Senior Data Engineer: PostgreSQL & ML Data Architecture

Penn State University; University Park (IL); On-site; USD 122,000 - 266,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Tuition discount

Retirement plans

Paid time off

Job summary

Penn State University’s Applied Research Laboratory seeks a Senior Data Engineer to architect and optimize data systems for ML and data science workloads. You will lead PostgreSQL-driven solutions and guide use of MongoDB, Neo4j, Redis, and other data stores while collaborating with data scientists and software engineers.

Located in State College, PA or Reston, VA, you will design scalable database architectures, optimize pipelines, and ensure data governance across environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or related roles.
• Expert-level PostgreSQL proficiency: tuning, schema design, indexing, partitioning.
• Strong data modeling skills and understanding of normalization vs denormalization.
• Experience with non-relational databases (MongoDB, Cassandra, Neo4j, Redis, DynamoDB).
• Familiarity with ML workflows and cloud database services (AWS RDS/Aurora, GCP, Azure).
• Proficient in SQL and Python; excellent communication with data scientists and developers.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable, high-performance database solutions for data science workflows.
• Collaborate with data scientists to optimize data access patterns and storage strategies.
• Serve as internal PostgreSQL SME: schema design, indexing, partitioning, replication.
• Evaluate and integrate alternative DB technologies where advantageous.
• Lead data pipelines for structured and unstructured data used in model development.
• Ensure data integrity, security, and governance across storage systems.
• Implement monitoring, automation, and performance tuning for DB environments.
• Advise on data lifecycle management balancing accessibility and compliance.

Skills

PostgreSQL expert

5+ years exp

Data modeling

Python

NoSQL DBs

Cloud databases

SQL proficiency

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

MongoDB

Cassandra

Neo4j

Redis

DynamoDB

PostgreSQL

Job description

Penn State University’s Applied Research Laboratory seeks a Senior Data Engineer to architect and optimize data systems for ML and data science workloads. You will lead PostgreSQL-driven solutions and guide use of MongoDB, Neo4j, Redis, and other data stores while collaborating with data scientists and software engineers.

Located in State College, PA or Reston, VA, you will design scalable database architectures, optimize pipelines, and ensure data governance across environments.