Databricks Administrator

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT); Fairfax (VA); Remote; USD 128,000 - 173,000; Full time

Job summary

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) is seeking a Databricks Administrator to lead administration, configuration, and optimization of our Databricks platform across development, test, and production environments.

You will work with data engineers, data scientists, and IT security to ensure a secure, reliable, and high-performing data processing, ML, and analytics environment in a remote-capable setting.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience administering cloud-based data platforms or big data environments.
• Hands-on administration experience with Databricks (Azure Databricks / AWS Databricks / GCP Databricks).
• Strong understanding of Databricks workspaces, clusters, jobs, pools, and notebooks.
• Experience with cloud storage and IAM in the relevant cloud providers.
• Scripting and automation experience (Python, PowerShell, Bash).

Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain Databricks workspaces across development, test, and production environments.
• Configure and manage clusters, pools, jobs, and workflows to support ETL, streaming, and ML workloads.
• Monitor platform health, capacity, and performance; proactively identify and resolve issues.
• Manage Databricks runtime versions, libraries, and integrations with cloud storage and data services.
• Implement and maintain backup, recovery, and business continuity procedures for Databricks assets.
• Configure IAM roles, groups, and permissions; enforce security best practices and data access policies.
• Support data governance standards (e.g., Unity Catalog) and collaborate with security/compliance teams.
• Automate workspace and cluster provisioning using IaC; integrate with CI/CD pipelines.

Skills

Analytics

Big Data

Data Lake

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Databricks

Azure Databricks

AWS Databricks

Job description

Req ID: RQ229306

Type of Requisition: Regular

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain: None

Public Trust/Other Required: MBI (T2)

Job Family: Data Science and Data Engineering

Skills:

Analytics,Big Data,Data Lake

Experience:

8 + years of related experience

Job Description:

The Databricks Administrator will be responsible for the administration, configuration, optimization, and support of our Databricks platform. This role will work closely with data engineers, data scientists, analytics teams, and IT security to ensure a secure, reliable, and high-performing environment for data processing, machine learning, and analytics workloads.

MEANINGFUL WORK AND PERSONAL IMPACT

Platform Administration & Operations

• Administer and maintain Databricks workspaces across development, test, and production environments.
• Configure and manage clusters, pools, jobs, and workflows to support ETL, streaming, and ML workloads.
• Monitor platform health, capacity, and performance; proactively identify and resolve issues.
• Manage Databricks runtime versions, libraries, and integrations with cloud storage and data services.
• Implement and maintain backup, recovery, and business continuity procedures for Databricks assets.

Security, Governance & Compliance

• Configure and maintain identity and access management (IAM) roles, groups, and permissions in Databricks.
• Implement and enforce security best practices, including encryption, network controls, and data access policies.
• Collaborate with security and compliance teams to ensure adherence to organizational and regulatory requirements.
• Support implementation of data governance standards (e.g., Unity Catalog, catalogs, schemas, tables, and permissions).

Performance & Cost Optimization

• Optimize cluster configurations, autoscaling, and job scheduling to balance performance and cost.
• Analyze usage metrics and costs; implement strategies for cost control and chargeback/showback where applicable.
• Recommend and implement platform tuning and optimization strategies for large-scale data workloads.

Collaboration & Support

• Partner with data engineers, analysts, and data scientists to understand workload requirements and recommend best practices in Databricks usage.
• Provide Tier 2/3 support for Databricks-related incidents and service requests.
• Develop and maintain platform documentation, runbooks, and standard operating procedures.
• Conduct user onboarding, training, and knowledge-sharing sessions on Databricks capabilities and best practices.

Automation & DevOps

• Automate workspace and cluster provisioning, configuration, and policy enforcement using Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, ARM/Bicep, CloudFormation).
• Integrate Databricks with CI/CD pipelines for code deployment and environment management.
• Support version control best practices for notebooks, jobs, and configuration.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO SUCCEED

Bring your expertise and drive for innovation to GDIT.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field.
• Alternative Path: If the candidate does not possess a relevant four-year degree, an additional four years of relevant work experience will be required.

Required Experience

• 8+ years of experience administering cloud-based data platforms or big data environments.
• Hands-on administration experience with Databricks (Azure Databricks / AWS Databricks / GCP Databricks – specify as needed).
• Strong understanding of:
• Databricks workspaces, clusters, jobs, pools, and notebooks
• Cloud storage (e.g., Azure Data Lake Storage, S3, GCS) and networking concepts
• Identity and access management in the relevant cloud provider (Azure AD / IAM / etc.)
• Experience with scripting and automation (e.g., Python, PowerShell, Bash).
• Familiarity with Spark concepts (clusters, executors, jobs, partitions) and performance considerations.
• Demonstrated experience monitoring and troubleshooting platform performance and reliability issues.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Customer-focused mindset with a commitment to reliability and service quality.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced, agile environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Databricks certification(s) (e.g., Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate/Professional, Lakehouse Fundamentals, Administrator).
• Experience with:
• Unity Catalog and fine-grained data access controls
• CI/CD tools (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.)
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform strongly preferred)
• Log aggregation and monitoring tools (Azure Monitor, CloudWatch, Datadog, Splunk, etc.)
• Knowledge of Delta Lake, structured streaming, and data Lakehouse architectures.
• Experience in enterprise environments with strong security and compliance needs.

Security Clearance Level

• This role will require you to obtain and maintain a Public Trust and will require you to provide onsite fingerprinting at a designated facility. This investigation may review personal and criminal behavior, financial conduct, foreign influence, as well as other adjudications.
• This position has a U.S. residency requirement. The USPS security clearance process requires the selected candidate to have resided in the U.S. (including U.S. Territories) for the last five years as follows: U.S. Citizens cannot have left the U.S. (including U.S. Territories) for longer than 6 months consecutively in the last 3 years (unless they meet certain exceptions). Non-U.S. Citizens cannot have left the U.S. (including U.S. Territories) for longer than 90 days consecutively in the last 3 years.

Location

• Remote

GDIT IS YOUR PLACE

At GDIT, the mission is our purpose, and our people are at the center of everything we do.

• Growth: AI-powered career tool that identifies career steps and learning opportunities
• Support: An internal mobility team focused on helping you achieve your career goals
• Rewards: Comprehensive benefits and wellness packages, 401K with company match, competitive pay and paid time off
• Community: Award-winning culture of innovation and a military-friendly workplace

The likely salary range for this position is $128,039 - $173,229. This is not, however, a guarantee of compensation or salary. Rather, salary will be set based on experience, geographic location and possibly contractual requirements and could fall outside of this range.

Total Rewards at GDIT

Our benefits package for all US-based employees includes a variety of medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts, dental plan options, a vision plan, and a 401(k) plan offering the ability to contribute both pre and post-tax dollars up to the IRS annual limits and receive a company match. To encourage work/life balance, GDIT offers employees full flex work weeks where possible and a variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave. GDIT typically provides new employees with 15 days of paid leave per calendar year to be used for vacations, personal business, and illness and an additional 10 paid holidays per year. Paid leave and paid holidays are prorated based on the employee’s date of hire. The GDIT Paid Family Leave program provides a total of up to 160 hours of paid leave in a rolling 12 month period for eligible employees. To ensure our employees are able to protect their income, other offerings such as short and long-term disability benefits, life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance are provided or available. We regularly review our Total Rewards package to ensure our offerings are competitive and reflect what our employees have told us they value most.

Our Identity Verification Process

As part of the hiring process, we will ask you to complete an identity verification process that leverages advanced biometrics and artificial intelligence to ensure authenticity and protect against identity fraud. You are expected to be on camera during virtual interviews. We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud. By proceeding, you authorize the collection, processing, and use of your biometric data for identity verification and security purposes.

About Our Work

We are GDIT. A global technology and professional services company that delivers technology solutions and mission services to every major agency across the U.S. government, defense and intelligence community. Our 26,000 experts extract the power of technology to create immediate value and deliver solutions at the edge of innovation. We operate across 50+ countries worldwide, offering leading mission-ready capabilities in AI, cloud, cyber and software development.

Join our Talent Community to stay up to date on our career opportunities and events at https://gdit.com/tc.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans