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.

Skills

• AWS certifications are a bonus.
• Desired experience with Electronic Data Interchange X.12 (EDI), Medical Claims (837, 835, 277CA, etc), HL7, and FHIR.
• Familiarity with C#/.Net back-end services, Entity Framework migration, and healthcare payer/PBM systems.
• Knowledge of HIPAA compliance requirements in cloud data architecture.

Salary Range: $85,389 - $116,975

Location: Remote (candidates from CA, CO, IL, MN, NJ, NY, OR, or WA will not be considered)

Notes: This is a W-2 position. All interviews will be conducted on Microsoft Teams with camera on. Applicants must provide a LinkedIn profile link during screening.