Job DescriptionJoin us as a Data Engineer III, helping advance the university's data and analytics capabilities by designing and scaling modern data pipelines and platforms. Your work will directly support institutional reporting, research, and strategic initiatives. You will work on modern data infrastructure using tools, collaborate with data architects, analysts, and application developers to design robust ETL workflows, optimize performance, and ensure data quality and governance at scale. The Data Engineering team within IS&T plays a critical role in enabling data-driven decision-making across Boston University. We develop and maintain data infrastructure that supports analytics, institutional research, academic planning, and operational efficiency. Our team partners closely with data consumers across the university to ensure the reliability, scalability, and quality of enterprise data assets. You Will Design and maintain scalable DAG-based data pipelines using Dagster. Build and optimize data models in PostgreSQL using DBT for analytical and operational use cases. Develop batch and streaming ETL processes leveraging AWS services (S3, Glue, Athena, SNS/SQS, Lambda). Deploy and manage containerized workloads on Kubernetes, using infrastructure-as-code. Implement robust data quality checks, observability, and automated validation. Define schemas, data contracts, and transformation logic with cross-functional teams. Contribute to CI/CD workflows (e.g., GitHub Actions, ArgoCD) to perform code reviews and document technical standards.
Required SkillsYou Will Have:
- Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Analytics, or Business Analytics.
- Master's degree preferred.
- Applicable experience accepted in lieu of degree. 3+ years of experience in data engineering, data analytics, and backend software development across financial services and higher education contexts.
- Proficiency in Python (pandas, pyarrow, PowerShell) for data transformation and automation.
- Strong SQL skills with proven experience in PostgreSQL and SQL Server optimization.
- Hands-on experience with orchestration frameworks (Dagster, Airflow, SSIS).
- Experience with ETL/ELT pipelines, data warehousing, and dimensional modeling using Kimball techniques.
- Familiarity with AWS data lake components (S3, Glue, Athena) and containerized workflows (Kubernetes, Docker).
- Demonstrated experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git, and Agile team processes.
- Expertise in data governance, privacy, and compliance, having worked with financial institutions handling sensitive data.
- Experience implementing streaming and event-driven architectures (Advanced Queue Messaging Protocol, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Redis).
- Strong communication skills, with a proven track record of collaborating with technical and non-technical stakeholders, mentoring, and delivering training.
Boston University offers an excellent benefits package including:
- Time Off: In addition to PTO and leave policy, BU employees have a paid intersession break and 13 paid holidays.
- Retirement: University-funded retirement plan with full vesting after 2 years of eligible service.
- Tuition Assistance Program: Competitive tuition assistance program for yourself and family members.
- Check out https://www.bu.edu/wellness/ and https://www.bu.edu/hr/part-time-employee-perks/ for more information!
Boston University IS&T invests in our staff and their personal and professional growth. We promote staff learning including lunch and learn sessions, an extensive library of online courses, Fun Advisory Board (FAB) arranges a number of events throughout the year and opportunities to engage with peers at NERCOMP and EDUCAUSE events.
