Data Engineer

Overview

The Data Engineer will play a crucial role in advancing the CDC Foundation's mission by designing, building, and maintaining data infrastructure for a public health organization. This role is aligned to the Workforce Acceleration Initiative (WAI). WAI is a federally funded CDC Foundation program with the goal of helping the nation’s public health agencies by providing them with the technology and data experts they need to accelerate their information system improvements.

Working within the City of Worcester Division of Public Health Office of Data, Research, Epidemiology, and Innovation, the Data Engineer will focus on building and optimizing data pipelines, improving data integration across existing systems, and supporting standardized, reproducible data workflows. The role emphasizes infrastructure development, documentation, and sustainability rather than ad hoc analysis and reporting. In addition to technical data engineering responsibilities, this role requires the ability to accurately document workflow processes to support quality improvement efforts.

The Data Engineer will be hired by the CDC Foundation and assigned to the City of Worcester Division of Public Health Office of Data, Research, Epidemiology, and Innovation. This position is eligible for a fully remote work arrangement for U.S. based candidates.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines to support data intake, transformation, and storage of public health data from multiple internal and external data sources.
• Support integration of existing data systems (e.g. programmatic data) into standardized data environments.
• Implement and maintain ETL/ELT processes that ensure data accuracy, completeness, consistency, and reproducibility.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, including data flow diagrams, data dictionaries, and pipeline documentation, to support long-term sustainability.
• Implement basic data validation, monitoring, and error handling processes to identify and address data quality issues.
• Support development of standardized data structures and naming conventions aligned with public health best practices and internal governance needs.
• Collaborate closely with epidemiologists, program staff, and external partners to understand data requirements and translate public health needs into technical solutions.
• Work in coordination with other CDC Foundation placements to ensure infrastructure supports in-scope project efforts such as analytic, visualization, and reporting needs.
• Provide technical guidance and knowledge transfer to internal staff to support capacity building and continuity after the placement ends.
• Implement appropriate data security and access controls consistent with public health data governance, privacy, and confidentiality requirements.
• Apply best industry practices in data engineering while adapting solutions to the operational realities of a local public health department.
• Stay informed of emerging tools and approaches relevant to public health data infrastructure and recommend improvements where appropriate.
• Communicate effectively with partners at all levels of the organization to gather requirements, provide updates, and present findings.
• Up to 10% domestic travel may be required.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Science, Public Health Informatics or a related field.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience designing, building, and maintaining data pipelines in small- to mid-scale data environments.
• Experience in implementing data automations within existing frameworks as opposed to writing one off scripts.
• Experience regarding engineering best practices such as source control, automated testing, continuous integration and deployment, and peer review.
• Knowledge of data warehousing concepts and tools.
• Ability to work with incomplete or evolving data sources common in public sector and public health settings.
• Familiarity with agile development methodologies, software design patterns, and best practices.
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to convey technical concepts to non-technical partners effectively.
• Flexibility to adapt to evolving project requirements and priorities.
• Outstanding interpersonal and teamwork skills; and the ability to develop productive working relationships with colleagues and partners.
• Experience working in a virtual environment with remote partners and teams.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proficiency in programming languages commonly used in data engineering, such as Python, Java, Scala, or SQL.
• Strong understanding of database systems, including relational databases and structured datasets.
• Expertise in data modeling, ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes, and data integration techniques.
• Experience with cloud computing platforms.
• Ability to document business practices and workflows, identify opportunities for improvement, support process improvement, discover issues and deliver improved value.
• Ability to effectively communicate insights and plans to cross-functional team members and management.
• Experience using data to make decisions, gathering data insights by design to improve outcomes.

Job Highlights

• Location: Remote, must be based in the United States, Up to 10% domestic travel may be required.
• Salary Range: $103,500-$143,500 per year, plus benefits. Individual salary offers will be based on experience and qualifications unique to each candidate. 
• Position Type: Grant funded, limited-term opportunity
• Position End Date: June 30, 2027

Special Notes

This role is involved in a dynamic public health program. As such, roles and responsibilities are subject to change as situations evolve. Roles and responsibilities listed above may be expanded upon or updated to match priorities and needs, once written approval is received by the CDC Foundation in order to best support the public health programming.

The CDC Foundation is a smoke-free environment.

Relocation expenses are not included.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, mental or physical disabilities, veteran status, and all other characteristics protected by law. 

We comply with all applicable laws including E.O. 11246 and the Vietnam Era Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 governing employment practices and do not discriminate on the basis of any unlawful criteria in accordance with 41 C.F.R. §§ 60-300.5(a)(12) and 60-741.5(a)(7). As a federal government contractor, we take affirmative action on behalf of protected veterans.

About the CDC Foundation 

The CDC Foundation helps CDC save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the go-to nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC’s critical health protection mission. The CDC Foundation manages hundreds of programs each year impacting a variety of health threats from chronic disease conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer, to infectious diseases like rotavirus and HIV, to emergency responses, including COVID-19 and Ebola. Visit www.cdcfoundation.org for more information.