Senior Data Engineer

Vital IT Services; Oak Ridge (TN); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Vital Services is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to join our Information Technology team. This role focuses on architecting, building, and optimizing robust data pipelines and storage solutions to deliver secure, high-performance data for reporting and decision making.

You will collaborate with department leads to translate business needs into scalable data architectures, ensure data integrity, and support BI tools such as Power BI, Tableau, and SSRS in a hybrid work environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of data engineering, analytics, or reporting experience in large-scale environments.
• Experience building complex data pipelines and working with heavy data orchestration tools.
• Deep knowledge of SQL/NoSQL, data warehousing, schema evolution, and query optimization.
• Hands-on experience with cloud data storage architectures (AWS, Azure).
• Proven track record debugging complex data architectures and handling schema changes.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines to ingest, transform, and move high-volume data securely.
• Define and optimize data models, relational/non-relational structures, and query performance for reporting.
• Monitor data flows for integrity, quality, and compliance.
• Map data dependencies across external APIs, legacy databases, and cloud infrastructure; translate into actionable plans.
• Collaborate with data and development teams to ensure accurate estimates and deliver data updates.

Skills

5+ years experience

Data & API engineering

Advanced database knowledge

Cloud infrastructure

Problem solving under complexity

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

SQL

SSRS

MS Excel

Power BI

Oracle

Tableau

Azure Cosmos DB

Azure SQL

DB2

Job description

Summary

Vital Services is seeking a talented and experienced Senior Data Engineer to join our growing Information Technology team. This is an extraordinary opportunity to be a part of, and play an integral role in, the development of our Data & Reports team!

As a Senior Data Engineer, you will work closely with our customer’s department leads and project coordinators to evaluate business needs and develop reports and dashboards to support strategic goals. The core focus of this role is to architect, build, and optimize robust data pipelines and storage solutions that ensure secure, high-performance data delivery, reporting accuracy, and seamless data synchronization across multiple core systems. You will also collaborate with other members of the Data and Information Technology teams to plan, design, develop, test, and deploy business intelligence data solutions.

The core focus of this role is to architect, build, and optimize robust data pipelines and storage solutions that ensure secure, high-performance data delivery, reporting accuracy, and seamless data synchronization across multiple core systems. A successful candidate will understand and fulfil their responsibility to develop and support databases, data structures, and data flow, with a focus on data integrity and reliability.

Responsibilities of the Senior Data Engineer Include:

In our organization, success in this seat means own-and-deliver execution on these five core areas:

• Pipeline Architecture & ETL/ELT Execution: Design, build, and maintain scalable data infrastructure and automated pipelines to ingest, transform, and move high-volume data securely.
• Database & Schema Modeling: Define and optimize data models, relational/non-relational database structures, and query performance to support reporting and operational applications.
• Data Integrity & Governance: Own the monitoring and validation of data flows to ensure complete accuracy, quality, and compliance.
• Complexity & Integration Management: Map out and resolve data dependencies across disparate external APIs, legacy databases, and cloud infrastructure, translating data "unknowns" into structured execution plans.
• Operational Discipline & Reporting Support: Partner with the data and development teams to ensure pristine task estimating, technical documentation, and delivery data updates.

Skills & Experience of the Senior Data Engineer Include:

• Experience: 5+ years of dedicated data engineering experience working with large-scale production databases and high-compliance distributed data environments.
• Data & API Engineering: Proven mastery in building complex data pipelines, working with heavy data orchestration tools, and extracting data from complex third‑party API networks.
• Advanced Database Knowledge: Deep expertise in SQL/NoSQL query tuning, data warehousing principles, schema evolution, and index optimization.
• Cloud Infrastructure: Hands‑on experience with cloud data storage architectures (e.g., AWS, Azure) and modern practices for data pipelines.
• Problem‑Solving under Complexity: A clear track record of debugging mismatched data architectures, handling breaking schema changes, and optimizing slow, multi‑system data jobs.

Measurables of the Senior Data Engineer:

To give you complete transparency, here are the numbers this role is accountable for keeping "in the green":

• Pipeline Success Rate: Greater than 99% uptime and successful execution on automated core data pipelines.
• Sprint Say/Do Ratio: Greater than 80% predictability on committed sprint tasks and complexity points.
• Internal Team Unblock Rate: Ensure >= 90% of mid‑level escalation requests are actively responded to within 30 minutes and fully unblocked (via resolution, delegation, or architectural decision) within 1 business day.
• Jira & Documentation Hygiene: 100% weekly compliance on task logging, estimation, and database schema documentation in Confluence.

Qualifications of the Senior Data Engineer:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in data engineering, analytics, or reporting roles.
• At least 3 years of work experience in Business Intelligence is preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, or other quantitative degrees preferred.
• Strong knowledge of SQL, SSRS, MS Excel, Power BI, Oracle, Tableau, and other Business Intelligence tools.
• Knowledgeable and experienced with different data sources, such as, MS SQL, Excel files, Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, AS400, DB2, and Cloud Data Sources.
• Deep understanding of SQL databases and query language.
• Advanced Excel skills.
• Familiarity with data storage, retrieval, and manipulation methods within both relational and non‑relational database architectures.
• Knowledge and experience in the Commercial (P&C) Insurance industry is a plus.

Compensation & Culture

• Salary Range: $110,000 – $130,000
• Final offer will be commensurate with experience and technical assessment results.
• Hybrid Flexibility: We value our in‑office culture, but offer a flexible hybrid schedule based on team project needs rather than a rigid "clock‑in" or “in‑office” requirement.
• Growth Path: This position was opened due to new client projects and initiatives. As we provide white‑glove MSP and SaaS services to our clients, this allows their businesses to grow and in turn allows us to grow. We invest in our employees and our client relationships, which has allowed us to continue to scale up and increase our capacity and growth trajectory.