Data Engineer
What you'd do
As a Data Engineer in CPSC's Analytics Center of Excellence, your work strengthens evidence-based decision-making and supports the agency's mission to protect the public from unsafe products. The Data Engineer will design, develop, and optimize scalable data pipelines and services that power advanced analytics and machine learning solutions. The work that you do ensures that data is reliable, accessible, and ready for downstream use by data scientists, analysts, and AI/ML systems.
Major duties
This position is officially titled Data Scientist. The working title is Data Engineer. The Data Engineer strengthens CPSC's Sentinel-driven product safety analytics and provides the foundation to introduce myriad operational efficiencies by delivering high-quality, secure, and interoperable data solutions in modern cloud environments. The Data Engineer will: Design and maintain production-grade ETL/ELT pipelines using Python and Microsoft-based frameworks to ingest, transform, validate, and optimize large structured and unstructured datasets. Implement schema enforcement, data validation, and quality controls to ensure reliable, reproducible data across diverse sources. Develop scalable, fault-tolerant pipelines using open-source and cloud-native patterns. Architect and manage Azure data solutions-including Data Lake Storage, Azure SQL, and related analytics integrations-and build automated workflows using Azure Data Factory or similar tools. Create high-performance Python-based data services; implement logging, monitoring, and performance tuning for operational robustness. Build APIs and microservices that enable secure, seamless data exchange and integration with analytics and machine-learning platforms. Partner with data scientists, analysts, and cloud architects to deliver clean, governed data for predictive modeling, real-time monitoring, and actionable insights. Apply data governance best practices to ensure compliance, auditability, and reproducibility across workflows. Advise on data engineering initiatives and contribute to cross-agency data fusion projects; maintain current knowledge of evolving industry and federal data engineering standards. Participate in CPSC and government-wide data engineering working groups and communities of practice. Perform other duties as assigned.
What you need to qualify
In addition to the mandatory education requirement, all applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the candidate with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following: GS-11: 1) Assisting with maintaining structured datasets and analytical databases; 2) supporting data ingestion and optimizing data ingestion pipelines to enhance the performance of data queries, including improving throughput, reducing latency, and implementing best practices for efficient data processing and retrieval; 3) implementing data workflows in coordination with technical staff; and 4) assisting in the design, development, and deployment of data engineering solutions within cloud-based environments such as Azure or AWS, including the use of native cloud services for data storage, processing, orchestration, and integration. GS-12: 1) Developing, organizing, and maintaining structured data sets and analytical databases; 2) performing data ingestion, cleansing, and documentation processes to ensure accuracy and consistency; 3) optimizing data ingestion pipelines and enhancing the performance of data queries, including improving throughput, reducing latency, and implementing best practices for efficient data processing and retrieval; 4) contributing to the implementation of database-driven workflows and collaborating with technical staff to improve data quality and accessibility; and 5) designing, developing, and deploying data engineering solutions within cloud-based environments such as Azure or AWS, including the use of native cloud services for data storage, processing, orchestration, and integration. Evidence of the above specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience or based on job titles alone. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Applicants must meet the qualifications for this position by the closing date of this announcement.
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