Data Engineer

Booz Allen Hamilton builds data capabilities that help AI agents use authorized enterprise information with confidence. This onsite role in McLean, VA focuses on designing and delivering the data architectures, pipelines, and retrieval services that power reliable knowledge indexes and improve response quality.

You will partner closely with AI Engineering to advance retrieval behavior, keeping data and access controls aligned with enterprise governance. Work includes both architecture and implementation across ingestion, transformation, indexing, synchronization, and retrieval services.

What you’ll do

• Design data architectures and build the pipelines, knowledge indexes, and retrieval services that ground agents in authorized enterprise information.
• Collaborate with source-system owners and engineering teams to define data contracts, integrate structured and unstructured sources, and maintain permissions, lineage, quality, and freshness.
• Own reliability of data and retrieval services, and partner with AI Engineering to improve application retrieval behavior and response quality.
• Support ingestion, transformation, indexing, synchronization, and retrieval services end to end.
• Apply an architecture-and-governance focus for architecture positions, or a pipeline, connector, and service implementation focus for engineering positions.

Skills and qualifications

• Experience designing or implementing enterprise data platforms, lakehouse architectures, and integrations for structured and unstructured data.
• Experience with SQL and Python, including developing, testing, and operating ETL or ELT pipelines.
• Experience defining data models, schemas, data contracts, APIs, and access patterns for downstream applications.
• Experience with data governance, source permissions, lineage, quality controls, and monitoring for freshness and availability.
• Knowledge of retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector indexes, and semantic or hybrid search.
• Ability to troubleshoot ingestion and retrieval failures, and assess relevance, latency, scalability, and data quality.
• Ability to translate enterprise requirements into architecture decisions, integration standards, and governance patterns.
• Ability to implement and maintain ingestion, transformation, indexing, synchronization, and retrieval services.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or Suitability/Fitness determination based on client requirements.
• Bachelor’s degree.

Helpful if you have

• Experience with Databricks, Spark, Delta Lake, vector databases, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with permission-aware retrieval, metadata enrichment, incremental ingestion, or knowledge engineering.
• Experience delivering reusable customer connectors and data services for production AI applications.

Compensation

USD 62,000 - 141,000 per year.

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Disability insurance
• Financial benefits
• Retirement benefits
• Paid leave
• Professional development
• Tuition assistance
• Work-life programs
• Dependent care
• Recognition awards program that acknowledges employees for exceptional performance and superior demonstration of values
• Full-time and part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week on a regular basis are eligible to participate in Booz Allen’s benefit programs

Vetting and identity requirements

• Selected applicants will be subject to a government investigation and may need to meet eligibility requirements of the U.S. government client.
• Complete an identity verification process that leverages advanced biometrics and artificial intelligence to ensure authenticity and protect against identity fraud.
• Be on camera during interviews and assessments; the company reserves the right to take your picture to verify identity and prevent fraud.

Work model and interview policy

• Onsite: work will primarily be performed full-time at a customer facility, collaborating directly with colleagues and customers as required by the role.
• The use of AI or other tools to assist with responses during interviews (in-person or virtual) is prohibited unless permission is explicitly provided.

Non-discrimination: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local, or international law.