Data Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 28, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 27, 2026. Western Governors University scores A on the Alion truth index.
If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Grade: Technical 406Pay Range: $98,300.00 - $147,400.00Job Description
The principal function of the Associate Data Engineer is to build robust ETL/ ELT pipelines to make data available to Data Analysts, Data Scientists, and other internal business units. The Data Engineer will be responsible for coding and working through the development cycle of ETL/ELT jobs and BI reporting. They will understand business requirements and design optimal ETL/ELT process for data acquisition, transformation, and publication for ease of analysis.The Data Engineer plays a key role in making reliable, secure, and accessible data available to Data Analysts, Data Scientists, and internal business teams. You will build and maintain robust ETL/ELT pipelines, transform complex data from a wide range of sources, and deliver reporting solutions that help teams turn data into actionable insights
What You’ll Do
- Develop and build ETL/ELT data pipelines for use in data analysis and maintain optimal data pipeline architecture.
- Assemble large, complex data sets that meet functional and non-functional business requirements while keeping data separated and secure across multiple cloud environments.
- Ingest and transform structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data from relational databases, NoSQL databases, external APIs, JSON, XML, delimited files, and other sources.
- Monitor and maintain ETL/ELT jobs, troubleshoot load issues, identify bugs, apply fixes, and perform pipeline audits to support data quality.
- Deliver ad-hoc and analytical reports to internal users and create complex reports and dashboards in Cognos and Tableau.
- Manage change requests and ticket queues for analytical reports and ETL/ELT jobs, including data and technology discovery for new sources and third-party applications.
- Work collaboratively in an agile environment to deliver efficient and effective data pipelines and reporting solutions on time.
What You’ll Bring
- Bachelor's Degree in Management Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 2 years of experience in Data Engineering, Data Integration, Big Data, Business Intelligence, or Software Engineering.
- Ability to analyze and understand data sources and design a data model for data capture and ETL/ELT.
- Experience with relational SQL and NoSQL databases.
- Knowledge and experience with object-oriented/object function scripting languages, like Python, Java, and Scala.
- Knowledge and experience with big data tools, like Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, Databricks, etc.
- Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, work independently and cross-functionally, and use industry best practices for code development, testing, implementation, and documentation.
Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is the discretion of the hiring manager.
Bonus Points
- Higher Education Domain Exposure.
- Exposure to analytical reporting tools, preferably Cognos and Tableau.
- Knowledge and experience with Cloudera or Horton, Impala, Hive, AngularJS, HTML5, and CSS/LESS.
What to Expect
At WGU, our mission drives everything we do, including how we hire. Our interview experience is designed to give qualified candidates the opportunity to show their best work through meaningful conversations and collaboration.
We thoughtfully review every application and invite forward the candidates whose experience and potential best align with the role and our mission.
Work Location
This is a full-time, in-office position requiring five days per week in our Salt Lake City, Utah office, designed to foster the collaboration and connection that fuel our best work.
Visa Sponsorship
While we welcome applicants from all backgrounds, WGU is not able to provide visa sponsorship for this role.
Travel Requirement
This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.
Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.
Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [email protected].
Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.