Data Engineer (TS/SCI)
Apply NowCompany: The DarkStar Group, LLC
Location: Herndon, VA 20171
Description:
Description
The DarkStar Group is seeking a Data Engineer with a TS/SCI clearance to join one of our top projects in Herndon, VA. Below is an overview of the project, as well as information on our company, our benefits, and our $25,000 referral program.
THE PROJECT
The DarkStar Group's team solves unique and challenging intelligence problems for a Special Operations customer. This work is as close to the mission as a technologist can get, so the environment is fast-paced: team members face rapidly-changing requirements and priorities as mission needs evolve. If you hate monotony and want to use your skills to have a direct impact on real-world operational success, this is the project for you.
We are a multi-faceted software development and systems administration team working to build and maintain software applications backed by a self-managed cloud infrastructure (OpenStack) with a true big-data footprint (over 10 petabytes). Our diverse background of experience in mission support and software development serves as a catalyst to solve unique and challenging intelligence problems in support of special operations analysts and their on-going activities. Prototyping and frequent, iterative feedback are core to our delivery approach, anchored by a need to work quickly in support of our missions.
The technical stack is quite robust and includes Java, Python, C#, C/C++, Geospatial tools, Big Data and Graph Products (Hadoop, MapReduce, Spark, ElasticSearch, Neo4j), Linux, OpenStack, AWS, Ansible, SQL/NoSQL, Text Processing, Cloud Services, Containerization, Infrastructure as Code (IAC), and more.
Work on this program takes place in the Herndon, VA area (we cannot support remote work) and requires a TS clearance and a willingness to obtain a CI Poly: a current TS/SCI + CI Poly is preferred.
THE ROLE
The DarkStar Group is looking for an enthusiastic Senior Data Engineer or Senior Staff Data Engineer to join our Data Intelligence team. We are looking for someone energetic and talented to further our mission of delivering high-quality analytics solutions at Maxar.
The Data Intelligence team owns and maintains a variety of infrastructure, services, and analytics deliverables today. We have recently developed & deployed a new full-stack data lake house environment intended to allow for more teams to build analytics solutions. Your primary focus will be to learn our existing solutions, assist in migrating them to the data lake house, and then use your skills to develop data-pipeline best practices while helping other departments on-board their data to this new environment. This will be a time of rapid change for the Data Intelligence team, being flexible and adaptable is essential to success in this role.
What you'll do day-to-day:
Required Skills
Desired Skills (Optional)
About The DarkStar Group
Our Company
The DarkStar Group is a small business that solves BIG problems. We're one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US, and our engineers and scientists support the most critical national security missions in Virginia, Maryland, and elsewhere. Data Science, Software Engineering, Cloud/AWS Infrastructure, and Cyber/CNO are our core areas of expertise. We offer interesting and important work, job security, some of the best and most flexible benefits you'll find in the IC, and salaries so strong that they'll likely surprise you.
Our Benefits
The DarkStar Group offers exceptional compensation and benefits:
** We have a huge growth opportunity, so we are offering up to a $25,000 reward for anyone new you refer whom we hire. **
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
The DarkStar Group is seeking a Data Engineer with a TS/SCI clearance to join one of our top projects in Herndon, VA. Below is an overview of the project, as well as information on our company, our benefits, and our $25,000 referral program.
THE PROJECT
The DarkStar Group's team solves unique and challenging intelligence problems for a Special Operations customer. This work is as close to the mission as a technologist can get, so the environment is fast-paced: team members face rapidly-changing requirements and priorities as mission needs evolve. If you hate monotony and want to use your skills to have a direct impact on real-world operational success, this is the project for you.
We are a multi-faceted software development and systems administration team working to build and maintain software applications backed by a self-managed cloud infrastructure (OpenStack) with a true big-data footprint (over 10 petabytes). Our diverse background of experience in mission support and software development serves as a catalyst to solve unique and challenging intelligence problems in support of special operations analysts and their on-going activities. Prototyping and frequent, iterative feedback are core to our delivery approach, anchored by a need to work quickly in support of our missions.
The technical stack is quite robust and includes Java, Python, C#, C/C++, Geospatial tools, Big Data and Graph Products (Hadoop, MapReduce, Spark, ElasticSearch, Neo4j), Linux, OpenStack, AWS, Ansible, SQL/NoSQL, Text Processing, Cloud Services, Containerization, Infrastructure as Code (IAC), and more.
Work on this program takes place in the Herndon, VA area (we cannot support remote work) and requires a TS clearance and a willingness to obtain a CI Poly: a current TS/SCI + CI Poly is preferred.
THE ROLE
The DarkStar Group is looking for an enthusiastic Senior Data Engineer or Senior Staff Data Engineer to join our Data Intelligence team. We are looking for someone energetic and talented to further our mission of delivering high-quality analytics solutions at Maxar.
The Data Intelligence team owns and maintains a variety of infrastructure, services, and analytics deliverables today. We have recently developed & deployed a new full-stack data lake house environment intended to allow for more teams to build analytics solutions. Your primary focus will be to learn our existing solutions, assist in migrating them to the data lake house, and then use your skills to develop data-pipeline best practices while helping other departments on-board their data to this new environment. This will be a time of rapid change for the Data Intelligence team, being flexible and adaptable is essential to success in this role.
What you'll do day-to-day:
- Operate in a cloud-based AWS environment.
- Work and communicate with Maxar employees as well as external consultants.
- Gain exposure to one of the world's foremost repositories of geospatial data.
- Design, develop, and support scalable, reliable cloud data solutions using open-source and COTS tooling.
- Develop high-quality, resilient data pipelines and business solutions.
- Analyze and interpret data from diverse systems for reporting applications.
- Actively identify opportunities to improve our infrastructure and propose solutions to realize them.
- Collaborate with a team of skilled DevOps Engineers, Data Engineers, and Business Intelligence Developers.
Required Skills
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, geography, or related field. Four additional years of experience may be substituted for a degree.
- Minimum of 5 years of technical experience.
- Minimum of 5 years' experience with SQL including complex queries, SQL tuning, CTEs.
- Minimum of 3 years' experience with Python.
- Demonstrated experience building & orchestrating automated, production-level data pipelines and solutions (ETL/ELT).
- Experience with file-based data storage, including Parquet or Iceberg.
- Experience with data catalogs (ex. Hive, AWS Glue).
- General understanding of key AWS services (e.g. EC2, S3, EKS, IAM, lambda).
- Experience building and/or using data APIs.
- Experience with GitHub.
- Experience with structured, semi-structure, and unstructured data.
- Demonstrated history of exploring and learning new technologies quickly.
Desired Skills (Optional)
- Experience with software development.
- Experience with geospatial data.
- Experience building data-streaming processes.
- Experience using PostGIS.
- Experience with any of the following: Apache-Hive, Trino, Presto, Starburst, OpenMetadata, Apache-SuperSet, Terraform, dbt, Tableau, Fivetran, Airflow.
- Experience implementing resilient, scalable, and supportable systems in AWS.
- Experience using a wide variety of open-source technologies and cloud services.
- Experience developing multi-step ETLs including DAG creation and scheduling in tools such as Airflow.
- Experience using containerization systems like Docker and Kubernetes.
- Experience with CI/CD pipeline tools such as Jenkins.
About The DarkStar Group
Our Company
The DarkStar Group is a small business that solves BIG problems. We're one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US, and our engineers and scientists support the most critical national security missions in Virginia, Maryland, and elsewhere. Data Science, Software Engineering, Cloud/AWS Infrastructure, and Cyber/CNO are our core areas of expertise. We offer interesting and important work, job security, some of the best and most flexible benefits you'll find in the IC, and salaries so strong that they'll likely surprise you.
Our Benefits
The DarkStar Group offers exceptional compensation and benefits:
- very strong salaries;
- 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision premiums for you and all dependents;
- the ability to get increased salary if you don't need medical/dental/vision;
- 100% company-paid disability and life insurance benefits;
- a generously-funded HSA;
- an 8% 401(k) contribution;
- 31 days of PTO/holidays to start (more with tenure);
- the ability to flex time across pay periods without using your PTO;
- a generous training budget;
- $25,000 employee referral bonuses;
- business development / growth incentives; and
- top notch company swag.
** We have a huge growth opportunity, so we are offering up to a $25,000 reward for anyone new you refer whom we hire. **
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.