Kafka Engineer

Job Title: Data Engineer Primary location of assignment: Richmond, VA, 23219 Schedule : Alternate weeks in Richmond VA office; other week remote. (5 days in office, 5 days remote, repeating). No 100% remote Duration: 12 months contract, with possibility of extension Role Summary The Senior Data Engineer is a hands-on expert and technical leader, actively engaged in designing, building, and optimizing scalable, reliable data pipelines at an enterprise level. This role not only guides architectural decisions but also directly implements advanced ELT solutions, troubleshoots complex data challenges, and ensures best practices through practical, high-impact contributions. This role combines deep hands on expertise with technical ownership, mentoring, and architectural alignment. The Senior Data Engineer drives and implements data engineering best practices, ensures high standards for quality and security, and partners with architecture and platform teams to improve the overall data ecosystem.

• Advanced expertise in SQL, ELT patterns, and performance tuning.
• Strong experience with Oracle Exadata, Snowflake or similar cloud/on prem data warehouses.
• Hands on experience with enterprise ETL/ELT platforms (e.g., Talend, dbt, Informatica).
• Deep understanding of data warehousing architecture and dimensional modeling.
• Experience designing and supporting large scale, production data pipelines.
• Strong scripting experience (Python, shell).
• Experience with data virtualization tools (e.g., Denodo, Composite, dremio, Starburst).
• Experience with DataOps practices, CI/CD, and observability.

Required 5 to 7+ years of Data Engineering experience. ETL Development and Process Support, may require weekend/off business hours work.

• Supporting AI/ML or advanced analytics pipelines.
• Cloud platform experience (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform).
• Prior experience influencing enterprise data standards or reference architecture.
• Experience optimizing cost and performance in cloud data warehouses.
• Hands-on experience with Cribl, Apache Kafka, Kafka Connect, Spark Streaming, or Apache Flink

For applications and inquiries,