Data Systems Specialist - Bursky Public Health

Location: St. Louis, MO 63110
Scheduled Hours: 37.5

About the role

This role supports the Bursky School of Public Health’s shared data ecosystem by designing, implementing, and maintaining infrastructure that enables the comprehensive management and integration of administrative and research data. This role works closely with faculty and staff to provide data engineering support while also delivering systems that advance strategic, schoolwide data initiatives. The successful candidate will continuously evaluate new tools and practices to support efficient, scalable data workflows used by faculty, staff, and leadership.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain data pipelines and data models that support the Bursky School of Public Health’s growth and operations, with a focus on strategic data systems.
• Develop and manage cloud-based data infrastructure to ensure reliable ingestion, storage, and access to data across research and administrative systems.
• Partner with faculty, staff, and WashU IT to centralize institutional data assets and translate business and research needs into robust, reusable data products, including datasets, APIs, and other self-service resources.
• Evaluate and adopt new technologies (e.g., AI) to improve efficiency and scale of data engineering operations.
• Develop and maintain data architecture standards and practices that promote data quality, interoperability, reuse, and security.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Data Science or a related field.
• Three (3) or more years of professional experience managing data in research organizations.
• Experience designing data pipelines, ETL workflows, and relational databases using Python, SQL, and related technologies.
• Experience collaborating across researchers, analysts, and university administrators to define requirements and deliver scalable, sustainable solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing interdisciplinary data commonly used in public health research, e.g., clinical, policy, claims, and survey data.
• Experience supporting scientific computing environments, containerized applications, and orchestrated workflows from multi-site systems.

Skills

• API Development
• Cloud Platform
• Container Orchestration
• Databricks Platform
• Data Dictionaries
• Data Extraction
• Data Governance
• Data Modeling
• Data Pipelines
• Data Warehousing Systems
• Docker (Software)
• ETL Workflows
• Family Educational Rights And Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Git
• GitHub
• HIPAA Compliance
• Metadata Management
• Microsoft Azure
• Python (Programming Language)
• Relational Database
• Requirements Definition
• Source Control Systems
• Structured Query Language (SQL)
• System Diagrams
• Technical Document Preparation

Working Conditions

• Normal office environment
• Ability to travel to various on- and off-campus locations
• Typically sitting at a desk or table
• Repetitive wrist, hand or finger movement
• Use of office equipment

Pay

Salary Range: $65,900.00 - $112,700.00 / Annually

Benefits

• Up to 22 days of vacation, 10 recognized holidays, and sick time.
• Competitive health insurance packages with priority appointments and lower copays/coinsurance.
• Free Metro transit U-Pass for eligible employees.
• Defined contribution (403(b)) Retirement Savings Plan, combining employee contributions and university contributions starting at 7%.

Wellness

• Wellness challenges, annual health screenings, mental health resources, mindfulness programs and courses.
• Employee assistance program (EAP), financial resources, access to dietitians, and more.

Family

• 4 weeks of caregiver leave to bond with your new child.
• Family care resources for continued childcare needs.
• Tuition coverage for you and your family, including dependent undergraduate-level college tuition up to 100% at WashU and 40% elsewhere after seven years.