Data Engineer (GS 13 Equivalent)

Global Health Technical Professionals (GHTP) is a US Agency for International Development (USAID) program that offers early- to mid-career global health professionals the opportunity to advance their careers supporting the USAID Bureau for Global Health and its implementing partners. GHTP is helping USAID improve global health outcomes in communities around the world by building a new generation of global health technical professionals who reflect the diversity of the American people.

Credence and its partner, the Public Health Institute (PHI), are both employers for the Global Health Technical Professionals (GHTP) project which provides expertise in support of USAID global health programs.

The hiring of this position will be through the PHI and as such the selected person will become a PHI employee.

Summary Statement

The U.S. Government’s (USG) engagement to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS is a top priority worldwide. The USG response includes coordination among the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Peace Corps (PC), and other entities. This initiative is collectively known as the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). USAID has been at the forefront of the USG’s response to provide quality HIV/AIDS services to over one hundred countries to mitigate the health crisis that threatens the prosperity, stability and development of these nations.

The Bureau for Global Health’s Office of HIV/AIDS (GH/OHA) is the center of HIV/AIDS technical leadership for USAID and has primary responsibility for the Agency’s HIV/AIDS program. OHA provides strategic direction, technical leadership, and support to field-based HIV/AIDS programs. The Strategic Information, Evaluation, and Informatics Division (SIEI) within OHA, to which the Data Engineer will be assigned, provides technical expertise to advance and support effective strategic information systems and promotes data-driven program planning. The SIEI Division has primary responsibility of supporting USAID headquarters and its Missions to manage and utilize data systems to improve impact and accountability of HIV/AIDS programs. As part of this work, the SIEI Division develops and maintains USAID internal data systems and analytic platforms to support the Agency in its work to analyze and use data for decision making within the PEPFAR program related to performance, efficiency, and quality of care.

Job Requirements

The Data Engineer will be a member of the Health Informatics Branch in the Strategic Information, Evaluation and Informatics (SIEI) Division in the Office of HIV/AIDS within USAID’s Bureau for Global Health.  Broad responsibilities will include providing technical leadership and performing work in support of data management activities related to the Office of HIV/AIDS’ centrally-managed systems used to support the operational management of its Global PEPFAR programs. Areas of focus will include supporting the development and operations of the Development Data Commons (DDC), USAID’s enterprise solution for data ingestion, consolidation, and analytics.

The Data Engineer will assist USAID staff in conducting data triangulation activities using tools like Trifacta; monitor data submission errors and communicate issues to data submitters; write code in Python or R for custom data extraction and manipulation; manage backend user access rights and roles; generate export files per user requests, working closely with OHA Data Scientists and Analysts to provide them with the data they need. As the system evolves, the Data Engineer will also provide end-user orientation and training on DDC operations, interfacing with OHA staff to develop requirements and work with the contractor to convert them into system specifications, data ingestion pipelines, and operational processes.  S/he will also work closely with the technical teams at headquarters and field-based counterparts to provide technical assistance on issues pertaining to data management and governance. 

The SIEI Health Informatics Branch Chief will serve as his/her USAID Point of Contact (POC).

• Lead the technical solution implementation for core Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) processes associated with USAID/OHA systems primarily the Development Data Commons (DDC).
• Develop, maintain, test, evaluate, and document data ingestion processes and data pipelines.
• Implement data models and database schemas aligned with existing and emerging data sources to be analyzed within USAID/OHA systems.
• Lead transformation analysis and design, analysis of data systems, developing ingestion routines, and pre-ingestion data management.
• Ensure quality of data ingestion processes meet business and solution needs.
• Prepare and review project artifacts describing and documenting pipeline processing, data flows, table structures, and data dictionaries as needed.
• Participates in and presents at technical meetings, seminars and conferences for HIS.

  Training and Professional Development:

• More fully understand the key characteristics of PEPFAR and other HIV and public health data sources for analytic use.
• Increased knowledge of tools, techniques and frameworks for data ingestion, management, visualization, predictive analytics and machine learning.
• Deepen knowledge of current literature, research, policies and programmatic experiences related to the HIV response.
• Participate in professional meetings as appropriate to the position description.
• Participate in professional continuing education, skills training and professional meetings to enhance relevant technical skills and career development.
• Complete and execute and Individual Learning and Training Plan and Annual Work Plan.

• Minimum of a Master’s degree in computer science, public health, health informatics, other relevant discipline is required and 7 years of relevant experience or the equivalent combination of education and experience; or alternatively, must have a Bachelor’s degree in relevant field and 9 years of relevant professional experience.
• At least 5 years of professional experience with two or more technical disciplines such as (data science, research, database management etc); job duties/responsibilities specifically related to PD requirements.
• Demonstrated Data Engineering and Data Management experience.
• Hands-on experience with traditional and/or modern ETL tools (e.g. Trifacta, Alteryx, Informatica, etc.) and big-data processing (e.g. Spark).
• Hands-on experience with traditional and modern databases such as SQL (e.g. PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, etc.) and NoSQL (e.g. Cassandra, MongoDB).
• Familiarity with Jupyter Notebooks and working knowledge of programming in Python and R.
• Excellent oral, written, and presentation communication skills. Strong negotiation and group facilitation skills; ability to move a process forward, while meeting the needs of a variety of stakeholders.
• Experience in developing and delivering end-user training materials highly desired.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate complex, mission critical projects and to participate in multi-disciplinary work teams and the ability to quickly understand business processes and translate into data requirements.
• Ability to adhere to task timelines and deliverable schedules and share concerns about deliverables, timelines, and issues with stakeholders.
• Strong teamwork, multi-stakeholder collaboration and management skills.
• Ability to be effective in high-pressure situations, juggle multiple tasks simultaneously, problem solve in a fast-paced environment and set priorities.
• Ability to travel internationally if necessary up to 10%.
• US citizenship or US permanent residence with the ability to obtain and maintain a facility access clearance is required.