Senior Data Engineer

Headwater Science; Durham (NC); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work: 3 days onsite per week

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Generous PTO and holidays

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Headwater Science is seeking a Sr Data Engineer to design, build, and maintain data pipelines and software infrastructure powering real‑world evidence research. You will work primarily in R, Python, and SQL, delivering scalable data resources and collaborative development through Git and GitLab.

In this role you’ll partner with operations and product teams on deployment, testing, and troubleshooting, while advancing CI/CD practices and cloud-based infrastructure (AWS preferred).

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software development experience, focused on data engineering or backend systems.
• Bachelor’s degree in CS, engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience with cloud platforms and healthcare or life sciences data.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain data pipelines and software infra for real-world evidence research.
• Write clean code in R, Python and SQL for data manipulation and transformation.
• Collaborate with ops and product teams on deployment, testing and maintenance.
• Maintain CI/CD tooling to ensure tested and reproducible code.
• Support and optimize cloud-based data infrastructure (AWS preferred).
• Develop and modify databases to support internal apps.
• Stay current with tools, technologies and best practices.

Skills

5+ years software dev

Healthcare data

Problem solving

Communication

Independent work

Education

Bachelor's in CS/Engineering or related field

Tools

Git/GitLab

CI/CD tooling

AWS/GCP/Azure

SQL

Python

R

Job description

About Headwater Science

Headwater Science (formerly NoviSci) is a data science and methods company specializing in principled, reproducible evidence generation for complex clinical and regulatory challenges. With deep expertise in comparative effectiveness, causal inference, healthcare utilization and expenditure research, and regulatory-grade analytical software, Headwater Science provides the methodological foundation that delivers reproducible analytic pipelines, novel epidemiologic and statistical methods, and regulatory-grade software validated to hold up under the most demanding scrutiny. The company works with life sciences organizations as a long-term scientific partner. Headwater Science is a Highlander Health company. Learn more at headwaterscience.com.

About Headwater Science

Headwater Science (formerly NoviSci) is a data science and methods company specializing in principled, reproducible evidence generation for complex clinical and regulatory challenges. With deep expertise in comparative effectiveness, causal inference, healthcare utilization and expenditure research, and regulatory-grade analytical software, Headwater Science provides the methodological foundation that delivers reproducible analytic pipelines, novel epidemiologic and statistical methods, and regulatory-grade software validated to hold up under the most demanding scrutiny. The company works with life sciences organizations as a long-term scientific partner. Headwater Science is a Highlander Health company. Learn more at headwaterscience.com.

The Role

We are seeking a talented Sr Data Engineer to design, build, and maintain the data pipelines and software infrastructure that power our real-world evidence research. Working primarily in R, Python, and SQL, you'll create clean, scalable solutions that transform healthcare data into research-ready resources - managing collaborative development through Git and GitLab, maintaining CI/CD tooling that keeps code tested and reproducible, and supporting cloud-based infrastructure (AWS preferred). You'll partner closely with operations and product teams on deployment, testing, and troubleshooting, and help drive ongoing improvements to our systems that support Headwater Science's mission.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement data pipelines and software solutions that promote operational efficiency and scalability.
• Write clean, maintainable code primarily in R and Python, with a strong emphasis on SQL for data manipulation and transformation.
• Manage collaborative development through Git and GitLab, and maintain the CI/CD tooling to ensure tested, validated and reproducible code.
• Support and optimize cloud-based data infrastructure (AWS preferred).
• Develop and modify databases to support internal applications.
• Collaborate with operations and product teams to support deployment, testing, and maintenance.
• Help troubleshoot production issues and contribute to ongoing improvement efforts.
• Stay up to date on relevant tools, technologies, and best practices.

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of software development experience, ideally in data engineering, data platform development, or backend systems.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Background in healthcare, life sciences, or clinical data.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and working in cloud-native environments.
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage tasks with moderate supervision.

Nice to Have

• Experience in R package development, SQL, Python, version control and CI/CD tools (e.g., GitLab, GitHub Actions).
• Familiarity with software validation practices for regulated or regulatory-grade environments.
• Experience working with or developing machine learning pipelines or models.
• Exposure to Generative AI or LLM frameworks (e.g., Langchain, LangGraph).
• Knowledge of distributed computing concepts or tools (e.g., Spark, Dask).
• Knowledge of command-line workflows in UNIX/Linux environments.

What We Offer

• Hybrid work environment - 3 days onsite per week.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Generous PTO and company holidays.
• Paid parental leave.

If you are ready to be part of a team where your work truly matters- where your expertise is valued, your growth is supported, and your contributions help shape the future of healthcare- Headwater Science is the place for you. We're building something meaningful together, and we'd love for you to be part of it.