Data Operations Engineer - 30132

Enlighten; Fort Meade (MD); On-site; USD 138,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% paid employee healthcare premiums

10% 401k benefit

Generous PTO + holidays

Education/training allowances

Sign-on bonus

Job summary

Enlighten, a leader in data operations and cloud services, seeks a Mid-Senior Data Operations Engineer to lead a technically focused team responsible for reliability, uptime, and fast delivery of mission-critical data sets.

You will be the primary technical contact for stakeholders, translating mission requirements into actionable engineering tasks and ensuring automated, well-documented pipelines aligned with customer needs.

Qualifications

• Clearance required and ability to obtain TS/SCI
• 9+ years in technical operations, systems engineering, or data management
• Experience with distributed systems and cloud platforms
• Strong observability and log analysis skills
• SQL data validation experience
• Scripting in Python or Java for automation
• Excellent technical communication to non-technical stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Liaise between customer and technical team, translating data needs into engineering tasks
• Lead daily operations of the DataOps team to speed data availability and reduce latency
• Oversee deployment and maintenance of data flows using core libraries and templates
• Tune cluster performance and monitor pipelines to minimize data discovery latency
• Drive evolution of the data platform toward automated, adaptive operations
• Coordinate ecosystem-wide best practices for scripts and flow strategies
• Implement automated data quality gates and schema validations
• Troubleshoot complex dataflow issues across distributed systems and cloud environments
• Perform other duties as assigned

Job description

Enlighten, honored as a Top Workplace from USA Today, is a leader in big data solution development and deployment, with expertise in cloud-based services, software and systems engineering, cyber capabilities, and data science. Enlighten provides continued innovation and proactivity in meeting our customers' greatest challenges.

Why Enlighten?

At Enlighten, our team's unwavering work ethic, top talent and celebration of innovative ideas have helped us thrive. We know that our employees are essential to our company's success, so we seek to take care of you as much as you take care of us. Here are a few highlights of our benefits package:

Benefits

• 100% paid employee premium for healthcare, vision and dental plans.
• 10% 401k benefit.
• Generous PTO + 10 paid holidays.
• Education/training allowances.

This position will include a $20K Sign On Bonus, if hired as an employee for Enlighten.

Anticipated Salary Range: $137,510.00 - $195,000.00. The salary range for this role is intended as a good faith estimate based on the role's location, expectations, and responsibilities. When extending an offer, Enlighten takes a variety of factors into consideration which include, but are not limited to, the role's function, internal equity and a candidate's education or training, work experience, certifications and key skills. Occasionally positions/roles may include additional non-recurrent compensation and will be addressed by the recruiter during the interview process.

Job Description

As a member of the Data Operations Team at Enlighten, you will lead a technically focused team responsible for the reliability, uptime, and speed-to-delivery of mission-critical data sets. This role requires a heavy focus on customer interface, serving as the primary technical point of contact for stakeholders. You will translate complex mission requirements into technical workflows, ensuring that our data pipelines are automated, documented, and precisely aligned with customer needs.

This position focuses on the systems engineering and platform stability required to manage high-velocity data across complex ecosystems. You will oversee the transition from reactive data fixing to an adaptive, self-healing platform, managing the "Flow Owners" who monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize data infrastructure while maintaining high-touch communication with the client.

Mid-Senior Level

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Customer Interface & Engagement: Serve as the liaison between the customer and the technical team. You will manage expectations, communicate technical roadmaps, and translate mission-specific data needs into actionable engineering tasks.
• Operational Leadership: Assist in managing the daily operations of the DataOps team, focusing on accelerating data availability and minimizing the latency between initial data identification and final database availability.
• Systems Engineering Oversight: Oversee the deployment and maintenance of data flows using standardized templates and core libraries provided by the Engineering team.
• Performance Tuning: Responsible for immediate cluster performance tuning and pipeline monitoring to ensure data health and discovery latency are minimized.
• Strategic Alignment: Drive the technical evolution of the data platform, moving the organization from a reactive maintenance state toward a proactive, automated, and adaptive operational model.
• Ecosystem Coordination: Facilitate technical exchanges to ensure scripts, flow strategies, and wins in one area of the ecosystem are adapted and utilized across others.
• Quality Governance: Implement automated "Quality Gates" and schema validations to ensure data integrity before it reaches production environments.
• Technical Troubleshooting: Assist with the decomposition of complex technical problems and troubleshoot systemic dataflow issues across distributed messaging, orchestration, and cloud environments.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Clearance Requirement: Must currently have and maintain an active Secret U.S. Government Security Clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI; U.S. Citizenship required.
• Must have 9+ years in technical operations, systems engineering, or data management with a Bachelor's degree; OR 7 years relevant experience with Masters in related field; OR High School Diploma or equivalent and 13 years relevant experience.
• Distributed Systems & Cloud Platforms: Proven experience managing high-volume data flow and storage solutions, specifically distributed messaging queues, data orchestration engines, and cloud-native storage.
• Observability & Log Analysis: Strong familiarity with enterprise observability platforms and log analysis tools for monitoring system health and minimizing data discovery latency.
• Data Standards: Deep understanding of network data, metadata fill rates, and various log formats such as JSON and XML.
• ETL Management: Fluency in managing extraction, translation, and loading (ETL) processes to enable rapid analytics.
• Data Validation: Experience with Structure Query Language (SQL) for the purposes of data validation in conjunction with members of the team and the customer.
• Scripting for Automation: Ability to utilize scripting languages (e.g., Python or Java) to implement shared libraries that automate repetitive tasks and improve operational efficiency.
• Technical Communication: Exceptional ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and translate customer mission requirements into technical specifications.
• Must be able to work on customer site in Fort Meade, MD 4-5 days a week. Flexibility is essential to accommodate any changes in the schedule.

Preferred Requirements

• A current TS/SCI level clearance is desired.
• Customer Success Background: Prior experience in a technical account management or customer-facing engineering role.
• Scalable Architectures: Experience with distributed data processing and cloud-native storage solutions.
• Security Operations: Prior experience supporting cyber or network security operations.
• Governance & Access: Knowledge of implementing automated Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) or data masking within production pipelines.

We have many more additional great benefits/perks that you can find on our website at www.eitccorp.com [eitccorp.com].