Data Engineer, Specialist - DADES3001

Vanguard; Malvern (Chester County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard is seeking an experienced data/analytics engineer to design and build scalable data platforms, pipelines, and services powering analytics, business decisions, ML, and AI-enabled solutions.

You will transform messy datasets into trusted data products, create reusable frameworks, APIs, and self-service capabilities that improve data accessibility and developer productivity, while ensuring security and observability across analytics workloads.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, software engineering, analytics engineering, or related technical disciplines.
• Proven experience designing and implementing scalable data pipelines and cloud-based data platforms.
• Strong expertise in SQL, data modeling, and relational and non-relational database technologies.
• Strong programming skills in Python and at least one additional language such as Scala or Java.
• Experience with modern cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Hands-on experience with technologies such as Spark, Databricks, Snowflake, Kafka, Hadoop, or similar modern data platforms.
• Strong understanding of data quality, governance, security, observability, lineage, and operational excellence practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical initiatives and influence engineering decisions.
• Collaborate with analysts, data scientists, architects, software engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions.
• Translate business objectives into scalable technical architectures and implementation strategies.
• Mentor engineers, conduct code reviews, and raise the engineering bar.
• Contribute to innovation initiatives, proof-of-concepts, hackathons, and emerging technology experiments.

Skills

Data engineering

Software engineering

Analytics engineering

SQL

Python

Scala/Java

Cloud platforms

Tools

Spark

Databricks

Snowflake

Kafka

Hadoop

Job description

Build Data Products That Matter

Design and build scalable data platforms, pipelines, and services that power analytics, business decisions, machine learning, and AI-enabled solutions.

Transform complex, high-volume, and messy datasets into trusted, well-governed data products that teams depend on every day.

Create reusable frameworks, APIs, and self-service capabilities that improve data accessibility and developer productivity.

Design data models and architectures optimized for analytics, reporting, AI, and advanced data workloads.

Continuously improve platform performance, scalability, reliability, observability, and security.

Engineer Smarter with AI

Leverage AI-assisted development tools to accelerate coding, testing, debugging, documentation, and solution design while maintaining high quality standards.

Apply AI to eliminate repetitive work, automate engineering tasks, and improve delivery efficiency.

Experiment with emerging AI engineering capabilities and identify opportunities to improve team productivity and software quality.

Use engineering judgment to validate AI-generated outputs and ensure solutions remain secure, maintainable, and production-ready.

Help define and evolve best practices for AI-augmented software development across the organization.

Solve Complex Problems

Tackle challenging data integration, data quality, performance, and reliability problems across enterprise-scale systems.

Investigate production issues, identify root causes, and implement long-term solutions rather than temporary fixes.

Design robust monitoring, alerting, lineage, and observability capabilities that increase trust in data.

Improve processes and systems so that teams can focus more time on innovation and less time on operational overhead.

Collaborate and Lead

Partner with analysts, data scientists, architects, software engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions.

Translate business objectives into scalable technical architectures and implementation strategies.

Lead initiatives from design through deployment and operational support.

Mentor engineers, share knowledge, conduct thoughtful code reviews, and help raise the engineering bar across the team.

Contribute to innovation initiatives, proof-of-concepts, hackathons, and emerging technology experiments.

What We're Looking For

Technical Foundations

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, software engineering, analytics engineering, or related technical disciplines.
• Proven experience designing and implementing scalable data pipelines and cloud-based data platforms.
• Strong expertise in SQL, data modeling, and relational and non-relational database technologies.
• Strong programming skills in Python and at least one additional language such as Scala or Java.
• Experience with modern cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Hands-on experience with technologies such as Spark, Databricks, Snowflake, Kafka, Hadoop, or similar modern data platforms.
• Strong understanding of data quality, governance, security, observability, lineage, and operational excellence practices.

AI-Augmented Engineering Mindset

We're less interested in whether you've memorized every AI acronym and more interested in how you think.

Successful candidates will typically demonstrate:

• Experience using AI coding assistants and AI-enabled engineering tools to improve productivity and software quality.
• Curiosity about emerging technologies and a willingness to experiment with new approaches.
• The ability to combine AI-generated outputs with sound engineering judgment.
• A mindset focused on continuous learning, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• A belief that great engineers don't compete with AI. They learn how to partner with it.

Leadership and Collaboration

• Experience leading technical initiatives and influencing engineering decisions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and transform ideas into practical solutions.
• Passion for mentoring teammates and helping others grow.A bias toward ownership, curiosity, and continuous improvement.

Bonus Points!

We'll be especially excited if you have experience with:

• Machine learning, GenAI, agentic AI, or advanced analytics platforms.
• Building data products that support AI and machine learning workloads.
• Platform engineering, Infrastructure as Code, DevOps, and CI/CD automation.
• Using AI to significantly improve engineering productivity, quality, or delivery outcomes.
• Cloud, Databricks, Snowflake, or related technical certifications.
• Open-source contributions, technical blogging, public speaking, or engineering community leadership.

Special Factors

Sponsorship

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission-we're on a mission.

To work for the long-term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our client