Specialist Data Engineer

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 114,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking a Specialist Data Engineer to design, deploy, and maintain data solutions across on‑prem and cloud environments. You will collaborate with data analysts, data scientists and business users to build pipelines that meet organizational needs and drive data intelligence capabilities.

Responsibilities include developing scalable ELT/ETL processes, building data catalogs, and implementing security and data quality controls, with opportunities for

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Arts/Sciences (BA/BS) or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate preferred.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Fundamentals preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement data solutions to meet business requirements and data ingestion needs.
• ELT/ETL data from various sources including on-premises and cloud systems.
• Write secure, well designed code adhering to standards.
• Monitor and troubleshoot data pipelines to minimize disruptions.
• Implement data quality checks and validation processes.
• Write complex queries and scripts to manipulate and transform data.
• Create and maintain data catalog and lineage, plus CI/CD processes for data platforms.
• Stay updated with Azure cloud trends to improve data capabilities.
• Mentor less experienced staff.

Skills

Big Data architectures

Lakehouse architecture

Azure Databricks

Azure Synapse

Power BI

Data Factory

Terraform

Ansible

Python

PySpark

SQL

Airflow

CI/CD

DevOps

Jira

Confluence

Data Modeling

ETL/ELT

Education

Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BS)

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Jira

Confluence

Azure Databricks

Azure Synapse Analytics

Power BI

Job description

Description

Job Title: Specialist Data Engineer

Salary Range: $114,070 - $134,641

Dept/DIV: Information Technology

Supervisor: Director, Product Development

Location: Various

Hours of Work: 9:00 am - 5:30 pm (7.5 hours/day) or as required

This position is eligible for teleworking, which is currently 2 days per week. New hires are eligible to apply 30 days after their effective date of hire.

Opening

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is North America's largest transportation network, serving a population of 15.3 million people across a 5,000-square-mile travel area surrounding New York City, Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. The MTA network comprises the nation’s largest bus fleet and more subway and commuter rail cars than all other U.S. transit systems combined. MTA strives to provide a safe and reliable commute, excellent customer service, and rewarding opportunities.

Summary

This role is responsible for the design, deployment, development and maintenance of data solutions. The Data Engineer will participate in a variety of data related projects and work closely with the Data analysts, data scientists, Business users and other stakeholders to gather requirements and build data pipelines that meet the organizations' needs. The Data Engineer will deploy and support Data platforms that process and store data. They will contribute to software development methods, tools, and techniques and applies agreed standards and tools to achieve well-engineered outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement data solutions to meet business requirements and data ingestion needs facilitating accurate and timely data availability for analysis and decision-making.
• Extract, load and Transform (ELT/ETL) data from various sources, including on-premises and cloud-based systems, APIs, databases, and files.
• Write well designed, efficient code, that adheres to security standards.
• Monitor and troubleshoot data pipelines to identify and resolve issues in a timely manner to minimize disruptions in data processing for on premise and cloud environments.
• Implement data quality checks and validation processes to ensure accuracy and completeness of data. collaborate with the data team to resolve them.
• Writes complex queries and scripts to efficiently manipulate, transform, and process raw data.
• Creates and executes data validation processes to ensure the reliability and consistency of incoming data. Build processes to monitor data quality.
• Continuously optimize data pipelines for performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Create and maintain technical documentation. Contribute to building and maintaining data catalog and lineage.
• Design and develop CI/CD processes that ensure high availability and agility.
• Develop cloud data services provisioning automation with integrated capabilities of IAM, network, security policies as code, and observability.
• Build tools and services to support data discovery, lineage, resiliency, and privacy compliance across the data platform.
• Stay updated with the latest trends and best practices in data engineering, cloud computing, and Azure services to suggest innovative solutions to continually improve the organization’s data intelligence capabilities.
• Monitors and reports on supplier performance, customer satisfaction, adherence to security requirements and market intelligence.
• May mentor less experienced staff

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Arts/Sciences (BA/BS). An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate is preferred.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Fundamentals is preferred.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong knowledge of Big Data architectures, large data warehouse and Data Lake solutions.
• Experience designing and implementing Modern Data and Analytics solutions including Lakehouse architecture, Medallion architecture.
• Proficient in cloud services including Azure Databricks. Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Store, Microsoft Purview and Power BI.
• Experience deploying and running cloud-based data solutions and infrastructure-as-code frameworks like Terraform
• Proficient in cloud deployments (MS Azure preferred) in an agile SDLC environment, leveraging modern programming languages, DevOps.
• Experience with major database platforms including Oracle, SQL Server as well as Cloud databases and NOSQL Databases.
• Strong understanding of data engineering concepts, ELT/ETL principles, and data modeling.
• Experience with data integration techniques for both structured and unstructured data.
• Solid programming skills in languages such as Python, Pyspark, SQL.
• Experience with Airflow.
• Experience in DevOps, Git Repos and CI/CD pipelines for code deployment.
• Experience in programming and infra-automation tools – Terraform, Ansible, python, etc.
• Experience with Microsoft Purview is a plus
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Azure Cloud. AWS and GCP desirable.
• Functional knowledge of Microsoft Power BI
• Experience with Jira, Confluence.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and navigate organizational ambiguity.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Hands‑on programming experience in a business setting.
• Proficiency in at least one software engineering methodology, including but not limited to Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, Lean, Rapid Application Development (RAD).
• Experience applying a structured validation and testing method, including but not limited to: Unit Testing, Integration Testing, System Testing, Acceptance Testing, Regression Testing.
• Proficient collaboration skills to ensure design specifications are seamlessly implemented by the development team.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and navigate organizational ambiguity.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills

Preferred Technical Skills

• Data Structures and Algorithms (Thorough Knowledge/Fully Proficient)
• Cloud Computing (Thorough Knowledge/Fully Proficient)

Competencies

• Cultivates Innovation

  Capable

  Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful

• Customer Focus

  Capable

  Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer‑centric solutions

• Values Diversity

  Adept

  Recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization

• Communicates Effectively

  Adept

  Developing and delivering multi‑mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences

• Tech Savvy

  Capable

  Anticipating and adopting innovations in business‑building digital and technology applications

• Technical Skills

  Capable

  Specialized knowledge and expertise on tools, programs, domains, platforms, and products used for specific tasks

Other Information

Pursuant to the New York State Public Officers Law & the MTA Code of Ethics, all employees who hold a policymaking position must file an Annual Statement of Financial Disclosure (FDS) with the NYS Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (the “Commission”).

Equal Employment Opportunity

MTA and its subsidiary and affiliated agencies are Equal Opportunity Employers, including with respect to veteran status and individuals with disabilities.

The MTA encourages qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and abilities, including military service members, to apply.