Data Engineer - VA Claims Modernization

Job Description:

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, secure ETL/ELT pipelines using Python, SQL, PySpark, and modern data engineering frameworks
• Integrate structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data from VA systems, claims applications, evidence repositories, medical records, external sources, and enterprise databases
• Engineer solutions for claims intake, evidence collection, validation, workflow routing, status tracking, and downstream processing
• Develop and optimize cloud data solutions using AWS, Azure, or comparable environments
• Design and maintain relational, dimensional, and analytical data models using data lake, warehouse, and lakehouse patterns
• Process large-scale datasets with Apache Spark and PySpark; optimize queries, databases, transformations, and workflows
• Establish data validation, reconciliation, monitoring, quality controls, metadata, lineage, traceability, and documented business rules
• Build batch, incremental, and event-driven workflows with testing, scheduling, error handling, logging, and monitoring
• Develop analysis-ready datasets and data products for Power BI, operational analytics, predictive analytics, and approved AI/ML workflows
• Implement encryption, role-based access controls, auditability, data minimization, and compliance with VA, FISMA, privacy, records-management, PII, and PHI requirements
• Apply Git version control, code reviews, CI/CD, automated testing, documentation, and infrastructure as code
• Collaborate with VA stakeholders, claims subject matter experts, architects, developers, and analytics teams
• Modernize legacy integrations and improve interoperability, performance, data reliability, and claims workflow efficiency

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience
• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, software engineering, enterprise data integration, or development of production data systems
• Strong hands-on proficiency in Python and SQL, including complex queries, data transformations, automation scripts, and production data pipelines
• Experience designing, developing, and maintaining scalable ETL/ELT pipelines involving multiple enterprise data sources and complex data transformations
• Experience with Apache Spark, PySpark, or comparable distributed data-processing technologies
• Hands-on experience with cloud data services in AWS, Azure, or comparable cloud environments
• Strong understanding of relational databases, data modeling, data warehousing, and database optimization, including SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or comparable technologies
• Experience integrating data through REST APIs, JSON, secure file exchanges, and other enterprise integration methods
• Experience implementing data-quality checks, pipeline monitoring, automated testing, version control, and CI/CD or comparable practices
• Familiarity with secure data handling, access controls, and governance principles for sensitive enterprise or federal information
• Ability to satisfy VA personnel suitability, applicable Public Trust requirements, and federal security and privacy requirements
• Desired: VA/Veterans Benefits experience; VBMS, VA Lighthouse APIs, or comparable systems; modern cloud data platforms; Apache Airflow and event-driven integration; Power BI or Microsoft Power Platform; AI/ML, OCR, NLP, or document processing; legacy modernization; Agile or DevSecOps federal delivery
• Relevant cloud, data engineering, or platform certifications are a plus

Benefits: