Data Engineer IV - 525633

Pay Grade/Pay Range:  Minimum: $93,900 - Midpoint: $126,800 (Salaried E14)

Department/Organization: 750502 - Global Water Security Center

Normal Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am to 4:45pm

Note to Applicants: Position is eligible for remote work subject to University policy.

Job Summary: The Data Engineer IV designs and develops data pipelines for processing and analyzing data. Ensures data quality and integrity across all pipelines. Optimizes data workflows for performance and scalability. Works closely with data scientists, analysts, and other stakeholders to understand data needs and provide solutions. Provides technical support and guidance on best practices in high-complexity data engineering situations. Develops data architecture and strategy. May supervise other Data Engineers.

Additional Department Summary: The Global Water Security Center (GWSC) seeks a candidate to support our mission by developing and maintaining data pipelines for large geospatial climate datasets. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in building scalable data architectures and a deep understanding of cloud-based data solutions. Collaborates with data scientists, analysts, and other stakeholders to ensure data quality, to optimize processing workflows, and to contribute to the development of innovative data solutions.

The candidate will undertake the careful design and preparation of data processing workflows and contribute to the development of data architectures, often with limited supervision and guidance. Their work will support the analysis and understanding of environmental drivers such as drought, heat, and flooding, and will be essential in informing policy and decision makers about water, food, energy, and health impacts around the world. Applicants should be self-starters, analytically creative, willing to brainstorm, and inquisitive.

GWSC is an applied research and operational center commissioned to respond to our nation’s need for water and environmental security insights. GWSC will inform national security partners and others with global interests in water and environmental security. Our partners will include the Department of Defense (DoD), other US Government agencies, private companies, and data producers from federal agencies and academia.

Continuation in this position is contingent upon availability of external funding derived from research programs or specific projects. To best execute its mission, the Office for Research & Economic Development (ORED) prefers that all ORED employees work on the campus of The University of Alabama. However, ORED will consider, on a case-by-case basis, remote work for an employee if such work makes strong business sense for ORED based on the scope of work and expectations for that employee. Prior to any remote work, the employee and their direct supervisor(s) and the Vice President will execute a remote work agreement.

Required Minimum Qualifications: Master's degree and four (4) years of data engineering experience; OR bachelor's degree and six (6) years of data engineering experience.

Skills and Knowledge: Expertise in Amazon Web Services (AWS) services such as S3, EC2, and Lambda. Proficiency with Databricks and Spark. Experience with geospatial data and tools (e.g., GDAL, PostGIS). Strong problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot data-related issues. Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications: Master's degree and four (4) years of data engineering experience including significant experience with AWS and Databricks; OR bachelor's degree in an applicable academic discipline such as computer science or related field of study and six (6) years of data engineering experience including significant experience with AWS and Databricks.

Experience in building and maintaining data pipelines for large datasets. Strong knowledge of SQL, Python, R, and ETL processes.

Background Investigation Statement: Prior to hiring, the final candidate(s) must successfully pass a pre-employment background investigation and information obtained from social media and other internet sources. A prior conviction reported as a result of the background investigation DOES NOT automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration for thi