MLOps & Data Engineer

Sierra Nevada Corporation; Lone Tree (CO); Hybrid; USD 108,000 - 149,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental and vision plans

401(k) with matching

Paid time off

Job summary

Sierra Nevada Corporation is seeking a Data Engineer II to lead the design and optimization of data pipelines powering AI/ML systems. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, mentor junior engineers, and uphold data governance across the enterprise data warehouse.

You will apply strong SQL, Python, and cloud skills (AWS/Azure/GCP) to build reliable data architectures, feature stores, and model-serving infrastructure while ensuring security and compliance across SNC platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in CS/Data Eng or related field
• 2+ years in data engineering or related role
• Experience with ETL/orchestration tools like Airflow, dbt, or Prefect
• Cloud experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
• Strong SQL and Python skills; knowledge of data modeling and data governance

Responsibilities

• Oversee design and development of data pipelines and transformations feeding AI/ML systems
• Collaborate with AI/LLM Platform and engineering teams on data and model requirements
• Mentor junior data engineers
• Enforce best practices for data engineering processes
• Implement data integration, data management, and data quality solutions
• Test, debug, and optimize pipelines and model serving infrastructure
• Ensure data security and compliance with CMMC and SNC standards
• Maintain documentation for data processes
• Operate feature stores and model serving infrastructure for real-time and batch inference
• Manage graph and relational data stores for knowledge graphs and entity resolution
• Monitor pipeline and model health; participate in on-call rotation

Skills

SQL

Airflow

dbt

Prefect

Python

Spark

MLflow

Weights & Biases

Kubeflow

AWS

Redshift

Glue

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Data Engineering or related field

2+ years of data engineering experience

Higher degree may substitute for experience

6+ years of experience in absence of degree

Tools

AWS

Azure

Google Cloud

S3

Redshift

Glue

Airflow

dbt

Prefect

Spark

Job description

Are you looking to leverage your technical creativity? Dream, Innovate, Inspire and Empower the next generation to transform humanity through technology and imagination! As a Data Engineer II, you will oversee the development and optimization of complex data pipelines and transformations. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure the efficient and secure integration, management, and utilization of data within the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). Your role will also involve mentoring junior data engineers and implementing best practices. As SNC's corporate team, we provide the company and its business areas with strategic direction and business support spanning executive management, finance and accounting, operations, human resources, legal, IT, information security, facilities, marketing, and communications.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the design and development of data pipelines and transformations that feed AI and ML systems across the platform
• Collaborate with the AI/LLM Platform team and other engineering teams to understand data and model requirements and ensure effective solutions
• Mentor and guide junior data engineers
• Develop and enforce best practices for data engineering processes
• Implement advanced data integration, data management, and data quality solutions, including experiment tracking and model registry systems
• Perform testing, debugging, and optimization of data pipelines and model serving infrastructure
• Ensure data security and compliance with CMMC and SNC data governance standards
• Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for data processes
• Design and operate feature stores and model serving infrastructure supporting real-time and batch inference
• Manage graph and relational data stores supporting AI applications such as knowledge graphs and entity resolution
• Monitor data pipeline and model serving health, participating in on-call rotation for data infrastructure

Qualifications You Must Have

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field
• 2+ years of experience in data engineering or a related role
• Higher level relevant degree may substitute for experience
• Relevant experience can be considered as a substitute for the required educational qualifications
• In the absence of a degree, a minimum of 6 years of related experience is required
• Proficiency in SQL and experience with ETL/orchestration tools such as Airflow, dbt, or Prefect
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Working SQL knowledge and experience working with relational databases
• Experience with AWS cloud services: S3, Redshift, Glue
• Experience building data pipelines, architectures, and data sets
• Experience performing root cause analysis on data to answer specific business questions or issues
• Strong Python skills, with experience in data engineering frameworks such as Spark, dbt, Airflow, or Prefect
• Operational responsibilities (schedules, monitoring, logging, alerting, error handling, etc.)
• Exposure to ML lifecycle tools such as MLflow, Weights & Biases, or Kubeflow

Qualifications We Prefer

• Experience building data pipelines, architectures, and data sets
• Experience performing root cause analysis on data to answer specific business questions or issues
• Experience with AWS cloud services (e.g., S3, EC2, RDS, Redshift, Glue, Lambda, Step Functions, Athena, CloudWatch, ECS, IAM)
• Experience with object-oriented scripting languages and frameworks (e.g., Python, Java)
• Familiarity with source system integration patterns (e.g., SQL, APIs)
• Exposure to operational responsibilities (schedules, monitoring, logging, alerting, error handling, etc.)
• Basic understanding of Master Data Management (MDM) concepts and exposure to MDM solutions
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools, with some hands‑on experience in a CI/CD environment
• Experience with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark)
• Certifications in data engineering or related fields

Essential Functions

• Ability to work on a computer for extended periods
• Frequent communication with team members and stakeholders
• Ability to work in an office or hybrid environment
• Occasional travel may be required
• Must be able to lift up to 10 lbs occasionally
• Ability to ensure data engineering practices adhere to industry-specific regulations and security standards (e.g., ITAR, DFARS, NIST), safeguarding sensitive data throughout the data lifecycle
• Experience with ML lifecycle tools such as MLflow, Weights & Biases, or Kubeflow
• Familiarity with feature store platforms (Feast, Tecton, Hopsworks)
• Experience with graph databases (Neo4j, Amazon Neptune) supporting knowledge graphs or entity resolution
• Familiarity with vector databases or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector)
• Experience with Kubernetes for deploying data or ML workloads
• Familiarity with data observability tools (Monte Carlo, Great Expectations)

This posting will be open for application for a minimum of 5 days and may be extended based on business needs.

Estimated Starting Salary Range: $108,496.89 - $149,183.22. Compensation varies depending on a wide array of factors, such as candidates' key skills, relevant work experience, and education/training/certifications. The disclosed range estimate may be adjusted for any applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled.

SNC offers a generous benefit package, including medical, dental, and vision plans, 401(k) with 150% match up to 6%, life insurance, 3 weeks paid time off, tuition reimbursement, and more.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: To conform to U.S. Government international trade regulations, applicant must be a U.S. Citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State or U.S. Department of Commerce. Learn more about the background check process for Security Clearances.

SNC is a global leader in aerospace and national security committed to moving the American Dream forward. We’re known and respected for our mission and execution focus, agility, and disruptive and rapid innovation. We provide leading edge technologies and transformative solutions that support our nation’s most critical security needs. If you are mission-focused, thrive in collaborative environments, and want to make our country stronger with state‑the‑art technologies that safeguard freedom, join our team! SNC is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to an environment free of discrimination. Employment decisions are made based on merit without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran or other characteristics protected by law. SNC is a trusted global leader in aerospace and national security. Our innovative solutions enable connected protection through command, control and communications systems, as well as ISR, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum management, and other high capabilities for systems across all domains – sea, land, air, space and cyber. As a longstanding leader in defense technology, SNC is the optimum intersection of commercial, defense and non‑traditional contractors. We are one of the only privately owned mid-tier A&D contractors and we pride ourselves on our ability to invest early and often to ensure mission success on or ahead of schedule. It’s part of our mission to always stay one step ahead; working on solutions today to solve the problems of tomorrow. Founded in 1963, SNC is owned by Chairwoman Eren Ozmen and CEO Fatih Ozmen.