Senior Cloud Data Engineer

Position Overview

Start your new year off with an amazing career at STScI! The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is a multi-mission science and flight operations center for NASA’s flagship observatories on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus in Baltimore, Maryland. This role as a Senior Data Cloud Engineer in the Catalog Science Branch plays a key role in designing, building, and managing data infrastructure and processing for the state-of-the-art astronomical archive, MAST. This position supports hybrid work and requires candidates to reside in or be willing to relocate to our local market (MD, DE, VA, PA, DC & WV). US Citizenship or Permanent Residence is required to meet ITAR requirements. Compensation: Salary range - $130,000 - $150,000

Key Responsibilities

• Design, construct, install, test, and maintain robust, highly scalable, flexible, and cost-effective cloud-based data management systems including data store, backup, integration, governance, recovery, and retrieval.
• Develop and maintain scalable data ingestion and migration pipelines to support increasing mission data volume and complexity.
• Build and support cloud-based scientific catalog data exploration tools and services.
• Design, install, deploy, and support hybrid environments combining legacy and active mission astronomical data.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field with 8+ years of industry experience.
• Strong SQL programming skills with experience in cloud SQL databases (e.g., Amazon RDS) and extensive knowledge of ETL/ELT processes and cloud data Lakehouse solutions.
• Proficiency in utilizing big data tools (e.g., Spark), data modeling, data architecture, and data governance practices.
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms, especially Amazon Web Services (AWS), including cloud data storage, access strategies, and programming in Python along with containerization tools like Docker and Kubernetes.

Preferred Qualifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect or equivalent certification.
• Experience with cloud data warehousing, lakehousing solutions (e.g., Trino, Iceberg) and distributed database platforms.
• Knowledge in machine learning and advanced analytics.

Benefits & Perks

• Employer retirement contribution – direct STScI contribution of 10% of your salary from your first day.
• 12 days sick leave, 24 days’ vacation, and 10 paid holidays.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and prescription plans, and more!