Senior Data Engineer

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) is hiring a Senior Data Engineer to support federal civilian agencies by turning data into measurable outcomes. This onsite role in Sterling, VA focuses on building and operating data infrastructure for chatbot and AI-powered applications within highly controlled government environments, with SECRET clearance required.

What you’ll do

• Design, develop, and maintain the data infrastructure supporting a chatbot and related AI-powered applications.
• Manage and optimize PostgreSQL databases, including use of pgvector for vector similarity search.
• Build and maintain data ingestion pipelines for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
• Integrate document processing technologies such as Docling and Tesseract into automated pipelines.
• Support document metadata extraction, transformation, validation, indexing, and storage.
• Collaborate with AI/ML engineers to optimize data retrieval, embedding storage, and RAG workflows.
• Create Python-based services, scripts, and APIs to move data between systems.
• Support migration of database services and related components into Podman containers.
• Improve database reliability, performance, observability, backup procedures, and recoverability.
• Troubleshoot data integration issues across application services, databases, and AI inference systems.
• Evaluate and help design an enterprise data fabric architecture and integration patterns.
• Develop reusable pipelines and integration solutions that support multiple applications and business domains.
• Support enterprise data catalog capabilities including metadata management, data lineage, and data discovery.
• Evaluate data virtualization, data federation, and distributed data access approaches.
• Define and implement data quality, consistency, validation, and governance controls.
• Plan and execute data migrations between legacy systems, modern databases, and enterprise applications, including mapping, transformation, validation, and reconciliation.
• Support migration testing, performance optimization, rollback planning, and post-migration verification.
• Produce technical documentation, migration plans, data mapping specifications, and operational procedures.
• Develop and support containerized data services using Podman and container orchestration tools.
• Support applications and databases running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows Server.
• Automate database deployment, configuration, monitoring, and maintenance activities.
• Implement secure data access controls, encryption, audit logging, and data handling practices, including support for air-gapped and classified environments.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity and infrastructure teams to ensure compliance with applicable federal security requirements.
• Participate in vulnerability remediation, software evaluation, change management, and accreditation support activities.
• Implement monitoring and operational logging solutions using tools such as Splunk.

What you’ll need

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of experience in data engineering, database development, data integration, or related software engineering disciplines.
• Strong proficiency in Python for data processing, scripting, automation, and service integration.
• Advanced SQL skills, including query optimization, schema design, and performance tuning.
• Experience administering, developing against, or optimizing PostgreSQL or comparable enterprise relational database systems.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Experience with enterprise data migrations including data mapping, transformation, validation, and reconciliation.
• Familiarity with REST APIs, JSON, and structured/semi-structured data formats.
• Experience with Linux administration, shell scripting, and deployment automation.
• Understanding of data modeling, relational databases, data integrity, and data lifecycle management.
• Experience with Git, automated testing, and modern software development practices.
• Ability to design, document, and troubleshoot complex data workflows.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Technologies

• PostgreSQL, pgvector, Python, SQL
• Docling, Tesseract, Podman, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Windows Server
• REST APIs, JSON, Git, Splunk
• ETL/ELT, RAG, vector databases, embedding storage
• Apache Tika, Redis, PgBouncer, Apache Airflow, Apache NiFi, Apache Kafka
• data fabric, data mesh, data virtualization, data catalogs, data lineage, data governance frameworks
• AWS, Azure, CI/CD

Clearance and work details

• Clearance level: Secret
• Citizenship: U.S. Citizenship Required
• Travel required: Less than 10%
• Location: Sterling, VA (onsite)

Compensation: Salary range is likely $153,000 - $207,000 per year.

Key skills for success: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Solutions, Technical Solutions.