AWS Data Engineer - II

About the Role

Syms Strategic Group (SSG) is seeking a talented Senior Systems Engineer (Amazon Web Services (AWS) Data Engineer) to lead the next phase of healthcare data platform modernization for the Veterans Affairs (VA) department. This is a full-time, remote position requiring U.S. citizenship and a Public Trust (MBI) security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead the evolution from a Microsoft SQL eXtensible Markup Language (MSSQL XML) object store to a scalable, cloud-native AWS data architecture.
• Evaluate and decide the right AWS data strategy for the platform.
• Design and build a reporting and query layer for business stakeholders and non-technical users.
• Architect the migration path for XML object store data from MSSQL to the target AWS platform.
• Build and maintain AWS data catalog, schemas, and metadata management.
• Optimize query performance and cost across chosen AWS services.
• Collaborate with back-end C#/.Net engineers to ensure clean data flows from EDI processing pipelines.
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines for data infrastructure using AWS-native tooling.
• Document architecture decisions, data flows, and data dictionaries for technical and non-technical audiences.

Requirements

• 8+ years’ experience in software or data engineering with a strong AWS focus.
• Proven experience architecting and executing cloud data platform migrations in production enterprise or healthcare environments.
• Track record of evaluating and selecting AWS data services to meet business reporting and query requirements.
• Experience delivering reporting or analytics solutions for non-technical business users.
• Deep hands-on AWS experience with S3, Athena, Glue, Aurora, DynamoDB, Redshift, OpenSearch, Lambda, IAM, and Cloudwatch.
• Strong SQL skills and ability to design relational query layers over semi-structured or non-relational data (XML, JSON).
• Experience working with XML-heavy data stores.
• Familiarity with AWS analytics and reporting services (Athena, QuickSight, RedShift, or equivalent BI tooling).
• Proficiency with Git and GitHub, CI/CD practices, and AWS-native tooling (CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy).
• IaC experience with AWS CDK, CloudFormation, or Terraform.
• Strong communication skills for technical architecture decisions and trade-offs.
• Experience with Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and JIRA.
• U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain a Public Trust (MBI) security clearance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent practical experience considered.

Desired Experience

• Electronic Data Interchange X.12 (EDI) Medical Claims (837, 835, 277CA, etc) and Health Level (HL7) familiarity.
• Experience with C#/.Net back-end services for integration touchpoints.
• Experience with Entity Framework migration or deprecation projects.
• Knowledge of healthcare payer/Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) systems, clearinghouses, or pharmacy operations.
• Understanding of HIPAA compliance requirements in cloud data architecture.

Additional Notes

This is a 100% U.S.-based remote position. Candidates from CA, CO, IL, MN, NJ, NY, OR, or WA will not be considered. All interviews will be conducted on Microsoft Teams with the camera on. Applicants must provide a link to their LinkedIn profile as part of the screening process.