Associate Data Engineer

Pay

Good Faith Pay Range: $70,000 – $82,000 per year. Actual compensation will be determined based on the candidate's qualifications, education, experience, skills, and other legitimate business factors.

Location

This is an on‑site position based at our Virginia Beach, VA location.

About the role

The Associate Data Engineer supports the development and maintenance of ECPI University's cloud data platform, built on Snowflake. Working under the Senior Director of Solution Architecture and alongside experienced engineers, this position builds and maintains the pipelines that move information from the University's enterprise systems into Snowflake, where it supports reporting, analytics, and institutional decision making. Faculty, academic leadership, and student support staff rely on this data to advise students, monitor academic progression, and report accurately within a highly regulated environment. This is an entry‑level position designed for a recent graduate, with structured mentorship, regular code review, and a defined progression path toward the Data Engineer level.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain data ingestion and transformation pipelines that load data from enterprise source systems into Snowflake, following established architectural patterns and standards.
• Write, test, and tune SQL for data transformation, validation, and reconciliation.
• Support scheduled data loads, monitor job execution, and escalate failures with clear diagnostic detail.
• Reconcile data between source systems and Snowflake to confirm completeness and accuracy.
• Build and run automated data quality checks, and document exceptions for resolution.
• Investigate reported data discrepancies, trace them to their origin, and communicate findings clearly.
• Use AI coding assistants (e.g., GitHub Copilot) as a routine part of daily work, validating every generated query, transformation, or script before committing it.
• Submit work through pull requests in GitHub and keep changes moving through the automated build, test, and deployment process.
• Automate recurring manual tasks and apply Snowflake Cortex under senior engineer direction, following University AI‑assisted development guidelines.
• Document pipeline logic, data lineage, and table definitions for colleague maintenance and extension.
• Participate in code review, design discussions, and Agile (Scrum) ceremonies; collaborate with analysts and functional staff to ensure delivered data sets meet needs.
• Develop depth in Snowflake, SQL, and Python through mentorship, structured learning, and certification such as SnowPro Core with University support.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, Analytics, or a related field (recent graduates encouraged to apply).
• Zero to two years of professional experience; internships, co‑ops, capstone projects, and applied coursework are considered relevant.
• Working knowledge of SQL, including joins, aggregation, and subqueries, with ability to reason about query correctness.
• Foundational understanding of relational database concepts and data modeling.
• Familiarity with Python or a comparable language used in data work.
• Version control with Git, including branching and pull requests, and willingness to work within a code review process.
• Practical use of AI coding assistants with sound validation judgment; able to describe a case where a tool produced a plausible but wrong answer and how it was caught.
• Understanding of CI/CD concepts and willingness to work where automated tests must pass before code is deployed.
• Strong attention to detail, clear written and verbal communication, and sound judgment in handling sensitive student and institutional data.
• Preferred: Exposure to Snowflake or another cloud data platform through coursework, certification, or hands‑on work.
• Preferred: Exposure to dbt, ELT/ETL tooling, or automated data testing frameworks.
• Preferred: Exposure to GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or another CI/CD platform.
• Preferred: Exposure to Azure or AWS cloud services, or to a business intelligence tool such as Power BI or Tableau.
• Preferred: Awareness of FERPA or comparable data privacy requirements in a regulated environment.

Working Conditions

The employee is required to professionally communicate in person, over the telephone, and through email; move about the school and offices; handle various types of media and equipment; and visually observe and assess. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.