LEAD DATA ENGINEER

Company: University of Washington
Location: Seattle
Posted on: May 27, 2023

Job Description:

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.
UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.
The University of Washington is one of the world's preeminent public universities in impact and funding. Since 1972, the UW has continued to receive more externally sponsored research funding than any other U.S. public university and we are one of the few universities in the U.S. with total research funding nearing two billion. That funding drives crucial, ground-breaking research that transforms lives around the globe. In the Office of Research at UW, we take pride in creating an outstanding climate of support for UW researchers that helps them compete and succeed. However, the complexity of research administration and regulation grows each day.
POSITION PURPOSE
The Lead Data Engineer will ensure efficient delivery and effective support for University research by sustaining and growing the integrations and use of UW Financial data through the connection with the UW's enterprise resource planning system Workday. This position will accomplish this by designing, building, and supporting some of the UW's most critical data infrastructure in alignment with UW Medicine and UW-IT. This data infrastructure supports systems and services used by award-winning faculty and staff to perform administrative activities including submission of funding applications for consideration, routing them electronically for approval, managing detailed multi-year grant budgets, integrating with other UW systems, and providing reporting capabilities to academic and administrative users.
The engineering component of the position supports sustainment of Workday integrations to novel product development, vendor product configuration, and other integrations. This position will grow and evolve data engineering best practices and standards; lead and collaborate on the strategic direction of data engineering; ensure the tactical implementation of that strategic direction across products; lead and mentor a wide range of staff; and foster high-integrity, fresh, secure, and accurate data management and integration. Operations consist of supporting a range of data software components, infrastructure, integrations, and services, some of which target 24/7/365 availability.
Successful candidates must have a strong background in design and implementation of databases and other data infrastructure that support online applications, reporting and analytics, and integrations with other systems. The candidate must also demonstrate the leadership required to mentor colleagues and see projects through from envisioning to delivery. This technical leadership may be expressed in diverse ways, connecting to the variety of styles and cultures represented within the Office of Research and across UW.
The Office of Research supports a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Recognizing and valuing all of our differences makes our office stronger and enhances our support for researchers; it will enrich the research carried out at the UW. Read more about DEI in the Office of Research on our website
The Lead Data Engineer provides leadership in design, modeling, implementation, and maintenance of data infrastructure across all developmental and operational phases. A successful person in this position must:
Lead, mentor, coach, and collaborate with multiple teams of diverse staff including junior and senior engineering staff as well as technical leads, product owners, and project managers across teams on data engineering for multiple products and uses.
Align data engineering implementations with overall Office of Research IT operational goals and business objectives that supports UW's -$1.7 billion research enterprise.
Lead, plan, and advise on the strategic and tactical direction of all facets of data engineering for sustainment of Workday data across multiple products, from modeling and design efforts to development, testing, and maintenance.
As a technical leader responsible for ensuring the strategic success of data engineering and management, this position advances the Office of Research's mission to support the integration of electronic research information systems with Workday. This will reduce the administrative burden on researchers across the University by improving the amount of time researchers can spend on researching; improving University compliance; and ensuring that the University can continue to be at the forefront of academic research.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Design and Build

• Plan, build, and support data solutions that support transactional business applications, cross-system integrations, and reporting solutions.
  
• Create and update data models and schemas, both product-specific and cross-product.
  
• Collaborate with application developers and staff across the University to bridge the gap between application and integration needs and data management best practices.
  
• Develop data solutions that conform to established and emerging data development patterns.
  
• Lead and collaborate with other engineers to ensure data infrastructure is implemented to security standards and minimizes maintenance costs.
  
• Collaborate with other engineers and testers to ensure data infrastructure meets performance benchmarks and can gracefully handle estimated peak volumes.
  
• Participate in and promote a culture of review by encouraging and engaging in technical and non-technical review as both reviewer and reviewee.
  Strategic Technical Leadership
  
• Socialize key concepts, industry best practices, and organizational principles, strategies, and conventions related to data engineering to both technical and non-technical staff via mentoring, meetings, hands-on learning, and documentation.
  
• Engage with organization leadership and staff to understand and advise on a consistent strategic direction of data engineering for multiple products.
  
• Work in collaboration with product owners and product management teams to identify, understand, and assess risks and opportunities with respect to our data infrastructure.
  
• Develop technical roadmaps and other documents both to account for the risks and opportunities assessed to be most essential to maximizing the value delivered by our data infrastructure and also to advance the organization's mission, principles, and strategies along with refining and sequencing initiatives and epics that advance these roadmaps.
  
• Contribute on efforts to evangelize data engineering and management best practices.
  
• Collaborate with product development teams to develop, document, and communicate data architectures and integrations.
  
• Contribute on data and data service cataloging efforts to help advertise the value of our data offerings.
  
• Work independently, but in close consultation with other leaders and stakeholders, to mature data engineering processes and practices that support the entire University research ecosystem.
  
• Work with stakeholders to mature data engineering & operations services, processes, and practices that support a wide range of data usage.
  
• Work in collaboration with UW-IT, UW Medicine ITS, and a wide range of other campus partners to ensure our strategy includes sustainment for integrating with a variety of enterprise-scale solutions, including Workday with University Research system to influence their technical program roadmaps to align with the Office of Research's goal of delivering intuitive and integrated research administration systems.
  Operations
  
• Ensure data infrastructure operates and adheres to university policy and industry recommended security best practices.
  
• Maintain configuration of databases and other data infrastructure, both in the cloud and on-premises.
  
• Participate in incident response by triaging and troubleshooting emerging incidents and escalating issues of broader concern to key stakeholders.
  
• Ensure performance and availability of data infrastructure meets or exceeds all system requirements and SLAs.
  
• Support technical and process documentation deliverables.
  Professional and Team Development
  
• Mentor and advise diverse staff at all levels of the organization on data engineering and operations best practices.
  
• Engage in professional development opportunities and share knowledge attained with other staff.
  
• Maintain an awareness of industry, institutional, and organizational trends, best practices, and standard solutions.
  
• Become familiar with research administration in an R1 university setting in order to streamline its supporting business processes.
  Administrative Duties
  
• Attend recurring organization meetings and one-on-ones with a supervisor.
  
• Engage in unplanned communications.
  
• Participate in recurring HR processes.
  MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
  
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration or equivalent experience.
  
• 8 Years of experience in data and database engineering to include at least the following minimum professional experience within those 8 years:
  
• 6 years hands-on experience as an individual contributor to data modeling and design, database implementation, database maintenance, data quality assurance, and operation in accordance with industry standards, accessibility guidelines, and security best practices using:
  - Enterprise relational database management system such as Oracle,
  Microsoft SQL Server, or IBM Db2.
  - ETL tools such as SQL Server Integration Services.
  - Modeling tools such as erwin or DbSchema.
  - Multidimensional OLAP cube products such as SQL Server Analysis
  Services.
  - Source control tools such as Visual Studio or Git and code repositories
  such as TFS, Github, or Bitbucket.
  - Secure data management practices.
  
• 2 years experience implementing and maintaining data infrastructure in a cloud environment - either AWS or Azure (AWS preferred).
  
• 2 years of demonstrated history of progressive responsibility in leading data engineering teams with diverse backgrounds and abilities in the areas identified above.
  Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
  ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
  
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and effectively in both oral and written mediums with individuals and groups in order to socialize information and knowledge with a diverse group of colleagues.
  
• Demonstrated ease in technical and non-technical review as both reviewer and reviewee in order to facilitate collaborative group activities such as change control and pull request review.
  DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
  This position:
  
• Workday suite of applications/modules.
  
• Workday data model, security, integrations and data load capabilities.
  
• Performing security audits and reviews of databases and data systems.
  
• REST API development and management platforms, such as MuleSoft or Boomi (Mulesoft preferred).
  
• Open-source database technologies: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, etc.
  
• Information Security standards and frameworks.
  
• Working in a Scrum-Agile environment.
  CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
  This position:
  
• Contributes in a collaborative teamwork environment.
  
• Collaborates across diverse backgrounds, personalities, and disciplines in a shared space working environment through scheduled and ad hoc meetings focused on problem solving.
  
• May be required to work in a hybrid environment, using remote and on-site workplaces.
  
• While normally has a Monday-Friday day shift, will occasionally have responsibilities or emergent situations where work outside of standard business hours is required to ensure software deployments go smoothly, to respond to incidents, and/or to meet critical deadlines.
  
• May be required to be on call.
  
• Is an essential position and is required to report to work when UW suspends operations when needed.
  Office of Research Executive Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  The Office of Research shares President Cauce's commitment to combat inequities and racism. The values of diversity, equity and inclusion are integral to the success of our research enterprise and are embedded in the culture of who we are as an institution and employer.
  We will honor different and unique identities and nurture an accessible, welcoming and respectful environment for all staff, students and faculty in the Office of Research and for all members of the UW research community. We will regularly review our services and systems and adapt them to reflect the evolving environments and work styles of our employees and those we serve.
  We are ALL responsible for confronting bias and inequities, both individual and institutional, that persist here and throughout our society. Our call is to remove barriers and promote access, opportunity, and justice for all. We all must commit to this ongoing work.
  Recognizing and valuing diversity will make the Office of Research and the University stronger, and enrich the stellar research carried out at the UW.
  Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select "Apply to this position". Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your "My Jobs" page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.
  Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, the University of Washington will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.
  The University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.
  To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 or dso@uw.edu.
  Applicants considered for this position will be required to disclose if they are the subject of any substantiated findings or current investigations related to sexual misconduct at their current employment and past employment. Disclosure is required under Washington state law.
  COVID-19 VACCINATION REQUIREMENT
  Employees of the University of Washington are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless a medical or religious exemption is approved. Being fully vaccinated means that an individual is at least two weeks past their final dose of an authorized COVID-19 vaccine regimen. As a condition of employment, newly hired employees will be required to provide proof of their COVID-19 vaccination. View the Final candidate guide to COVID-19 vaccination requirement webpage for information about the medical or religious exemption process for final candidates.

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