Data Platform Engineer

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Accenture Federal Services is seeking a Data Platform Engineer to join our secure cloud platform team supporting government customers at Hill Air Force Base. This role is execution-focused with strong data platform engineering depth — you will design, build, and operate the streaming and batch data pipelines, lakehouse patterns, and platform services that enable rapid, secure delivery across a complex government program. The ideal candidate brings hands-on GitOps and infrastructure-as-code expertise, is comfortable in classified multi-network environments, and embodies extreme ownership. 

What Success looks like:

• Data pipelines are reliable, automated, and instrumented with observability and quality gates. 
• Platform services (Kafka, Airflow, Spark, EMR/Glue/Redshift) are standardized and version-controlled. 
• Infrastructure is defined as code and operated through GitOps — no snowflake systems. 
• Security and compliance controls are embedded into pipelines and platform services. 
• You operate with minimal supervision and proactively close gaps. 

What you’ll do:

• DevOps & Platform Engineering

• Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD for data pipelines and platform services
• Build and manage IaC using Terraform, Ansible, and AWS CDK
• Operate tooling: Crossplane, Backstage, Argo CD
• Implement GitOps workflows using GitLab/GitHub
• Manage Kubernetes and Docker for data services

• Cloud Infrastructure & Operations

• Design secure, scalable data platform architectures on AWS GovCloud and Azure Government
• Optimize network architecture for data movement
• Manage IAM and secrets for pipelines
• Administer Linux/Windows systems with monitoring and logging
• Troubleshoot and optimize pipelines (Kafka/Spark tuning, S3/Redshift patterns)

• Security & Compliance

• Implement security controls aligned with NIST, FedRAMP, and DISA STIG
• Embed data governance: classification, lineage, retention, encryption
• Integrate automated security and policy-as-code checks
• Support audits, ATO, and compliance assessments
• Manage encryption, keys, and access in classified networks

• Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

• Operate within SAFe Agile ceremonies
• Mentor peers and drive engineering standards
• Identify optimization opportunities across platform components
• Document runbooks and operational procedures

Ideal Technical Background:

• Kafka, Airflow, Spark; AWS EMR, Glue, Redshift
• Lake/lakehouse architecture and large-scale data movement
• GitOps & IaC: Terraform, Ansible, AWS CDK
• CI/CD: GitLab/GitHub
• Kubernetes, Docker
• Crossplane, Backstage, Argo CD preferred
• Python, Bash, PowerShell; Linux/Windows
• Strong AWS experience (GovCloud preferred)

What you’ll need:

• 5 years of cloud, infrastructure, or data platform engineering experience
• 3 years of designing secure data platform architectures
• Hands-on experience with IaC and DevOps in production
• Experience in classified environments (ex: NIPR/SIPR/JWICS)
• Background in data engineering and security hardening

Bonus Points if you have:

• Bachelor’s degree
• AWS or Azure certifications
• Security+ or equivalent
• CKA/CKAD
• CISSP or advanced security certifications
• Agile/Scrum certifications
• Familiarity with accreditation frameworks
• Data modeling and warehouse design (Redshift or equivalent)
• Streaming patterns and stateful processing
• Data catalog and lineage tooling
• GPU-accelerated data processing (CUDA/cuDNN) as a plus