Data Engineer (SQL)

About Peregrine

Peregrine Advisors is a rapidly growing AI and data innovation hub helping government solve hard problems and deliver better outcomes. We work across the full lifecycle—from strategy and governance through architecture, engineering, analytics, AI, visualization, and training—for clients including the SEC, PCAOB, DDOT, and DCAA.

Our clients describe our support as “absolutely excellent” and our people as “instrumental to organization’s success.” Winner of the United Nations COP27 Datathon, our work has earned all Exceptional CPARS ratings, SEC Chair’s Awards, the SEC Vision Award, and recognition from FDA leadership.

We are also built differently. Peregrine is the first and only social enterprise organized as a Benefit Corporation and SBA 8(a) company focused on AI and data for government. We believe business success should create client value, social value, and opportunity for our people.

As we enter our next stage of growth, we need dependable, motivated, and skilled people who have a combination of intellectual curiosity and intellectual courage. With new clients, larger programs, and expanding responsibilities, the people joining Peregrine now will have the opportunity to help shape the company we become.

People first. Ownership always.

We solve problems through people, process, and technology—in that order. Technology matters, but people make transformation happen. That principle defines our culture. Trust and motivation are the foundational pillars of delivery on which our skills stand. We hire people we can trust, who care deeply about what they do, take ownership, learn quickly, help one another, and refuse to walk past a problem because it belongs to someone else.

At Peregrine, you are not joining simply to fill a position. You are joining a team, taking ownership of a mission, and helping build a company. If that excites you, we should talk.

At Peregrine Advisors, you will design and build the data layer for a federal enterprise platform. But we hire people, not seats. As the work evolves, you will move to where the hardest problems are.

This is a hybrid work arrangement based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and the commuting cadence varies by assignment. The initial engagement requires United States citizenship and the ability to obtain a Public Trust determination.

Your first project

Your first project will likely have you taking responsibility for the accuracy and performance of your assigned components. Depending on the assignment, you may:

• Design database schemas, and write the views, stored procedures, functions, and Structured Query Language (SQL) queries that run on them.
• Build and maintain data pipelines and extract, transform, and load (ETL) and extract, load, and transform (ELT) processes, including loads from Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3).
• Make queries and databases fast enough for high-volume workloads.
• Help model data across Amazon Web Services (AWS) stores such as Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible), Amazon DynamoDB, and S3.
• Keep data accurate and secure, with governed access and changes that can be audited.
• Work out data access patterns and integrations with developers, architects, and data engineers.
• Where the work allows, use artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tools for query, pipeline, and troubleshooting work, and review and validate what they produce.

You deliver database components accurate and fast enough that analysts and systems trust them. You automate the loads and checks that used to be run by hand, and you build models that keep working as the platform grows.

Requirements

• 4+ years of data engineering, database development, database engineering, software development, or comparable practical experience
• Bachelor's degree
• Working expertise in Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible), covering schema design, stored procedures and functions, and indexing
• Experience with Amazon DynamoDB, covering data modeling and Global and Local Secondary Indexes (GSIs and LSIs)
• SQL skills across complex queries, views, stored procedures, and functions, together with relational design, normalization, and data modeling
• Performance and query tuning that addresses slow queries through indexing and execution-plan work
• ETL and ELT development and data integration across AWS data services such as Aurora, DynamoDB, and S3
• Experience working within data security controls such as encryption, access management, and auditing
• Experience loading data from S3 into the platform stores and connecting through Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)
• Experience making logical data modeling and database-design decisions for assigned components within an established platform architecture
• Proficiency in writing, PowerPoint, and Excel

Preferred

• An AWS certification at the associate level, such as Developer Associate or Solutions Architect Associate
• Experience tuning queries that involve locking and deadlocks
• Familiarity with supporting cloud-native applications in AWS through continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) and development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) practices
• Ownership of physical design for Aurora and DynamoDB schemas and indexes, or the drive to grow into it
• Experience in federal information technology or high-volume transaction environments
• Familiarity with AI-assisted developer tools

Who you are

You enjoy building with SQL and take responsibility for getting data right. You can take a database problem from design through delivery and stand behind how your work performs. You experiment, fail, learn, and repeat quickly. You would rather own an outcome than be handed a task.

What you bring

• Solid SQL on a modern relational platform, Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible), with stored procedures, functions, and views that hold up in use.
• Practical skill in query tuning against slow queries, indexing, and execution plans, together with data loading, connectivity, version control, and clean delivery.
• Practical experience developing logical data models and database schemas, and making database-design decisions for assigned components within the established platform architecture.
• The ability to own assigned database work from design through maintenance, working within data security controls, with sound judgment where accuracy and auditability are not optional.

When we talk

Be prepared to discuss a difficult problem you worked through, the decisions you made, what happened, and what you learned.

Benefits

This is a full-time W-2 position with a salary of $120,000 to $140,000 per year.

Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance with the employee premium fully paid and half of dependent premiums; employer-paid life, accidental death, and short-term and long-term disability insurance; a 401(k) matched 100% up to 4% of salary, vesting immediately; unlimited paid time off; and sponsored professional certifications and continuing education.

What we offer

You will work alongside developers, engineers, data scientists, architects, and strategists, on work ranging from strategy to implementation. We support your development across assignments and clients through extensive onboarding, sponsored professional certifications such as the Data Management Capability Assessment Model (DCAM) and AWS technical certifications, and rotation across functions to expand your skills and perspective. The mission is real, the problems are hard, and you own what you ship.

What we commit to

As a Benefit Corporation, our commitment runs three ways: real, measurable value for our clients; government that works better for the public; and a team that makes everyone in it better.

We hire people who want to help build the firm, not just work at it. If that is you, apply.

Peregrine Advisors is an equal opportunity employer.

Peregrine exclusively works with OPEN Data Jobs to recruit our team. Register with OPEN Data Jobs to be considered for this and future openings.