Geospatial Data Engineer US Citizen Required with an Active Top Secret Clearance

We are hiring a Geospatial Data Engineer to design, build, and operate scalable data pipelines and cloud infrastructure that collect, store, transform, and serve large-scale geospatial datasets. This role partners with data scientists, analysts, and program stakeholders to turn mission requirements into reliable, production-grade geospatial data products.

Role Summary

• Title: Geospatial Data Engineer
• Security: US Citizen and active Top Secret security clearance required (must hold TS at time of hire)
• Location: Onsite work as required by program- in St. Louis, MO- local or able to relocate
• Pay: we have Jr, Mid-Level, Sr. And Principal- we can discuss pay on the phone
• Employment Type: Full time

Key Responsibilities

• Data Pipeline Development: Design, implement, and maintain robust, scalable ETL/ELT pipelines for geospatial data (raster and vector), ensuring high throughput and reliable processing.
• Cloud Data Infrastructure: Architect and optimize cloud-native data platforms and workflows on GCP, AWS, or Azure to store, process, and serve geospatial products.
• Geospatial Data Management: Ingest, catalog, and manage diverse geospatial formats (GeoTIFF, ZARR, NetCDF, SHP, GeoJSON), including metadata management and efficient storage strategies.
• Data Transformation & Quality: Perform coordinate system reprojection, tiling, resampling, mosaicking, and validation; implement automated quality checks and data-cleaning processes.
• Big Data Processing: Build scalable processing using frameworks such as Apache Spark, Dask, or cloud-managed equivalents; optimize for batch and near-real-time workloads.
• APIs & Integration: Develop and consume API-driven services for data distribution and integration; implement service-to-service authentication and data access controls.
• Collaboration & Translation: Work directly with data scientists, analysts, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into technical designs and deliverables.
• Mentorship & Documentation: Mentor junior engineers, enforce engineering best practices, and maintain clear, versioned documentation of pipelines, data schemas, and processes.
• Security & Compliance: Follow secure development practices and program-specific data handling requirements for classified environments.

Required Qualifications

• Citizenship & Clearance: US Citizen with an active Top Secret clearance.
• Experience: 5+ years of professional experience designing and operating data pipelines, with substantial geospatial engineering experience. For Senior: 8-14 years
• Programming: Strong proficiency in Python and experience with geospatial libraries such as GDAL, Rasterio, GeoPandas, xarray, and NumPy.
• Cloud Platforms: Hands-on experience with GCP, AWS, or Azure for data storage, compute, and managed services.
• Big Data Technologies: Practical knowledge of Apache Spark, Dask, Hadoop, or cloud data warehouses (e.g., BigQuery, Redshift).
• Data Formats: Deep familiarity with raster and vector geospatial formats and processing workflows.
• Databases & Querying: Proficient in SQL and experience with spatial databases (e.g., PostGIS) and data cataloging.
• Software Practices: Experience with CI/CD for data pipelines, containerization (Docker), and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to present technical designs to non-technical stakeholders.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, GIS, Geography, Mathematics, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Problem-Solving: Demonstrated ability to analyze complex data problems and design pragmatic solutions.

Preferred (Nice-to-Have)

• Experience with geospatial tiling schemes, raster pyramids, and web mapping stacks (MapServer, GeoServer, or cloud-hosted map services).
• Familiarity with imagery processing toolchains, machine learning model-serving pipelines, or experience productionizing geospatial ML models.
• Experience working on defense, intelligence, or other classified programs with strict security and data-handling requirements.
• Certifications in cloud platforms (e.g., AWS Certified Data Analytics, Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer).

What We Offer

• Opportunity to work on mission-critical geospatial systems with impact across defense and intelligence programs.
• Collaborative engineering culture, mentorship, and technical growth.
• Competitive compensation, benefits, and support for continuing education and certifications.