AWS Data Engineer with AI Experience - Charlotte, NC (Hybrid 2 Days/Week Onsite) Locals

Job Title: AWS Data Engineer with AI Experience

Location: Charlotte, NC (Hybrid 2 Days/Week Onsite)
Job Type: Contract

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced AWS Data Engineer with hands-on AI/ML and Generative AI experience to design, build, and optimize scalable cloud-based data platforms. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in AWS data services, modern data engineering, and AI-driven solutions, with the ability to integrate machine learning models into enterprise data pipelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable ETL/ELT data pipelines.
• Build and manage AWS-based data lakes and data warehouses.
• Develop batch and real-time data ingestion pipelines.
• Process structured and unstructured data from multiple enterprise sources.
• Integrate AI/ML models into production-grade data pipelines.
• Build and optimize Generative AI workflows using AWS AI services.
• Optimize AWS data platforms for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost.
• Collaborate with Data Scientists, ML Engineers, Analysts, and Software Engineering teams.
• Implement data quality, governance, security, and monitoring best practices.
• Develop REST API integrations for data ingestion and AI services.
• Support CI/CD automation for data engineering workflows.

Required Skills

• 8+ years of Data Engineering experience.
• Strong hands-on experience with Python, SQL, and PySpark.
• Extensive experience with AWS Cloud Services such as:
  • S3
  • Glue
  • EMR
  • Redshift
  • Lambda
  • Athena
  • IAM
  • Step Functions
  • CloudWatch
• Experience with Apache Spark, Airflow, and Kafka.
• Strong understanding of Data Warehousing and Lakehouse architectures.
• Experience with REST APIs and microservices.
• Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps practices.
• Strong knowledge of data modeling and performance optimization.

AI / ML Skills

• Experience deploying ML models using AWS SageMaker.
• Strong understanding of Generative AI, LLMs, NLP, and Prompt Engineering.
• Experience integrating OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Amazon Bedrock, or similar LLM platforms.
• Knowledge of RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures.
• Experience with Vector Databases (Pinecone, FAISS, ChromaDB, Weaviate, Milvus, etc.) is a plus.
• Experience building AI-powered data pipelines and intelligent search solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and containerized deployments.
• AWS Certification (Data Analytics, Solutions Architect, or Machine Learning) is a plus.
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities.