Data Engineer

ECPI University is hiring a Data Engineer to design, build, and operate end-to-end data pipelines and modeled datasets that power the institution’s Snowflake data platform. This role is hands-on engineering, partnering closely with the Senior Director of Solution Architecture.

Role Overview

The Data Engineer will be responsible for source integration, transformations, data modeling, and ongoing reliability, performance, cost, and security across Snowflake. Work includes building production-grade ingestion patterns, maintaining certified datasets used for key institutional measures, and establishing engineering standards for both CI/CD and AI-assisted development practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own end-to-end pipelines ingesting data from enterprise SaaS applications, student systems, and operational databases into Snowflake.
• Select the appropriate ingestion pattern per source, including batch, API extraction, change data capture, and near real-time streaming.
• Develop transformation logic in SQL and Python as version-controlled, tested, and documented code, including orchestration for scheduled and event-driven workloads.
• Collaborate on platform architecture with the Senior Director of Solution Architecture, including layering strategy, standards, and reusable patterns.
• Create dimensional, analytics-ready data models that support reporting, analytics, and downstream integrations, translating requirements from academic, enrollment, financial aid, student services, and administrative stakeholders into durable models.
• Establish certified datasets that serve as the authoritative source for key institutional measures and retire redundant reports and manual extracts.
• Own operational reliability for assigned pipelines, including monitoring, alerting, incident response, and root cause analysis.
• Implement automated data quality testing for freshness, completeness, uniqueness, and business rules.
• Tune Snowflake for performance and cost, including warehouse sizing, clustering, query optimization, and resource monitors.
• Implement role-based access control, masking, and least-privilege access consistent with FERPA, GLBA, and University policy.
• Own CI/CD for data platform code using GitHub Actions or comparable tooling, including build, test, and deployment with environment promotion, rollback, and automated tests as a deployment gate.
• Manage data platform objects as code so environments are reproducible and changes are reviewable, replacing manual data movement, reconciliation, and hand-run reports with automation.
• Set the standard for AI-assisted engineering practice, including effective prompting, rigorous review of generated code, and clear accountability that the engineer owns the output, and contribute to University governance for AI-assisted development.
• Design and implement solutions using Snowflake native AI capabilities, including Snowflake Cortex functions, embeddings, and vector search, and advise when native capabilities are preferable to external services.
• Mentor the Associate Data Engineer and other colleagues via code review, pairing, and direct instruction, and define standards and reference implementations used by the team.
• Communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, including IT leadership, and perform other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or an equivalent combination of education and experience), plus four or more years of professional data engineering experience.
• At least two or more years hands-on experience in Snowflake.
• Production Snowflake depth across virtual warehouses, micro-partitioning, clustering, streams and tasks, Snowpipe, and time travel, as well as roles, grants, and masking policies, with proven ability to diagnose and resolve performance and cost issues.
• Advanced SQL (including window functions and common table expressions) plus experience with incremental and merge patterns.
• Proficiency in Python for data engineering and working knowledge of dimensional modeling.
• Experience with dbt or a comparable modular, tested approach to SQL transformation, and orchestration tooling such as Airflow, Dagster, Azure Data Factory, or Snowflake tasks.
• Experience with ETL/ELT integration and source ingestion tools such as Snowflake Openflow (Apache NiFi), Snaplogic, Fivetran, Matillion, or a comparable data integration platform.
• Demonstrated CI/CD experience using GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or comparable tooling, with automated data testing enforced in the pipeline.
• Daily practical use of AI coding assistants in production engineering with disciplined validation, including the ability to explain where tools accelerate work and where they may mislead.
• Ability to resolve ambiguity independently and communicate clearly with functional stakeholders in an Agile (Scrum) environment.

Technologies

Snowflake, SQL, Python, GitHub Actions, dbt, Airflow, Dagster, Azure Data Factory, Snowflake tasks, Snowflake Openflow (Apache NiFi), Apache NiFi, Snaplogic, Fivetran, Matillion, Azure DevOps, Snowpipe, Snowflake Cortex, embeddings, vector search, FERPA, GLBA, Agile (Scrum)

Preferred Qualifications

• SnowPro Advanced Data Engineer or SnowPro Core certification, or hands-on experience with Snowflake Cortex, embeddings, or vector search.
• Experience in Azure or AWS, including storage, identity, and secrets management, or infrastructure as code such as Terraform.
• Higher education experience, including student information systems, learning management systems, or institutional reporting, or integration of major HCM, ERP, or enrollment CRM platforms.
• Experience establishing AI-assisted development standards for a team, or mentoring junior engineers.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary range: USD 105,000 to 128,000 per year (midpoint near $115,000).

• Tuition scholarship program available to full-time employees and their immediate family members after 90 days of employment.
• Competitive compensation and medical and dental benefit plans.
• PTO and holiday pay.
• 401(k) participation with possible employer contributions.

Work Location

This is not a remote position. The role is based in Virginia Beach, VA (onsite).

Working Conditions

• The physical demands described are representative of those required to perform essential job functions.
• Employee must be able to professionally communicate in person, over the telephone, and through email; move about the school and offices; handle various types of media and equipment; and visually observe and assess.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.