ABOUT THE NORTHWEST PORTLAND AREA INDIAN HEALTH BOARD (NPAIHB)
The Northwest Tribes have long recognized the need to exercise control over the design and development of health care delivery systems in their local communities. To this end, they formed the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (also referred to as NPAIHB or “the Board") in 1972.
Guided by a vision of “Health and Wellness for the Seventh Generation,” NPAIHB is a 501(c)3 designated (non-profit) organization and Tribal organization, P.L. 93-638, under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) serving the 43 federally recognized Tribes in the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington (Northwest Tribes). Tribes become voting members of the Board through resolutions passed by their governing body. Each member Tribe designates a delegate to serve on the NPAIHB Board of Directors.
Led by our Board of Directors, NPAIHB’s mission is to “eliminate health disparities and improve the quality of life of American Indians and Alaska Natives by supporting Northwest Tribes in their delivery of culturally appropriate, high-quality health programs and services.” We have a staff of over 120 professionals dedicated to advancing Tribal health for the 7th generation in the Pacific Northwest.
The NPAIHB’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025 can be found here.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Data Engineer plays a crucial role in designing, building, and maintaining a modern data infrastructure for the NPAIHB Northwest Tribal Data Hub ("Data Hub") and other data systems within the organization. The Data Engineer works closely with the Data Hub and other teams and to create the architecture needed for data storage, processing, analysis, and secure transfer to Tribal leaders, public health professionals, and clinical staff.
The Data Engineer’s work is pivotal in enhancing the capacity of Tribal public health departments to conduct data-driven activities, advancing Tribal data sovereignty, and empowering Northwest Tribes to improve health outcomes within their communities. The Data Engineer collaborates with epidemiologists, data content experts, Information Technology staff, project directors, and others to develop and implement scalable solutions which align with the objectives of the NPAIHB.
The Data Engineer reports to the IDEA-NW Project Director. This scope of work is housed within the Northwest Tribal EpiCenter (NWTEC or “EpiCenter") Division. This position is based at NPAIHB’s offices in Portland, Oregon. Local travel and/or overnight travel outside of the area is required approximately 10% of the time.
EDUCATION
Minimum education required:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Science or related field
Additional education preferred:
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Science or related field
EXPERIENCE
Minimum experience required:
- At least five (5) years of experience in a data engineering role
- Demonstrated experience building Structured Language Query (SQL) relational databases
- Demonstrated experience transitioning non-relational data into structured relational format, while ensuring seamless integration and optimized performance
- Experience gathering requirements, and designing and planning data models based on those requirements
- Experience transforming and preparing data into formats suitable for data visualization software, and structured for optimal use in dashboards and other visual outputs
- Experience providing training and technical assistance to upskill teams in data engineering and data science methods
- Experience with cloud computing platforms
- Experience working in a virtual environment with remote partners and teams
Additional experience preferred:
- Direct experience working with Tribes or Tribal organizations
- At least two (2) years of experience in a lead data engineering role
- Experience handling complex public health, health care, or other non-business data requiring advanced processing and analysis techniques
- Experience implementing data suppression techniques and familiarity with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Protected Health Information (PHI), and other data confidentiality regulations
- Experience transitioning Statistical Analysis System (SAS) datasets and analyses into relational database structures
- Experience with dimensional modeling in scenarios where dimensions and fields change over time
- Experience in an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing environment, including building data pipelines such as AWS Relational Database Services (RDS), Amazon Aurora Serverless, AWS Glue, and Lambda
- Experience creating complex fields and visuals in AWS QuickSight or similar data visualization tools (Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, etc.)
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES
Minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities required:
- Demonstrated knowledge, discretion, tact, judgment, and overall ability in working effectively with federal, Tribal, and other professionals, and facilitating participation and partnership in the activities of the NWTEC and Data Hub
- Strong understanding of database systems, including relational databases (such as MySQL or PostgreSQL) and NoSQL databases (such as MongoDB or Cassandra), with PostgreSQL preferred
- Comprehensive knowledge of data warehousing concepts and tools
- Expertise in data modeling, ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) processes, and data integration techniques
- Familiarity with agile development methodologies, software design patterns, and best practices
- Proficiency in SQL programming and other languages commonly used in data engineering, such as Python, Java, and Scala
- Proficiency with computer applications (specifically Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft Office Suite programs)
- Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills
- Must be sensitive to cross-cultural differences, and able to work effectively within their context
- Ability to work with minimal supervision, exercise initiative, and make independent decisions and recommendations
- Ability to be flexible in adapting to evolving project requirements and priorities
- Ability to develop productive working relationships with colleagues and partners
- Ability to effectively convey technical concepts to non-technical partners
- Ability to make professional oral presentations in settings at the national, regional, and community levels, as well as in Tribal settings
- Ability to complete tasks in a timely and accurate manner
- Ability to travel occasionally (approximately 10% of the time)
Additional knowledge, skills, and abilities preferred:
- Proficiency in the object-relational database system Postgre SQL
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
This position:
- Consistently requires the ability to receive detailed information through oral communication and expressing or exchanging ideas or important instructions accurately, loudly, or quickly
- Constantly requires working with fingers, rather than the whole hand or arm
- Constantly requires repetitive movement of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers
- Often requires walking or moving about to accomplish tasks
- Occasionally requires standing and/or sitting for sustained periods of time
- Occasionally requires ascending or descending stairs or ramps using feet and legs and/or hands and arms
- Occasionally requires raising objects from a lower to a higher position, or moving objects horizontally
- Occasionally requires stooping, which entails the use of the lower extremities and back muscles
- Infrequently requires crouching
TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS
Local and/or overnight travel outside of the area is infrequently required. Attendance at quarterly NPAIHB Board Meetings is occasionally required. These meetings are held both locally and hosted by our member tribes on a rotating basis, typically taking place during the third or fourth weeks of January, April, July, and October, and typically require a minimum stay of two overnights per meeting.
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