Data Engineer

APPLICATION

To be considered, please submit a cover letter, resume, and a minimum of three professional references to [email protected]. References should include name, phone number, email, and relationship with the candidate. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

ABOUT MFAN

The Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) is a national nonprofit dedicated to understanding and serving the modern military family. We bring together research, data, and real-life stories to inform decision-makers, create community connections, and drive solutions that improve military family well-being.

MFAN is a nimble, mission-driven organization with a strong track record of turning insights into action. We are entering a period of significant growth and are looking for leaders who can help us scale our impact with discipline, creativity, and urgency.

JOB SUMMARY

MFAN seeks a Data Engineer to play a foundational role in our data modernization and AI enablement initiatives.

As our first dedicated Data Engineer, you will design, build, and maintain a modern, centralized data infrastructure that powers high-impact survey research, analytics, and storytelling. You will integrate key sources (Qualtrics, HubSpot, archival data, and others), implement reliable data pipelines, establish data governance and quality standards, and create scalable solutions that enable faster insights for internal teams and external partners.

This is a high-visibility position where you will have the opportunity to have a significant impact on the future data & AI ecosystem of MFAN. You will help transform fragmented systems into a trustworthy, efficient data ecosystem that accelerates our ability to turn military family research into actionable change. If you thrive in a lean, collaborative nonprofit environment and are passionate about building scalable data foundations that support meaningful missions, we encourage you to apply.

POSITION TYPE / HOURS OF WORK

• Full-Time, Exempt Position
• Hours: Standard hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on Monday–Thursday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET on Fridays, unless otherwise approved by the department lead. There will be occasions when extended hours are required due to events, travel, meetings, or other requirements.
• Location: Remote, USA. As this is a fully remote position, candidates are expected to have a dedicated workspace and access to high-speed internet.
• Travel: Occasional travel up to a few times per year.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Data Architecture & Infrastructure

• Design, build, and maintain a scalable, secure, and cost-effective data architecture in AWS (data lake house / mesh) that supports Qlik Analytics, Agentic AI, and future LLM applications.
• Develop and maintain robust ETL/ELT pipelines to ingest, transform, clean, and harmonize data from multiple sources (Qualtrics, HubSpot, Razor’s Edge, SharePoint archives, APIs, and external research datasets, including the Military Family 360 Thrive Survey).
• Complete and maintain survey data harmonization, variable standardization, and comprehensive data dictionary to create authoritative sources of truth.
• Implement and document data quality, validation, cleaning, and monitoring processes to ensure accuracy, consistency, reliability, and completeness across systems.

2. AI & Analytics Enablement

• Ensure the data ecosystem is AI-ready and structured to support natural language querying (e.g., Claude/Anthropic integration) so MFAN employees can easily explore data and generate insights.
• Support the development and deployment of AI-enabled tools and workflows that automate data processing, thematic analysis, sentiment extraction, and insight generation.
• Maintain deep expertise in agentic AI capabilities and how to deploy within our AWS instance on top of our data ecosystem.

3. Data Governance, Security & Compliance

• Establish and maintain data governance practices, including documentation of architecture, policies, lineage, version control, and access controls.
• Ensure all systems meet security, privacy, and compliance standards appropriate for sensitive military family data.
• Monitor pipelines, troubleshoot issues proactively, and optimize reliability, performance, and cost efficiency within AWS.

4. Documentation & Knowledge Management

• Create, maintain, and continuously improve a centralized MFAN data knowledge base, including data catalog, process diagrams, SOPs, architecture documentation, and training materials.
• Promote self-service data access and literacy across the organization through clear documentation and enablement.

5. Collaboration & Organizational Impact

• Partner closely with research, insights, program, operations, and leadership teams to translate raw data into actionable insights, visualizations, and storytelling assets that support funders, policymakers, and internal decision-making.
• Contribute to the development of internal dashboards, external data products (e.g., partner/subscription dashboards), and reporting capabilities aligned with MFAN’s strategic objectives.
• Work with leadership to align data with the organization’s 10-year vision, including expanding insights, serving more families, and strengthening influence.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

• Strong AWS Cloud Expertise: hands-on experience designing and managing data solutions using services such as S3, Bedrock, Glue, Lambda, Step Functions, ECS/Fargate, Athena, Redshift, and SageMaker.
• Data Pipeline & ETL Development: proven ability to build scalable, reliable pipelines using AWS-native tools for ingesting, transforming, and loading surveys and CRM data from sources like Qualtrics, HubSpot, and archival systems.
• Agentic AI & LLM Integration: experience building or deploying autonomous agentic AI workflows with a strong preference for agentic AI workflows and AWS Bedrock.
• Modern Data Architecture: practical experience implementing data lake / lake house patterns, data governance, cataloging, and quality frameworks in AWS.
• Advanced Python & Coding: Pandas, PyArrow, SQL, and writing production-grade code for automation and AI agents.
• Data Governance & Quality: experience implementing lineage, monitoring, validation, and compliance practices suitable for sensitive nonprofit data.
• AI-Augmented Engineering: demonstrated success using LLMs and agentic systems to accelerate data engineering tasks such as schema mapping, code generation, documentation, and automated ETL.
• Collaboration in Resource-Constrained Environments: The ability to deliver high-impact solutions independently while mentoring non-technical stakeholders in a small nonprofit setting.

BONUS EXPERIENCE

• Survey & Research Data Experience: familiarity processing large-scale qualitative and quantitative survey datasets, metadata management, and preparing data for analysis and visualization.
• Data Visualization: familiarity with Qlik integration on our AWS data platform.

BENEFITS

We’re proud to offer a comprehensive and people-centered benefits package designed to support your well-being both in and out of work:

• Health & Wellness: QSEHRA (Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement) to help cover your health insurance and medical expenses.
• Time to Recharge: Generous vacation days, sick leave, and compassionate leave—because life happens.
• Summer Fridays: Enjoy shortened hours on Fridays during the summer months.
• 401K: Available immediately upon hire with a 3% employer match.

We believe in flexibility, care, and supporting our team with meaningful benefits that promote balance and sustainability.

WORKING CONDITIONS

The work environment described here is representative of those an employee encounter while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The qualified employee will work in a dynamic home office setting, and interact with staff and consultants, and therefore may be subjected to interruptions throughout the workday. The position will require some flexible hours, and when applicable, local and national travel will be required.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT

MFAN is an equal employment opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made based on qualifications, merit, and organizational needs. MFAN does not discriminate against employees or applicants in any aspect of employment and prohibits harassment of any kind, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.