Data Platform Engineer (26-27)

Role Overview

Data Platform Engineer (full-time; remote from Texas)

IDEA Public Schools is seeking a Data Platform Engineer to build and operate its production-grade data infrastructure on Snowflake. You’ll design automated ELT ingestion pipelines, optimize platform performance and cost, and help the organization transition from legacy ETL to a modern lakehouse architecture.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain automated ELT pipelines ingesting data from diverse source systems into Snowflake
• Configure cloud-native ingestion tools and build custom Python-based pipelines when needed
• Build and maintain Bronze-layer tables with schema evolution, audit metadata, and lineage
• Implement ingestion validation and monitoring to detect issues early
• Administer Snowflake environments (databases, schemas, warehouses, access controls, and security settings)
• Manage Snowflake objects using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) patterns
• Own Terraform-based infrastructure definitions for Snowflake and related components
• Automate operational tasks (provisioning, access grants, environment setup)
• Build CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure changes with safe deployment practices
• Optimize performance and cost (warehouse sizing, clustering, query analysis, resource monitoring)
• Implement security best practices: RBAC, encryption, auditing, and network policies
• Embed observability (logging, metrics, alerts) into production pipelines
• Troubleshoot pipeline/platform issues with root-cause analysis
• Collaborate with Analytics Engineering, DataOps, and Data Governance; participate in reviews and design discussions
• Maintain documentation and runbooks; mentor peers/lead initiatives as applicable

Essential Skills / Requirements

• Hands-on experience building production Snowflake-based data ingestion and administration
• Experience with ELT pipelines and ingestion monitoring/validation
• Competence with Python for data pipeline development
• Strong knowledge of Snowflake (warehouses, security/access controls, RBAC, auditing)
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code, specifically Terraform for Snowflake infrastructure
• Ability to implement CI/CD for infrastructure changes
• Security and operational excellence: observability, runbooks, and troubleshooting

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience transitioning from legacy ETL to a lakehouse architecture
• Experience with data lineage, audit metadata, and Bronze-layer modeling
• Prior involvement with performance/cost optimization and scaling ingestion patterns

Supervisory / Team Notes

• Individual contributor role (no direct reports)
• Senior engineers may mentor peers and lead technical initiatives

Travel

• Minimal travel (5–10% annually) for collaboration, training, or critical milestones

Location / Remote Policy

• Full-time remote position based in Texas
• Preference for candidates in Austin, El Paso, Houston, Permian Basin (Midland/Odessa), Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, or Tarrant County (Fort Worth), or who are willing to relocate