Data Engineer

THIS IS A NON-CIVIL SERVICE POSITION

MAYOR'S OFFICE OF PERFORMANCE AND INNOVATION

DATA ENGINEER

POSTING DATE: April 10, 2025

SALARY RANGE: $65,393 - $104,724

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Mayor's Office of Performance and Innovation (OPI) is seeking a mission-driven Data Engineer to help build the technical foundation for Baltimore's next-generation data infrastructure. As a core contributor to the Citywide Data Warehouse, you'll develop secure, reliable, and scalable data pipelines and analytics products that power decision-making, improve services, and promote transparency across Baltimore City government. Beyond contributing directly to the data warehouse codebase, the successful candidate will influence the data architecture, orchestration, tooling, and use.

This is a high-impact role for a technically skilled engineer who wants to use their talent for public good. This is an engineering role, but the successful candidate will work on an interdisciplinary team of analysts, designers, and managers to ensure products are adopted by agency staff, policymakers, and the public.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Data Engineering & Infrastructure

Design, develop, and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines using Python, PostgreSQL, and modern orchestration frameworks.

Implement data quality, monitoring, alerting, and logging mechanisms to ensure pipeline reliability, performance, and transparency.

Automate data ingestion from multiple sources (e.g., APIs, flat files, databases) into centralized data models for reporting and analysis.

Support the design and architecture of the Citywide Data Warehouse, optimizing for scalability, security, and maintainability.

Analytics & Visualization

Support developers, analysts, and data scientists to create data-driven apps, dashboards, and data visualizations.

Support ad-hoc data curation needs, ensuring datasets are clean, structured, and usable across city departments.

Collaboration & Product Development

Collaborate closely with analysts, civic designers, product managers, and agency staff to define data requirements and product needs.

Translate business questions into technical solutions and data products that surface insights and guide action.

Contribute to a culture of engineering best practices, including peer review, documentation, and continuous learning.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

Technical Expertise

Proficiency in Python for data engineering (pandas, polars, SQLAlchemy, Object-relational mapping, requests)

Strong SQL skills and experience working with PostgreSQL or other relational databases with an emphasis on geospatial data

Experience building and maintaining data pipelines (ETL/ELT) using modern tools

Understanding of cloud data workflows, APIs, and modern DevOps tools for CI/CD, logging, and monitoring

Data Product & Collaboration Mindset

Ability to work collaboratively on GitHub and contribute to shared codebases

Ability to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds and skillsets

Strong documentation and communication skills, including the ability to explain complex data structures to non-technical audiences

Commitment to privacy, accessibility, and ethical use of data

Values & Impact

Passion for public service, equity, and improving government through better data

Curiosity, problem-solving mindset, and a desire to take ownership of complex technical challenges

Experience working on civic tech, open data, or public-sector digital products is a plus

REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field from an accredited college or university Experience:

5+ years of professional experience in data engineering or related technical role

OR equivalent combinations of education, technical certification, and hands-on experience will be considered

BENEFITS

The City of Baltimore offers a generous and competitive benefits package. You can learn about our benefits here:

Financial Disclosure:

This position is required to complete a Financial Disclosure pursuant to Sections 7-7, 7-8, and 7-9 of the City Ethics Law.

Baltimore City Government is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, and we are committed to a workplace that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. The City of Baltimore prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, age, sex, ancestry, creed, national origin, disability status, genetics, marital status, military service, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Applicants requiring accommodations during the hiring process should contact the Department of Human Resources directly. Requests for accommodations should not be attached to the application.

BALTIMORE CITY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER