Data Engineer - Entry Level

Job Title: Junior Data Engineer
Location Hybrid – Herndon, VA
Security Clearance: Ability to obtain a Public Trust

AttainX Inc. is seeking a Junior Data Engineer — Pipelines & Workflow Automation to join our Innovation Labs and support the design, development, and continuous improvement of modern data workflows for mission-focused federal environments. This is a role for an early-career professional who combines hands-on engineering discipline with platform automation capability, someone who understands that high-quality data and efficient workflows are inseparable drivers of mission success.

The right candidate will bring demonstrated experience in Python, SQL, ETL pipeline development, REST API integration, and data validation, alongside hands-on exposure to low-code/no-code platforms such as Salesforce. You will contribute to data-driven solutions that improve operational insight, pipeline reliability, and workflow efficiency across enterprise and federal programs, supported by direct mentorship and structured project assignments from day one.

Essential Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Engineering, Data Science, or a closely related discipline. 

• 1–2 years of combined internship, project, or professional experience in software development, data engineering, analytics, or workflow automation.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across engineering, data, and business stakeholder teams in Agile/Scrum environments.
• Excellent documentation habits, attention to detail, and the ability to translate technical findings into clear stakeholder communications.
• A growth mindset: curious, accountable, and eager to deepen expertise in cloud engineering, automation, and data platform tooling.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for data extraction, transformation, validation, and pipeline scripting.
• Hands-on experience with ETL pipelines: data cleaning, preprocessing, transformation, and quality validation workflows.
• REST API integration experience — designing, building, or consuming APIs for structured data exchange between systems.
• Exposure to cloud data platforms (Azure preferred; AWS, GCP, or Snowflake acceptable) and foundational big data concepts.
• Salesforce platform tools: Flow Builder, Lightning App Builder, object/field configuration, reports & dashboards, data import/export utilities.
• Version control and project management tooling: Git/GitHub, JIRA, Postman.
• Applied understanding of SDLC principles across data engineering and application development contexts.
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• Required Certifications:

• Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900): Demonstrates foundational fluency in cloud data storage, big data concepts, and SQL in Azure environments.
• Salesforce Certified Administrator (ADM-201): Confirms platform configuration, data management, workflow automation, and CRM governance competency.
• Salesforce Platform App Builder: Reflects the ability to model data, build custom applications, and automate business logic using low-code/no-code tools at a production standard.

Core Responsibilities:

• Pipeline Development & ETL Engineering: Build, maintain, and optimize data pipelines that extract, clean, and transform structured and unstructured data from APIs, databases, and system logs into target data stores (PostgreSQL, Redshift, or equivalent). Apply validation checks at each stage to ensure data accuracy, completeness, and compliance readiness.
• Python & SQL Engineering: Write and optimize Python scripts and SQL queries to process, validate, and manage datasets across multiple source and target systems. Own your code quality through testing, debugging, and documentation.
• Low-Code / No-Code Workflow Automation: Design and implement business process automation using Salesforce platform tools — including Flow Builder, Lightning App Builder, validation rules, and data management features — to reduce manual effort and accelerate data-driven workflows without sacrificing governance.
• CRM Data Integration & Governance: Configure and maintain Salesforce data models, objects, and fields. Perform data import, transformation, and quality management using Salesforce native tools. Ensure CRM datasets are clean, consistent, and analytics-ready.
• REST API Integration: Build and support API integrations that enable secure, reliable data exchange between applications and backend services. Apply SDLC principles across design, development, testing, and deployment phases.
• Cloud Data Support: Assist in dep