I2X Technologies is a reputable technology services company to the Federal Government.  Whether the focus is on space exploration, national security, cyber security, or cutting-edge engineering applications, I2X is ready to offer you the chance to make a real-world impact in your field and for your country.  We provide long-term growth and development. Headquartered in Colorado, I2X is engaged in programs across the country and in more than 20 states.  Our programs support multiple Federal agencies, the Department of Defense and often focused on the space initiatives of our government customers.

This position will be on-site in Washington, DC. The Data Engineer designs, builds, and operates batch and streaming data pipelines and curated data products on the Enterprise Data Platform (EDP) using Databricks and Apache Spark. This role is hands-on in Python and R, enabling scalable engineering workflows while supporting analytics and research use cases. The engineer partners with product, architecture, governance, and mission teams to deliver secure, performant, observable pipelines and trusted datasets.

• Strong proficiency in Python and R for data engineering and analytical workflows.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks and Apache Spark, including Structured Streaming (watermarking, stateful processing concepts, checkpointing, exactly-once/at-least-once tradeoffs).
• Strong SQL skills for transformation and validation.
• Experience building production-grade pipelines: idempotency, incremental loads, backfills, schema evolution, and error handling.
• Experience implementing data quality checks and validation for both batch and event streams (late arrivals, deduplication, event-time vs processing-time).
• Proficiency with Git and CI/CD concepts for data pipelines, Databricks asset bundling, Databricks application deployments, and proficiency using Databricks CLI
• Experience with lakehouse table formats and patterns (e.g., Delta tables) including compaction/optimization and lifecycle management.
• Familiarity with orchestration patterns (Databricks Workflows/Jobs) and dependency management.
• Experience with governance controls (catalog permissions, secure data access patterns, metadata/lineage expectations).
• Knowledge of message/event platforms and streaming ingestion patterns (e.g., Kafka/Kinesis equivalents) and sink patterns for serving layers.
• Experience collaborating with research/analytics stakeholders and translating analytical needs into engineered data products.
• Strong problem-solving and debugging across ingestion → transformation → serving.
• Clear technical communication and documentation discipline.
• Ability to work across product/architecture/governance teams in a regulated environment.
• Deep Delta Lake expertise including time travel, Change Data Feed (CDF), MERGE operations, CLONE, table constraints, and optimization techniques; understanding of liquid clustering and table maintenance best practices.
• Experience with Lakeflow/Delta Live Tables (DLT) including expectations framework, materialized vs. streaming table patterns, and declarative pipeline design.
• Proficiency with testing frameworks (pytest, Great Expectations, deequ) and test-driven development practices for production data pipelines.
• Data modeling skills including dimensional modeling (star/snowflake schemas), medallion architecture implementation, and slowly changing dimension (SCD) pattern implementation.
• AWS data services experience including S3 optimization, IAM role configuration for data access, and CloudWatch integration; understanding of cost optimization patterns.
• Observability skills: logging/metrics/alerting, troubleshooting, and performance tuning (partitions, joins/shuffles, caching, file sizing).

Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience.

• 10+ years of data engineering experience, including production Spark-based batch pipelines and streaming implementations.
• Desirable Certifications:
• Databricks Certified Apache Spark Developer Associate
• Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate or Professional
• AWS Certified Developer Associate
• AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate
• AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate

The Contractor shall deliver, but not limited to, the following:

• Build and maintain end-to-end pipelines in Databricks using Spark (PySpark) for ingestion, transformation, and publication of curated datasets.
• Implement streaming / near-real-time patterns using Spark Structured Streaming (or equivalent), including state management, checkpointing, and recovery.
• Design incremental processing, partitioning strategies, and data layout/file sizing approaches to optimize performance and cost.
• Develop reusable pipeline components (common libraries, parameterized jobs, standardized patterns) to accelerate delivery across domains.
• Develop and operationalize workflows in Python and R for data preparation, analysis support, and research-ready extracts.
• Package code for repeatable execution (dependency management, environment reproducibility, job configuration).
• Implement data quality controls for batch and streaming (schema enforcement, completeness/validity checks, late/duplicate event handling, reconciliation).
• Build pipeline observability: logging, metrics, alerting, and dashboards; support oncall/incident response and root-cause analysis.
• Create runbooks and operational procedures for critical pipelines and streaming services.
• Ensure secure handling of sensitive data and apply least-privilege principles in pipeline design and execution.
• Contribute lineage notes, dataset definitions, and operational documentation to support reuse and auditability.
• Use version control and CI/CD practices for notebooks/code (code reviews, automated testing where feasible, deployment/promotion across environments).
• Collaborate with stakeholders to refine requirements, define SLAs, and deliver incrementally with measurable outcomes.
• Implement Lakeflow/Delta Live Tables (DLT) pipelines with data quality expectations, materialized views, and streaming tables; design pipeline DAGs and maintain declarative ETL workflows.
• Design and implement medallion architecture patterns (Bronze/Silver/Gold) with appropriate data quality gates, schema evolution strategies, and layer-specific optimization techniques (OPTIMIZE, VACUUM, Z-ordering/liquid clustering).
• Develop and maintain comprehensive testing strategies including unit tests for transformation logic, integration tests for end-to-end pipelines, and data quality validation using frameworks like Great Expectations or deequ.
• Perform data modeling and schema design for dimensional models, slowly changing dimensions (SCD), and analytical structures; collaborate on entity definitions and grain decisions.
• Contribute to Unity Catalog governance by registering datasets with metadata/descriptions/tags, implementing row/column-level security where required, and maintaining accurate lineage information.

Essential Requirements:

US Citizenship is required.

In compliance with Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the annual base salary range for this position is listed . Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. I2X Technologies considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as, market and business considerations when extending an offer.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job with or without reasonable accommodation.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee will regularly sit, walk, stand and climb stairs and steps. May require walking long distance from parking to work station. Occasionally, movement that requires twisting at the neck and/or trunk more than the average person, squatting/ stooping/kneeling, reaching above the head, and forward motion will be required. The employee will continuously be required to repeat the same hand, arm, or finger motion many times. Manual and finger dexterity are essential to this position. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close, distance, depth perception and telling differences among colors. The employee must be able to communicate through speech with clients and public. Hearing requirements include conversation in both quiet and noisy environments. Lifting may require floor to waist, waist to shoulder, or shoulder to overhead movement of up to 20 pounds. This position demands tolerance for various levels of mental stress.

I2X Technologies is an Engineering and Information Technology Company focused on providing Services to the Federal and State Government. I2X offers a competitive compensation program and comprehensive benefits package to our employees.