IT Applications Data Engineer

Location: Amarillo, TX – Pantex Plant. Organization: Mission Systems (50214380). Job Specialty: System Development.

What You’ll Do

A career at Pantex offers the chance to make a personal impact on the nation’s security. The Data Engineer will design, build, and optimize high‑performance data pipelines and infrastructure to power enterprise‑level AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics. Responsibilities include building and maintaining ELT/ETL processes, integrating diverse operational and analytical data sources, and ensuring reliability and quality of all data assets used for modeling and reporting. Additional duties may involve performance tuning of centralized data platforms, implementing DataOps methodologies, and collaborating closely with Data Architects and Data Scientists.

Core Responsibilities and Duties

• Build, test, and maintain highly scalable data pipelines for batch and real‑time consumption using cloud‑native services and distributed processing frameworks.
• Construct and manage data systems within the modern data stack (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, or equivalent cloud data warehouse/lakehouse solutions) to ensure optimal data accessibility and performance.
• Write production‑grade code (primarily Python or Scala) to cleanse, transform, and load complex, high‑volume data into structured data models defined by the Data Architect.
• Implement and manage data quality checks, data lineage tools, and pipeline monitoring to ensure data integrity and immediate detection of failures.
• Optimize and fine‑tune database performance, query efficiency, and cost management across data storage and processing services in a secure cloud environment.
• Support Data Science teams by providing efficient data access, developing feature‑engineering workflows, and integrating model‑ready data into the MLOps platform.

Other Responsibilities and Duties

• Participate in defining and enforcing DataOps and DevSecOps practices for pipeline automation, testing, and secure deployment.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation of data flows, data dictionaries, and operational runbooks for all production data infrastructure.
• Collaborate with application development teams and API developers to establish secure and efficient data ingestion points from source systems.
• Work with Data Architects on modeling new data sources to ensure adherence to enterprise data standards and architectures.

Minimum Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, or information technology discipline or a Master’s degree in the same fields.
• Minimum 2 years of relevant experience (or, for candidates without a bachelor’s degree, a combination of at least 10 years of education and/or relevant experience).
• DOE Order 426.2A requirements not applicable.

Preferred Job Requirements

• At least 2 years of relevant experience, with a minimum of 1 year focused on building and managing enterprise‑grade data pipelines and ELT/ETL processes.
• Expert proficiency in SQL and Python or Scala for data manipulation, transformation, and automation.
• Experience with distributed processing frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark, Databricks, Snowflake) and cloud‑based data services (e.g., Azure Data Factory, AWS Glue).
• Master’s degree in a relevant technical field with at least 3 years of relevant experience.
• Relevant certifications from modern data‑stack providers (e.g., Databricks Certified Data Engineer, Snowflake Certification) or cloud platforms (e.g., Azure Data Engineer Associate).
• Experience implementing data streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka, Azure Event Hubs) for near‑real‑time ingestion.
• Prior experience with data modeling concepts (e.g., Dimensional Modeling, Data Vault) as implemented in data warehousing solutions.

Security Clearance and Additional Requirements

A Department of Energy Q clearance is required; all qualified candidates will be considered regardless of current clearance status. The ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q clearance is mandatory. The position may require entry into Materials Access Areas (MAA) and participation in the Human Reliability Program (HRP), which includes a counter‑intelligence‑scope polygraph. Medical requirements may apply. Candidates must be U.S. citizens, pass a pre‑placement physical, drug screening, and background investigation, and may be subject to random drug testing.

Benefits

Pantex offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes extensive health coverage, robust retirement planning, and opportunities for continuous learning through education reimbursement. The organization emphasizes work‑life balance and supports employees with flexible arrangements to help them excel.