Data Engineer 1, Operational Technology - Operations #4941
As a Data Engineer on the Operational Technology team, you will build and maintain the data pipelines that connect GRAIL's lab instruments, automation systems, and operational platforms to a trusted, well modeled data foundation. You will own well scoped ingestion and transformation pipelines end to end, partnering with systems engineers, lab operations, data scientists, and automation engineers to keep data flowing reliably from the lab floor to the analytics and AI systems that depend on it. This is a hands-on role for an engineer who is ready to take ownership of real data infrastructure and grow quickly in a fast paced, regulated environment. Expect to work alongside a talented and highly motivated team that moves quickly.
This role is based on-site in RTP, North Carolina, Monday through Friday. The position participates in an on-call rotation and may occasionally require weekend or holiday support for production incidents, maintenance, or critical deployments.
Responsibilities:
Build and maintain data pipelines that ingest and integrate information from laboratory instruments, automation systems, sequencers, operational platforms, APIs, autonomous robotics platforms, databases and file based data sources.
Support downstream analytics, reporting, and AI systems by delivering clean, trustworthy datasets and timely data extracts for troubleshooting, root-cause investigations and platform improvements.
Develop and optimize SQL and transformation logic to cleanse, standardize, and model raw instrument and production data into reliable, well structured datasets.
Build and support datasets and data models used by operational dashboards, analytics, process monitoring, troubleshooting, and governed AI enabled workflows.
Implement orchestration, testing, monitoring and alerting so that data failures, freshness issues, schema changes, and incomplete processing are identified early.
Implement data validation and quality checks to ensure datasets are accurate, complete, and reliable.
Document pipelines, data models, and datasets to support reproducibility and compliance with ISO, CLIA, CAP, NYS, GMP, and FDA requirements.
Continuously improve your technical skills and the team's engineering practices.
Required Qualifications:
Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Data Science, Life Sciences, Physics or similar field.
1+ years of relevant professional, internship, academic, or project experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, software development, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Proficiency in SQL.
Working proficiency with one or more programming languages, such as Python, Rust, C++, or similar.
Basic understanding of ETL or ELT pipelines, relational databases, and structured or semi-structured data.
Strong attention to detail and a commitment to data quality, reliability and accuracy.
Ability to collaborate effectively in teams of technical and non-technical individuals, and comfortable working in a rapidly changing environment with dynamic objectives and fast iteration.
Ability to investigate technical problems methodically, continuously learn and communicate clearly.
A highly analytical mindset and eagerness to solve technical problems.
Preferred Qualifications:
Familiarity with data pipeline orchestration and transformation tools such as Airflow, dbt, or comparable technologies.
Familiarity with cloud data platforms, object storage and warehouses such as AWS S3, Redshift, Glue, Snowflake or comparable technologies.
Familiarity integrating AI/agentic tooling into the data engineering SDLC.
Experience with semantic data modeling, data lineage, and automated data quality testing.
Familiarity with statistical methods or basic process analytics.
Exposure to manufacturing, clinical laboratory operations, diagnostics, or biotechnology.
Experience with version control systems such as Git and collaborative development practices.
Basic understanding of APIs, file transfers, networking and system integrations.