Data Engineer (Software Engineer)

at  The Aerospace Corporation

The Aerospace Corporation is the trusted partner to the nation’s space programs, solving the hardest problems and providing unmatched technical expertise. As the operator of a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), we are broadly engaged across all aspects of space— delivering innovative solutions that span satellite, launch, ground, and cyber systems for defense, civil and commercial customers. When you join our team, you’ll be part of a special collection of problem solvers, thought leaders, and innovators. Join us and take your place in space.
At Aerospace, we are committed to providing an inclusive and diverse workplace for all employees to share in our common passion and aspiration – to carry out a mission much bigger than ourselves.
Information Systems and Cyber Division (ISCD) staff couple the latest in information system technologies, such as elastic compute clouds, containerization, microservices, real-time operating systems, and visualization frameworks, with expertise in cyber security, software architecture, software engineering, process improvement, and software development to deliver responsive, resilient, high-performance software intensive systems to our IC, DoD, and civilian customers.
The Datacentric Platforms and Architectures Department seeks a creative Software Developer or Data Engineer (Engineering Specialist - Data Engineering) to join a team of motivated engineers passionate about researching, prototyping, understanding, and building data platforms and cloud native applications for the space enterprise. Join us to accomplish innovative work on modern data platforms that adopt the cloud and encompass self-service features

Work Model

• This position will be a hybrid work model and offer partially remote with some onsite work required in Chantilly, VA as the business needs allow.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Work with Intelligence Community, DoD, and civil and commercial customers such as NNSA and NASA
• Lead, coordinate, and collaborate with multi-functional teams to build and deploy prototypes that support the customer’s mission using cloud services or on premises infrastructure
• Analyze mission data and architectures to inform future customer decisions and contracts
• Build enterprise data platforms and architectures for various data domains that provide operational excellence, security, reliability, performance & cost optimization. This includes data model designs and prototypes, implementation and management of data warehouses or databases, and data analytics platforms

What You Need to be Successful

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in STEM,
• 8 years of experience in software engineering, computer science, data engineering or related fields
• Knowledge of at least one common programming language such as, Java, Python, C, Go
• Experience in Container technologies and container orchestration systems (ex. Kubernetes/EKS)
• Experience using cloud native application development and/or cloud infrastructure development
• Experience using data integration tools, platforms, and pipelines such as Apache Airflow, Apache Spark, Denodo, or Palantir’s WarpCore
• Experience in creating and building technical relationships with customers (technical engineers) and the ability to create presentations , written, and verbal solutions..
• Experience leading projects and collaborating with multiple interdisciplinary teams
• Willing to travel occasionally to work location or customer site approx. 5% of the time.
• This position requires ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance, which is issued by the US government. U.S citizenship is required to obtain a security clearance.

How You Can Stand Out

It would be impressive if you have one or more of these:

• Advanced degree in STEM
• 12 years of experience in software engineering, computer science, data engineering or related fields
• Hands-on experience with cloud technologies and services in on-premises (e.g., VMware) and commercial clouds (e.g., Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle)
• Knowledge of semantic data management or graph databases (ex. Neo4J, AWS Neptune)
• Experience with creating and maintaining organizational data management policies

Leadership Competencies

Our leadership philosophy is simple: every employee, regardless of level and role, can demonstrate leadership. At Aerospace, our commitment is our people. To cultivate our talent and ensure that we have a strong pipeline of future leaders, we want individuals who:

• Operate Strategically
• Lead Change
• Engage with Impact
• Foster Innovation
• Deliver Results

Ways We Reward Our Employees
During your interview process, our team will provide details of our industry-leading benefits.

Benefits vary and are applicable based on Job Type. A few highlights include:

• Comprehensive health care and wellness plans
• Paid holidays, sick time, and vacation
• Standard and alternate work schedules, including telework options
• 401(k) Plan — Employees receive a total company-paid benefit of 8%, 10%, or 12% of eligible compensation based on years of service and matching contributions; employees are immediately eligible and vested in the plan upon hire
• Flexible spending accounts
• Variable pay program for exceptional contributions
• Relocation assistance
• Professional growth and development programs to help advance your career
• Education assistance programs
• An inclusive work environment built on teamwork, flexibility, and respect

We are all unique, from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life, yet one thing bonds all of us to each other—the belief that we can make a difference. This core belief empowers us to do our best work at The Aerospace Corporation.
Equal Opportunity Commitment
The Aerospace Corporation is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. We believe that a diverse workforce creates an environment in which unique ideas are developed and differing perspectives are valued, producing superior customer solutions. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, color, religion, genetic information, marital status, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, physical disability, medical condition, mental disability, or disability status and any other characteristic protected by state or federal law. If you’re an individual with a disability or a disabled veteran who needs assistance using our online job search and application tools or need reasonable accommodation to complete the job application process, please contact us by phone at 310.336.5432 or by email at
ieo.mailbox@aero.org
. You can also review
Know Your Rights
: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal
, as well as the
Pay Transparency Policy Statement

What You’ll Be Doing

• Work with Intelligence Community, DoD, and civil and commercial customers such as NNSA and NASA
• Lead, coordinate, and collaborate with multi-functional teams to build and deploy prototypes that support the customer’s mission using cloud services or on premises infrastructure
• Analyze mission data and architectures to inform future customer decisions and contracts
• Build enterprise data platforms and architectures for various data domains that provide operational excellence, security, reliability, performance & cost optimization. This includes data model designs and prototypes, implementation and management of data warehouses or databases, and data analytics platform

Our leadership philosophy is simple: every employee, regardless of level and role, can demonstrate leadership. At Aerospace, our commitment is our people. To cultivate our talent and ensure that we have a strong pipeline of future leaders, we want individuals who:

• Operate Strategically
• Lead Change
• Engage with Impact
• Foster Innovation
• Deliver Result