Data Engineer (contract)

Microsoft; Redmond; Remote; AUD 138,000 - 148,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental & vision

401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and R

Life Insurance

Company paid short and long-term disa

Health & Dependent Care Spending

Employee Assistance Program

PTO / Paid Time Off

Job summary

Allegis Global Solutions, in partnership with Microsoft, seeks a Senior Backend & Data Engineer for a contract role. You will design, build, and evolve scalable backend systems and data infrastructure to support AI-powered experiences.

The role is fully remote, 40 hours per week, with required availability during a portion of Pacific Time business hours. You will own technical initiatives from assessment to deployment and ongoing support in a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software/backend/data engineering experience.
• Proficient in Python, .NET, Spring Boot or equivalent backend technologies.
• Experience designing scalable backend services, APIs, and automated tests.
• Hands-on with data generation, ETL, and distributed data-processing workflows.
• Knowledge of LLMs, AI workflows, and data quality.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve synthetic data-generation systems for structured inputs into reproducible datasets.
• Develop and maintain scalable backend services, data pipelines, and ETL workflows.
• Build orchestration frameworks with concurrency and fault-tolerance.
• Design data models, storage architectures, and access patterns for large datasets.
• Integrate LLMs into backend and data workflows via AI platforms and APIs.
• Create automated tests and documentation for maintainable systems.

Skills

Backend engineering

Data engineering

Cloud data pipelines

LLMs knowledge

Tools

Apache Spark

Kafka

Relational databases

NoSQL databases

Cloud storage

Job description

Description

Senior Backend & Data Engineer (Contract)

Please note that this is a contract role providing services to Microsoft through external staffing partners of Allegis Global Solutions. If you are selected for this role, you will be employed by AGS and will not be an employee of Microsoft.

Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior Backend & Data Engineer to design, build, and evolve scalable backend systems and data infrastructure supporting next-generation AI-powered experiences. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on synthetic data generation, cloud-based data pipelines, distributed processing, large-scale storage, data quality, and LLM-enabled workflows. The successful candidate will take ownership of technical initiatives from assessment and architecture through implementation, testing, deployment, and ongoing support. This role requires strong software engineering fundamentals, deep experience building production data systems, and a practical understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI workflows. The ideal candidate is comfortable working within existing codebases, navigating ambiguity, evaluating technical trade-offs, and collaborating closely with engineering, research, design, and product partners. This is a fully remote position operating Monday through Friday, 40 hours per week, with availability required during a portion of Pacific Time business hours.

Job Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve synthetic data-generation systems that transform structured inputs and contextual information into coherent, traceable, and reproducible datasets.
• Develop and maintain scalable backend services, data pipelines, ETL workflows, and distributed data-processing systems.
• Build and operate orchestration frameworks utilizing concurrency, asynchronous execution, resilient failure handling, and recovery mechanisms.
• Design and optimize data models, storage architectures, retrieval strategies, partitioning approaches, indexing, and access patterns for large-scale datasets.
• Integrate Large Language Models into backend and data workflows using AI platforms, frameworks, APIs, and related technologies.
• Develop evaluation and validation frameworks that define quality criteria, automate data checks, and measure the quality and consistency of system outputs.
• Apply quantitative analysis and data profiling techniques to evaluate system performance, investigate issues, and improve reliability.
• Build, deploy, monitor, troubleshoot, and maintain cloud-based backend and data systems with an emphasis on scalability, operational reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Work within existing codebases to identify technical gaps, improve architecture, resolve defects, and implement maintainable solutions.
• Evaluate engineering trade-offs and translate evolving or ambiguous requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Create and maintain automated tests, technical documentation, operational guidance, and engineering standards.
• Collaborate with engineers, researchers, designers, strategists, and product partners to prototype, evaluate, and deliver innovative AI-powered solutions.
• Communicate technical progress, risks, dependencies, design decisions, and recommendations to engineering and cross-functional stakeholders.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering, backend engineering, data engineering, or equivalent experience building and supporting production systems.
• Strong backend programming experience using languages and frameworks such as Python, .NET, Spring Boot, or comparable backend technologies.
• Demonstrated experience designing maintainable backend services, modular components, APIs, and automated tests.
• Deep hands-on experience designing, building, scaling, and operating data generation, ETL, and distributed data-processing workflows.
• Experience building and maintaining cloud-based data pipelines and large-scale data systems.
• Strong working understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), including model capabilities, limitations, common failure modes, prompting, data quality, evaluation, and model behavior.
• Experience integrating or evaluating LLM-based workflows, AI platforms, frameworks, or APIs.
• Working knowledge of orchestration, concurrency, asynchronous execution, distributed processing, streaming or event-driven architectures, and resilient failure recovery.
• Strong knowledge of large-scale data storage, modeling, and retrieval, including partitioning, indexing, access patterns, and storage architecture trade-offs.
• Strong quantitative analysis, debugging, and troubleshooting skills with the ability to validate data and system behavior and make evidence-based engineering decisions.
• Practical cloud engineering experience, including building, deploying, monitoring, and supporting scalable backend or data systems.
• Experience developing automated testing, data-quality checks, validation frameworks, or similar engineering quality controls.
• Ability to independently own technical work from initial assessment and design through implementation, deployment, documentation, and ongoing support.
• Strong technical communication and documentation skills with demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Experience with Apache Spark, Kafka, or equivalent distributed-processing, streaming, or event-driven technologies is preferred.
• Experience with relational databases, NoSQL databases, cloud object storage, or data lake architectures is preferred.
• Experience with system observability, performance optimization, and deployment automation is preferred.

Additional Details

• Location: Remote
• Pay Range*: $70.00 - $75.00 per hour
• Weekly Schedule: 40 hours
• Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, with availability required during a portion of Pacific Time business hours.
• Overtime: Not anticipated
• Job Status: Non-Exempt
• Potential for Extension: Yes, dependent on business need, budget availability, and performance.
• Application Deadline: Apply within 72 hours of the posting date to ensure consideration.

This Role Is Eligible For The Following Benefits

• Medical, dental & vision
• Hospital plans
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Company paid Basic Life and AD&D as well as voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
• Company paid short and long-term disability
• Health & Dependent Care Spending Accounts (HSA & DCFSA)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Allegis Group Paid Family Leave, Parental Leave)

Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms.

AGS is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any characteristic protected by law.

If you require a reasonable accommodation related to the application or interview process due to a disability, please email [e-mail]. This inbox is monitored solely for accommodation requests.

In accordance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, employment is contingent upon verification of identity and authorization to work in the United States. All persons hired will be required to complete Form I-9 and provide acceptable documentation as required by law.

We reserve the right to pay above or below the posted wage based on factors unrelated to protected classifications.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.