you must be comfortable leading and project managing work with many unknowns and ambiguous solutions, as well as carry a deep knowledge and/or curiosity about the needs and behaviors of students, educators, and parents, and a passion for educational equity.
What Will You Be Doing?
- Manage, refine, and enhance AWS cloud services infrastructure which include the following: EC2, VPC, RDS, ECS, CloudWatch, CloudFormation, CloudTrail, Transfer for sFTP, S3, Lambda, Secrets Manager, and Route 53.
- Lead ETL/ELT processes which include the development, refinement, and implementation of data loading and processing tools, including Snowflake, Airflow, Python, SQL, dbt, and shell scripts.
- Review, redesign, and expand existing analytics and data processing architecture to create an optimal data pipeline(s).
- Identify, design, and implement internal process improvements: automating manual processes, optimizing data delivery, designing infrastructure for greater scalability and automation.
- Maintain and update documentation of data architecture from both the macro view (i.e. architectural diagrams) and the micro view (i.e. script level tasks in Airflow).
- Lead meetings, research processes, collect data, analyze information and collaborate with the key stakeholders of your projects.
- Develop and maintain expert knowledge of CaliforniaColleges.edu
- Continuously improve data pipelines and architecture by staying updated on industry trends and best practices.
- Model CCGI’s values both in action and in how decisions are made.
What Technical Skills Do You Need?
- Build processes supporting data transformation, data structures, metadata, dependency, and workload management.
- Advanced proficiency with cloud analytical tools: Snowflake, Redshift, Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, etc.
- Advanced proficiency with ETL tools like Matillion, dbt, Talend, etc.
- Advanced proficiency with data pipeline and workflow management tools: Airflow, Azkaban, Luigi, etc.
- Advanced proficiency building and optimizing data pipelines, cloud architectures, and data sets.
- Advanced proficiency with scripting languages like Python, R, Scala, etc.
- Advanced proficiency developing cloud infrastructure in AWS or currently has or is in the process of obtaining AWS Certification as a Solutions Architect – Associate
- Expert SQL knowledge (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.) and understanding of relational databases, query authoring and optimization, as well as working familiarity with a variety of databases.
- A successful history of manipulating, processing and extracting value from large structured and unstructured datasets.
What Intangibles Do You Need?
- Strong decision-making skills and collaborative spirit with the ability to take abstract brainstorming and generate concrete proposals for action.
- Advance projects without detailed supervision, balancing multiple responsibilities, and providing colleagues with actionable proposals for advancing collective efforts.
- Thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities and deadlines.
- Juggle multiple projects of various scopes with ease and grace.
- Meticulous attention to detail.
- Excellent verbal communication skills; ability to communicate with various levels of professionals.
- Strong organizational, project, and time management skills.
More about the Cloud Infrastructure Team
The team oversees all of CCGI’s internal cloud-based data analytics and engineering infrastructure and technical strategy. This includes data analytics, data warehousing, and data engineering projects, ensuring alignment with the organization’s mission and goals.
This is a new role for the team. We are keen for you to bring your experience where you can thrive in an environment that allows for knowledge sharing and creates opportunities for you to take initiative to learn even more. This role reports to the Director, Cloud Infrastructure.
More about CCGI
CCGI works to ensure that all 6th-12th grade students in California have access to a systematic baseline of guidance and support as they plan, prepare, and pay for postsecondary education and training.
This baseline is provided by CaliforniaColleges.edu, which provides California students and educators with a wide range of college and career planning information and tools. The site also houses, audits, and transmits student data to help ensure more accurate and efficient decisions regarding admissions, financial aid, and course placement. CCGI provides technical assistance, support, and training to K-12 school districts in order to support students, counselors, and parents with the systematic use of CaliforniaColleges.edu, including its transcript-informed tools.
CCGI is a positive, diverse, and supportive culture.
Everyone at CCGI works remotely. We are all located in various parts of California. We rarely meet in person. Instead, we make use of tools, such as ZOOM, Slack, and Salesforce, to communicate and document our work.
CCGI is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges but is an autonomous initiative with its own mission, goals, and leadership team.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges (Foundation) is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities (EEO) are available to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, genetic characteristics, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital/parental status, political affiliation, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, the Foundation for California Community Colleges complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges is committed to workplace policies and hiring practices that comply with federal, state, and local law. During the hiring process, the Foundation is interested in hiring qualified candidates who are eligible and authorized to work in the United States. However, at this time, the Foundation is not able to sponsor visas. As a result, the Foundation cannot hire applicants that currently, or in the future, require immigration sponsorship for work authorization (i.e., H1B or F1 Student Visa).
CCGI is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges but is an autonomous initiative with its own mission, goals, and leadership team.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges (Foundation) is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities (EEO) are available to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, genetic characteristics, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital/parental status, political affiliation, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, the Foundation for California Community Colleges complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges is committed to workplace policies and hiring practices that comply with federal, state, and local law. During the hiring process, the Foundation is interested in hiring qualified candidates who are eligible and authorized to work in the United States. However, at this time, the Foundation is not able to sponsor visas. As a result, the Foundation cannot hire applicants that currently, or in the future, require immigration sponsorship for work authorization (i.e., H1B or F1 Student Visa).
Application Instructions
- Click the apply button below to be taken to the Foundation for California Community Colleges website, where the application is housed.
- Include both a cover letter and resume with your application.