Senior Data Engineer

Department
 

F&A ITS - Business Intelligence Solutions

About the Department
 

IT Services collaborates with campus partners to support the mission of the University of Chicago through the consistent delivery of high-quality solutions and services.

• We provide secure, stable, and reliable infrastructure and applications to support the mission of the University.
• We support and enable faculty research and teaching with the effective use of technology.
• We simplify the technology experience for faculty, students, alumni, and staff, and we ensure technology is mobile-friendly and accessible.
• We identify, manage, and mitigate the technology risks of the University.

Job Summary
 

The Senior Data Engineer is the technical lead on projects to design, develop, and QA Data Warehouse (DW) and extract/transform/load (ETL) environments, and other database environments, to enable analytics. This role follows the prescribed project and development methodology. Under the direction of a Project Manager, this role will work closely with the Lead Architect, BI Lead, DW developers, source application developers, and subject matter experts (SMEs). The Senior Data Engineer will support, maintain, and enhance these environments to achieve a cross-functional, integrated reporting and analysis environment for University users.

Responsibilities

• Works closely with business analysts and subject matter experts to understand data analysis requirements, data definitions, and to develop data mappings, data rules, and data transformations for reporting related to a particular data warehouse and/or analytic subject area.
• Finalizes the conceptual data models developed by the BI Lead, most often a dimensional model with facts and dimensions. Documents and communicates model design to project team.
• Leads development of logical data models.  Documents, communicates, and maintains model design for the project team.
• Leads design and implementation of physical databases including index definitions, partitioning, parallelism, tuning, and space management. 
• Utilizes database design and documentation tools to document, analyze, and communicate database information.
• Designs DW security.
• Implements test and QA strategies and prepares for rollout, including assuring data validation and integrity.
• Coordinates development resources to ensure that project timelines are met.
• Leads the design of ETL processing modules based on transformation rules, mapping rules, processing requirements and database model.
• Leads the design of ETL auditing steps to ensure data integrity and completeness of the ETL process.
• Leads the design of ETL process flow including module dependencies and parallel processing opportunities.
• Provides documentation for and works with job scheduling team to automate ETL processing.
• Leads the design of programming specifications for each ETL component.
• Leads the design of testing plans for each phase of the development process. Plans must ensure accuracy and quality of program code as well as thorough data validation procedures.
• Develops efficient code that meets analysis and design criteria.
• Coordinates ETL development resources to ensure that project timelines are met.
• Provides break/fix support and communicates outages as defined by IT Services standards.
• Troubleshoots and tunes DW and analytic systems.
• Coordinates testing of software patches and upgrades.
• Works closely with BIS colleagues to implement DW best practices, supporting integration of information from different subject areas.
• Promulgates DW, ETL and related development standards, processes, and best practices throughout BIS.
• Participates in the selection of DW, ETL and related enabling tools, including software and consulting.
• Deep expertise in DW, ETL and analytic systems best practices and emerging trends is imperative
• Works with users to ensure deliverables are meeting or exceeding expectations. Provides support and communicates issues to users as defined by IT standards.
• Plans, tests and guides roll-out of patches and upgrades to the BI and analytic software. Solves problems in the development and interpretation of BI and analytics system standards and procedures.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications
 

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

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Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

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Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree.
• Advanced