Senior Data Engineers

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is a multi-mission science and operations center for NASA’s flagship observatories on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus in Baltimore, Maryland, with 800+ employees. Learn more about our missions

The Data Management Division is seeking Senior Data Engineers for our Data Systems Branch to focus on infrastructure, ingestion, and API based access in support of STScI’s NASA missions.

This position can support hybrid work. Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to our local market. (MD, DE, VA, PA, DC & WV).

This position requires US Citizenship or Permanent Residence in order to meet ITAR requirements.

The annual salary range for this senior level role is $130,000 - $150,000.  The posted salary range represents a general guideline; however, STScI considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers, such as internal pay equity, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate's experience, education, and skill, and current market conditions.

Senior Date Engineers Role:

The team leads the development of data management platforms to support the science initiatives of the astronomy community.  This includes development of data and engineering databases to support the Roman Space Telescope.

You will work in a cloud and on-premise computing environments to design, build, and manage data infrastructure for ingesting, storing, and analyzing large volumes of data. This includes data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and ensuring data quality and integrity.  You will work with a team of software developers and astronomers to deliver science products using our Data Access API’s.

Key responsibilities:

• Analyze, design and implement effective data management solutions for high volume, high variability and high veracity astronomic data, either in cloud or on-prem environments
• Assess and profile the current data management systems, identify existing functional or performance issues, implement solutions to optimize existing systems or resolve critical issues with new approaches, technologies and data management infrastructures
• Lead or participate in designing and implementing proof of concept or pilot projects in cloud or on- prem environments for new products, new technologies, and improving systems scalability and maintainability
• Analyze data access scenarios and patterns, assess existing SQL queries and recommend areas in need of improvement
• Design and develop database schemas, indexing, data migration utilities, functions or stored procedures
• Support data API development activities
• Involve in day-to-day operations, lead in troubleshooting and debugging, fix database production issues in a timely manner
• Monitor the database performance and troubleshoot operational issues.

Experience, Skills and Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or an equivalent relevant field with 8+ years hands-on working experiences in data engineering and data management.

• Demonstrate quantitative and qualitative data engineering experiences, including but not limit to extensive data modeling, data management for large database systems
• Proficient in the composition of advanced SQL (analytical functions) and queries
• Proficient in performance tuning for databases or data management pipelines
• Proficient with Python programming
• Hands-on experience with cloud databases, especially Amazon Web Services (e.q. Amazon RDS)
• Proficiency in cloud data storage and access strategies.
• Experience with Postgres and SQLServer and migration between database systems
• Experience with tools and frameworks such as Kafka and GraphQL

The position level and salary are commensurate with education, skills and experience.

 Our excellent benefits include:

• 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/prescription plans, and more!

TO APPLY: Please upload a resume, cover letter and online application. Applications received by March 31, 2025 will receive full consideration. Applications received after this date will be considered until the position is filled.

Individuals needing assistance with the employment process can contact us at careers@stsci.edu.