Secure Research Data Engineer: Data Pipelines & Workflows

University of Southern California; Glendale (CA); On-site; USD 126,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Southern California Information Technology Services seeks a Research Data Engineer to build secure data pipelines and scalable workflows for regulated research data. You will partner with faculty, researchers, and IT teams to turn complex data requirements into practical, compliant solutions across USC’s secure computing environment.

Responsibilities include designing data architectures, managing data-use agreements, and automating processes to support ongoing research projects

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education/experience.
• 2 years of work experience.
• Knowledge of federal compliance regs (FERPA, FISMA, NIST 800-171/800-53, DFARS/CMMC).
• 2+ years in research data management, data governance, IT compliance, or information security; Linux, scripting, SQL familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Design and manage secure data pipelines for ingestion, transformation, de‑identification, and export of sensitive datasets within approved computing enclaves.
• Develop and maintain data management plans and data-use agreements meeting sponsor requirements (NSF, NIH, DoD, DoE).
• Coordinate with Cybersecurity Office for incident management and audits.
• Create data architectures translating requirements into models, prototypes, and sustainable processes.
• Build and automate data processing/workflows to reduce manual effort in USC’s secure computing environment.

Skills

Data engineering

Python

Linux

SQL

Data governance

Workflow automation

ETL

Security compliance

Open source software

Education

Bachelor's degree

Combined experience/education

Tools

PostgreSQL

Unix/Linux

Scripting

Job description

University of Southern California Information Technology Services seeks a Research Data Engineer to build secure data pipelines and scalable workflows for regulated research data. You will partner with faculty, researchers, and IT teams to turn complex data requirements into practical, compliant solutions across USC’s secure computing environment.

Responsibilities include designing data architectures, managing data-use agreements, and automating processes to support ongoing research projects