Data Engineer, California College Guidance Initiative

Data Engineer

California College Guidance Initiative

• Full-Time
• Remote Within California With Occasional Travel
• All Candidates Must Currently Live Full-Time in California

Overview of Role

The California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) is looking for a data engineer to join the Cloud Infrastructure Team. As part of the team, you will be a key contributor in the expansion, refinement, and continued development of CCGI’s infrastructure utilizing Snowflake and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as continuing to build out our data analytics and engineering tools.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience building out data ETL/ELT workloads, including the testing, maintenance, and refinement of containerized workloads in cloud architectures. The Data Engineer should also have experience successfully scaling up an organization’s data intake from batch to streaming data, as well as automating data delivery. This person is comfortable working with data storage and can troubleshoot data accessibility via SQL, Python, shell scripting, AWS, Snowflake, and take on a leadership role in special projects when needed. Additionally, this person should have experience developing technical documentation and implementing security governance protocols.

While there are no direct supervisory responsibilities for this position, the ideal candidate will have proactively and successfully collaborated  with other subject matter experts to move time-bound projects to completion. Additionally, the ideal candidate will have experience working with K-12 or education data and/or have an interest in large educational systems and the equity challenges students face when navigating such systems. 

We work to solve large scale, system-level problems. You must be comfortable working with unknowns and ambiguous solutions, as well as passionate about promoting public education and advancing educational equity. This role reports to the Director, Cloud Infrastructure.

What Will You Be Doing?

• Lead the development, maintenance, and optimization of batch and streaming ETL/ELT processes, including the development, refinement, and containerization of data loading and processing using event driven architecture and workflow orchestration.
• Develop, containerize, test and maintain workflows within integrated development environments (IDEs) using AWS cloud services, Snowflake data warehouses, Python and SQL scripts, dbt, and shell scripts.
• Review, redesign, and expand data models supporting data warehousing and self-service business intelligence architecture to create fully automated data pipeline(s) from staged or streamed data to organization of data warehouse objects and producing access via reporting, alerts or API access. 
• Design and implement data pipeline automation requiring Python scripting and SQL statements, integrating with systems such as Salesforce, Slack and AWS services using serverless, cloud servers and containerized systems.
• Participate in meetings, research processes, requirement collection, data analysis, and collaborate with the key project collaborators.stakeholders of your projects.
• Develop and maintain expert knowledge of CaliforniaColleges.edu data, systems, and business processes.
• Continuously improve data pipelines and architecture by staying updated on industry trends and best practices.
• Other duties as assigned by your supervisor.

What Technical Skills Do You Need? 

• Relevant BA/BS in Computer Science, Statistics, Informatics, Information Systems, or another quantitative field.  
• Minimum of three (3) years of experience as a Data Engineer or a related role. 

• Ability to build processes supporting data transformation, data structures, metadata, dependency, and workload management.
• Advanced proficiency with cloud data warehousing analytical tools such as Snowflake, Redshift,  Spark, Kafka, etc.
• Expert SQL knowledge (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.) and understanding of relational databases, query authoring and optimization, as well as working familiarity with a variety of databases. 
• Advanced proficiency using ETL tools like Jupyter Notebooks, dbt, Talend, etc.
• Advanced proficiency with scripting languages like Python, Scala, R,  etc.
• Advanced proficiency building and optimizing data pipelines and data sets.
• A successful history of manipulating, processing and extracting value from large structured and unstructured datasets.
• Demonstrated ability to consistently develop strong technical documentation
• Advanced certifications such as SnowPro Core, AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification,  or AWS Certification, Solutions Architect - Associate are a plus 
• Experience working with K-12 data and/or education data is encouraged

What Intangibles Do You Need? 

• Strong data analysis and decision-making skills with the ability to take abstract brainstorming and generate concrete proposals for action.
• Ability to advance projects without detailed supervision, prioritize tasks, and effectively manage multiple projects simultaneously 
• Experience supporting and collaborating with cross-functional teams in a dynamic environment.
• Commitment to developing and maintaining trusting professional relationships, giving and receiving direct feedback, and  modeling CCGI’s values.
• Ability to write with attention to accuracy, audience, and concision within task tickets in project management tools like Jira. 
• Excellent verbal communication skills and the ability to communicate complex information simply with both technical and non-technical audiences. 
• A commitment to increasing educational access and equity.

More About the Cloud Infrastructure Team

This role will join a team of 5 experienced data engineers, working remotely across California, to oversee all of CCGI’s internal cloud-based data infrastructure. This includes overseeing the entirety of CCGI’s data warehousing, data engineering, and data orchestration systems, as well as user-centered data product design and development. 

We are looking for candidates who bring experience with them to the role and are interested in joining a collaborative environment that encourages ongoing knowledge sharing and professional development. The Cloud Infrastructure team works regularly with other technical teams at CCGI as well as our student- and educator-facing teams to build sustainable and innovative technical solutions to advance our mission and goals. This role reports to the Director, Cloud Infrastructure. 

More About CCGI

The California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) is a legislatively authorized service provider to all California school districts as established in California Education Code Section 60900.5. CCGI is a state-funded nonprofit that works in partnership with California’s educational institutions—K-12 Local Education Agencies (LEAs), the California Community Colleges (CCC), the California State University (CSU), the University of California (UC), and the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC)—to smooth the path to college and career for all California students, especially those who have been underrepresented in higher education.

CCGI advances efforts to improve students’ transitions from K-12 to higher education by streamlining the college and financial aid application processes, while providing educators with the information necessary to inform data-driven counseling practices and real-time decision-making. 

CCGI achieves this work through management of CaliforniaColleges.edu, the State of California’s official college and career planning platform for 6th-12th grade students. The platform is free for LEAs and serves as an infrastructure for postsecondary planning, data-driven student guidance, and the sharing of student records from K-12 LEAs to California’s public higher education systems and CSAC.

CCGI is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges but is an autonomous initiative with its own mission, goals, and leadership team.

CCGI is a positive, diverse, and supportive culture. At our core, we prioritize the needs of students above all else. Everyone at CCGI works remotely from home offices. We are all located in various parts of California and make use of tools, such as ZOOM, Slack, and Salesforce, to communicate and document our work. While some people regularly travel locally and/or statewide for required business meetings, we only occasionally conduct internal meetings in person.

The salary range for this position is: $120,000 to $145,000.

The Foundation’s benefit package currently includes paid holidays, sick and vacation leave; medical, dental, and vision insurance, Employee Assistance Program, a defined benefit retirement plan (CalPERS), and 403(b) and 457(b) retirement plans. Our excellent benefit package also provides $50,000 Basic Life and Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance coverage for eligible employees, Flexible Spending Accounts, Tuition Reimbursement, Voluntary Life Insurance, Pet insurance and more.

Application Instructions

• Go to https://foundationccc.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/fccc-careers
• Find  “Data Engineer”and follow the directions to apply.
• Include both a cover letter and resume with your application

The application process will be open until the position is filled. 

The Foundation for California Community Colleges is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities (EEO) are available to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, genetic characteristics, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital/parental status, political affiliation, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, the Foundation for California Community Colleges complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment.

The Foundation for California Community Colleges is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities (EEO) are available to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, genetic characteristics, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital/parental status, political affiliation, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, the Foundation for California Community Colleges complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment.

Budgeted Annual Salary Pay Range:

Final salary and rates are based on education, experience, skills relevant to the role, and internal equity.