Data and Systems Engineer

Position Title: Data & Systems Engineer
Location: Cambridge, MA-Onsite three days per week
Position Type: Contract, 12 months, extendable
Pay range: $50-$60/hr on w2.

Job Description
Role Purpose
The Data & Systems Engineer contributes to the design, implementation, and governance of scalable data, analytics, and compute platforms supporting scientific and enterprise functions. This includes working with Databricks (Unity Catalog), AWS cloud infrastructure, and Posit analytical environments to enable secure, reliable, and efficient workflows.
Key Accountabilities
Technical Architecture
Support development of reference architectures for data, analytics, and compute platforms.
Ideate, develop, and document system design architecture and define and refine technical standards as needed.
Assist with modeling data flows, source-to-target mappings, and governance frameworks.
Participate in design reviews for Databricks, AWS, and Posit platform capabilities.
Platform Engineering & Integration
Support development and optimization of ETL/ELT pipelines in Databricks with Unity Catalog and Delta Lake.
Assist with AWS architecture including S3, Glue, IAM, Lambda, EC2, EMR, and CloudWatch.
Contribute to integrations between Databricks, Posit Workbench/Connect, and scientific data platforms.
Support CI/CD and IaC workflows using Terraform, GitHub Actions, and AWS-native tooling.
Governance & Compliance
Support data governance initiatives including Unity Catalog permissions and lineage tracking.
Assist with platform security reviews, compliance controls, and audit readiness.
Contribute to documentation of architectural standards and operational Products.
Stakeholder Engagement
Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and platform teams to understand requirements.
Support onboarding, training, and documentation for Databricks, AWS, and Posit users.
Participate in platform roadmap discussions and capability assessments.
Essential Skills & Experience
Hands-on experience with Databricks (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, clusters, notebooks).
Knowledge of Posit Workbench/Connect/Package Manager and R/Python workflows.
Experience with AWS services: S3, IAM, Lambda, EC2, Glue, EMR, CloudWatch.
Ability to develop automation and workflows using Python, SQL, R, Bash, or PowerShell.
Understanding of cloud architectures, data engineering patterns, and system integrations.
Desirable Skills & Experience
Hands-on modeling experience creating architecture diagrams (Visio, Draw.io, SqlDBM).
Exposure to Terraform, CloudFormation, or GitHub Actions.
Familiarity with scientific computing environments or R&D workflows on a global scale.
Education Requirements
Candidates should possess a Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or a closely related discipline, or demonstrate equivalent professional experience in a relevant technical field.