Data Engineer (AWS, Spark)

Peregrine Advisors; Washington; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) match

Unlimited PTO

Professional certifications

Job summary

Peregrine Advisors is seeking a data engineer to design and operate end-to-end data pipelines on AWS, ingesting, processing, storing, and validating data at scale. You will build Spark-based ETL with Glue/EMR, manage a performant S3 data-lake feeding Iceberg, Aurora PostgreSQL, and DynamoDB, and ensure data quality and lineage across the stack.

The role requires US citizenship and the ability to obtain a Public Trust, and is based in the Washington, DC area on a hybrid schedule.

Qualifications

• US citizenship and ability to obtain Public Trust
• Hybrid role based in the Washington, DC metro area
• 4+ years of data engineering experience
• Spark ETL on AWS (Glue, EMR) in Python/PySpark
• S3 data-lake design feeding Iceberg, Aurora PostgreSQL, and DynamoDB
• Event orchestration, data quality and lineage, monitoring
• Infrastructure-as-code (CloudFormation or Terraform)
• Basic proficiency in writing, PowerPoint, and Excel

Responsibilities

• Build end-to-end data pipelines on AWS (ingest, process, store, validate)
• Develop Spark-based ETL with Glue/EMR and manage S3-based data lake
• Enable Iceberg, PostgreSQL on Aurora, and DynamoDB with federated access via Trino
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and maintain auditability in a regulated environment
• Contribute to reliability, monitoring, and data quality initiatives

Skills

AWS data engineering

Data quality & lineage

Regulated environment awareness

PowerPoint & Excel

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

Spark ETL on AWS (Glue/EMR)

Python & PySpark

S3 data-lake design

Iceberg tables

Aurora PostgreSQL

DynamoDB

Trino

Lambda

Step Functions

SQS/SNS

Secrets management

Monitoring

Infrastructure-as-code (CloudFormation or Terraform)

Apache Ranger

Job description

Peregrine Advisors is a firm founded on a simple conviction: the best solutions come from the people closest to the problem, given real ownership and the tools to deliver. We are a data and technology innovation hub and a Benefit Corporation working at the center of the federal government's mission to deliver for client stakeholders and the US public, looking for highly motivated contributors who thrive when trusted to own a hard problem and equipped to deliver the solution.

Your first assignment

Your first assignment is to build the pipelines that move a federal agency's data from source to platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS): ingest, process, store, and keep it clean and trustworthy at scale. The work is real, hard, and it matters. It is also where you start, not the shape of your career here: we hire people, not seats, and we move our best to where the hardest problems are.

What you'll build

• Ingest-process-store pipelines on AWS: Spark-based extract, transform, and load (ETL) with Glue, Amazon EMR, Lambda, and Step Functions, in Python and PySpark.
• A data lake that feeds the platform: S3 design (Parquet, partitioning, lifecycle) into Apache Iceberg tables, PostgreSQL on Amazon Aurora, and DynamoDB, with Trino for federated SQL across them, plus event orchestration, secrets and monitoring, and data quality, validation, and lineage built in.
• In time, the firm itself: new capabilities, tools, and lines of business you help spin up.

Who you are

You are a data engineer who is serious about the craft and eager to go deeper. You care as much about whether the data is trustworthy as whether it arrives, and you do your best work alongside people who push you. You experiment, fail, learn, and repeat quickly. You would rather own an outcome than be handed a task.

What you bring

• Hands-on data engineering on AWS: Spark ETL (Glue, EMR), Python and PySpark, and S3 data-lake design feeding the platform stores. — and if a second lake bullet sits under "What you bring", it becomes: The reliability craft around it: event orchestration, data quality and lineage, monitoring, and infrastructure-as-code.
• The reliability craft around it: event orchestration, data quality and lineage, monitoring, and infrastructure-as-code.
• The judgment to build in a regulated environment where accuracy and auditability are not optional.

What you'll need

Sole United States citizenship and the ability to obtain a Public Trust determination are required for this initial engagement. This is a hybrid role based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and it requires commuting into DC regularly. Everything else, the years, the certifications, the specific tools, we ask in the application and get into during the interview

What we offer

A high-performing team of developers, engineers, data scientists, architects, and strategists solving complex, real-world problems, with work that runs from strategy formulation to hands-on implementation. We develop people across roles and clients, with extensive onboarding and sponsored training and professional development. And Peregrine has been a Benefit Corporation from day one: public value is built into the work itself, not bolted on afterward. Work worth your best years.

What we commit to

As a Benefit Corporation, our commitment runs three ways: real, measurable value for our clients; government that works better for the public; and a team that makes everyone in it better.

We hire people who want to help build the firm, not just work at it.

Peregrine Advisors is an equal opportunity employer.

• 4+ years of data engineering experience
• Bachelor's degree
• Spark ETL on AWS (Glue, Amazon EMR) in Python and PySpark
• S3 data-lake design (Parquet, partitioning, lifecycle) feeding Apache Iceberg tables, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, and DynamoDB
• Event orchestration (Lambda, Step Functions, SQS/SNS) with secrets management and monitoring
• Data quality, validation, and lineage
• Infrastructure-as-code (CloudFormation or Terraform)
• Basic proficiency in writing, PowerPoint, and Excel

Preferred

• Master's degree in a relevant field
• Trino or comparable federated SQL across the lake and relational stores
• Apache Ranger-governed access
• Legacy ETL migration (for example DataStage)
• Federal information technology or high-volume data experience
• Familiarity with AI-assisted developer tooling

Medical, dental, and vision with the employee premium fully paid and half of dependent premiums; employer-paid life, accidental death, and short-term and long-term disability insurance; a 401(k) matched 100% up to 4% of salary, vesting immediately; unlimited paid time off; and sponsored professional certifications and continuing education.