Data Engineer

Position Title: Data Engineer

Employment Type: Contract - W2, No C2C or third party vendors at this time

Location: Woodbury, MN

Work Schedule: Remote with occasional onsite (candidates must be local to the Twin Cities)

Hourly Range: $60-70/hr

No C2C or third-party vendors at this time

Overview

We are seeking an experienced contract Data Engineer to optimize and maintain a telemetry data pipeline built with Python and BigQuery, ensuring reliable data delivery to Power BI dashboards. This position also involves supporting a full-stack developer and the Director of Data Intelligence with backend development of a custom data management platform, including implementing APIs, business logic, and data validation/transformation processes. The ideal candidate combines strong technical expertise with a collaborative mindset and an interest in sustainability and long-term system design.

This project is supported by various public and private organizations focused on sustainable energy innovation. The team is developing advanced groundwater-based geothermal systems designed to lower carbon emissions and energy costs for commercial, industrial, and multi-family facilities, delivering a scalable, environmentally responsible heating and cooling solution.

Key Responsibilities

• Optimize Telemetry Pipeline: Refine BigQuery table structures for performance and cost efficiency while maintaining data integrity; streamline and consolidate Python transformation and upload scripts; strengthen schema validation and enhance data retrieval efficiency.


• Maintain Pipeline Operations: Add new project sites as they launch, monitor for errors, troubleshoot data flow issues, and manage BigQuery datasets and access.


• Backend Development: Contribute to backend architecture and development for a custom data management platform by designing and implementing business logic, APIs, data validation routines, transformations, and schema updates.


• Cross-Team Collaboration: Work closely with the Director of Data Intelligence, software developers, and other departments to ensure the data infrastructure supports organizational goals and remains well-documented.


• Code Quality & Documentation: Write clean, modular, well-documented code and maintain comprehensive technical documentation for the telemetry pipeline and related systems.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.


• 3+ years of professional experience in data engineering or similar roles.


• Proven expertise with Google BigQuery, including partitioning, clustering, query optimization, schema design, and cost management.


• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL/GoogleSQL for ETL and data transformation processes.


• Experience in backend development using FastAPI or Flask, including building REST APIs, implementing business logic, data validation (e.g., Pydantic), and structured error handling.


• Skilled in Git and GitHub workflows, including branching, pull requests, and team-based code reviews.


• Strong communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across data, engineering, and operations teams.

Preferred:

• Familiarity with Power BI or comparable business intelligence platforms.


• Experience with observability for data pipelines (logging, metrics, alerting).

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, age, ancestry, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, or military or veteran status. We consider all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with state and local laws, including the California Fair Chance Act, City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance. For unincorporated Los Angeles county, to the extent our customers require a background check for certain positions, the Company faces a significant risk to its business operations and business reputation unless a review of criminal history is conducted for those specific job positions.