Senior Database Engineer- Arlington, VA

CoStar Group, Inc.; Arlington (VA); Hybrid; USD 147,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive healthcare coverage

401(K) matching

Tuition reimbursement

On-site fitness center

Job summary

CoStar Group in Arlington, VA is seeking a Senior Database Engineer to design data models, build scalable ETL/ELT pipelines, and optimize data architectures on Databricks, Snowflake, and AWS.

This hands-on role emphasizes data quality, performance, and governance for large financial datasets, partnering with Software Engineering, Product, DBA, DevOps, and Finance teams while mentoring peers and helping shape engineering standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in a technical field preferred.
• 5+ years in data/ backend engineering with data-intensive systems.
• Advanced SQL proficiency.
• Strong programming in Python, Scala, or Java.
• 3+ years with SQL Server or PostgreSQL including tuning.
• 2+ years building on Databricks/Spark or similar.
• Experience with dimensional modeling and data warehouse design.
• Experience building and optimizing ETL/ELT pipelines for large datasets.
• Experience with Airflow or NiFi in production.
• Familiar with version control, automated tests, CI/CD, and reviews.
• Data quality validation, performance tuning and production support.
• Able to translate business requirements into data models and delivery plans.

Responsibilities

• Design and build data models, pipelines, and cloud architectures on Databricks, Snowflake, and AWS.
• Build and maintain high-volume ETL/ELT pipelines for analytics and reporting.
• Design dimensional models and database structures for fast queries.
• Tune SQL Server workloads and optimize indexes.
• Integrate data from multiple sources into governed enterprise models.
• Develop data quality, lineage, testing, monitoring, and observability frameworks.
• Optimize processing, storage, and query costs on large datasets.
• Apply SOX and audit controls to data pipelines.
• Automate data infrastructure and data collection across products.
• Support production pipelines and troubleshoot root causes.

Skills

Advanced SQL

Python

Scala

Java

Databricks

Snowflake

AWS

T-SQL

Data Modeling

ETL/ELT

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

SQL Server

PostgreSQL

Databricks

Spark

Kafka

NiFi

Airflow

Elasticsearch

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Senior Database Engineer- Arlington, VA

Job Description

Overview

CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading global provider of commercial and residential real estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces. Included in the S&P 500 Index, CoStar Group is on a mission to digitize the world's real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights and connections that improve their businesses and lives. We have been living and breathing the world of real estate information and online marketplaces for over 35 years, giving us the perspective to create truly unique and valuable offerings to our customers. We've continually refined, transformed and perfected our approach to our business, creating a language that has become standard in our industry, for our customers, and even our competitors. We continue that effort today and are always working to improve and drive innovation. This is how we deliver for our customers, our employees, and investors. By equipping the brightest minds with the best resources available, we provide an invaluable edge in real estate. CoStar Group is seeking a Senior Database Engineer to join our Enterprise Data Services - Finance (EDS-F) team and help build and modernize the data platforms that power our financial systems. This is a hands-on data engineering role, not a database administration position, where you'll design data models, build and optimize data pipelines, tune complex T-SQL, and develop scalable data quality solutions. You'll work across our established SQL Server environment supporting live financial operations and our emerging cloud data platform supporting analytics and new products. Working with large, complex financial datasets, you'll focus on accuracy, traceability, performance, and scalability while partnering with Software Engineering, Product, DBA, DevOps, and Finance teams. Our technology stack includes SQL Server, Databricks, Snowflake, Kafka, NiFi, Airflow, Elasticsearch, and AWS. This position is located in Arlington, VA and is in office Monday through Thursday and work from home on Friday.

Responsibilities

• Design and build data models, data pipelines, and cloud data architecture on Databricks, Snowflake, and AWS.
• Build and maintain high-volume ETL/ELT pipelines for analytics, operational reporting, and product features.
• Design dimensional models and database structures that give fast and predictable query performance.
• Tune SQL Server workloads. This includes stored procedures, execution plans, and index strategy.
• Integrate data from internal and external sources into governed enterprise models.
• Build data quality, lineage, testing, monitoring, and observability frameworks.
• Optimize processing, storage, and query cost across large datasets.
• Apply SOX and audit controls to financial data pipelines. This includes change control, access control, and evidence capture.
• Automate data infrastructure and data collection across CoStar products.
• Support production pipelines.
• Find the root cause of failures and prevent a repeat.
• Contribute to architecture decisions, set engineering standards, and mentor other engineers.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree required from an accredited, not for profit, in person, university or college. Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field is preferred.
• A track record of commitment to prior employers 5+ years in data engineering, backend engineering, or software engineering, with a focus on data-intensive systems.
• Advanced SQL.
• Strong programming skills in Python, Scala, or Java.
• 3+ years with a relational platform such as SQL Server or PostgreSQL, including query and index tuning.
• 2+ years building production solutions on Databricks, Spark, or an equivalent distributed processing platform.
• Experience with dimensional modeling, data warehouse design, and data architecture.
• Experience building and optimizing ETL/ELT pipelines for large and complex datasets.
• Experience with an orchestration tool such as Apache Airflow or Apache NiFi in production.
• Experience with software engineering practice: version control, automated tests, CI/CD, and code review.
• Experience with data quality validation, performance tuning, monitoring, and production support.
• Ability to turn business requirements into a data model and a delivery plan.
• Clear written and verbal communication with technical and business audience.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills

• Experience with streaming platforms such as Kafka or Spark Streaming.
• AWS experience but experience with Azure or Google Cloud Platform is also relevant.
• NoSQL stores such as DynamoDB, and object storage such as Amazon S3.
• Experience with cloud-native compute, container, and serverless services.
• Experience with data governance, metadata management, lineage, and observability tooling.
• Experience with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with financial data under SOX, or with another regulated data domain.
• Knowledge of Elasticsearch or a similar search platform.
• Experience with business intelligence tools such as Power BI.
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools and agent-based workflows.
• Familiarity with machine learning, large language models, or prompt engineering.

What's in it for You

When you join CoStar Group, you'll experience a collaborative and innovative culture working alongside the best and brightest to empower our people and customers to succeed. We offer you generous compensation and performance-based incentives. CoStar Group also invests in your professional and academic growth with internal training, and tuition reimbursement. Our benefits package includes (but is not limited to): Comprehensive healthcare coverage: Medical / Vision / Dental / Prescription Drug Life, legal, and supplementary insurance Virtual and in person mental health counseling services for individuals and family Commuter and parking benefits 401(K) retirement plan with matching contributions Employee stock purchase plan Paid time off Tuition reimbursement On-site fitness center and/or reimbursed fitness center membership costs (location dependent), with yoga studio, Pelotons, personal training, group exercise classes Access to CoStar Group's Employee Resource Groups Complimentary gourmet coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fresh fruit, and other healthy snacks The final salary or hourly rate offered for this role will fall within the range set forth below based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, geographic location, skills, and competencies. Base Compensation: $147,000- $190,000 Annually

Equal Employment Opportunity

We welcome all qualified candidates who are currently eligible to work full-time in the United States. However, please note that CoStar Group is not able to provide visa sponsorship for this position. CoStar Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer; we maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing. CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading global provider of commercial and residential real estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces. Included in the S&P 500 Index, CoStar Group is on a mission to digitize the world's real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights and connections that improve their businesses and lives. We have been living and breathing the world of real estate information and online marketplaces for over 37 years, giving us the perspective to create truly unique and valuable products and services. We've continually refined, transformed and perfected our approach to our business, creating a language that has become standard in our industry and for our customers. This is how we deliver for our customers, our employees, and investors. By equipping the brightest minds with the best resources available, we provide an invaluable edge in real estate. CoStar Group is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. CoStar Group is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access www.costargroup.com/careers as a result of your disability. You can request reasonable accommodations by sending an email to [e-mail].