Senior/Principal Data Engineer

About the role

Waymark is transforming healthcare for individuals with Medicaid benefits through community-based care teams. We are seeking a highly experienced Data Engineer to build and enhance our clinical data platform. This role involves designing and implementing data pipelines that integrate complex healthcare information.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design and build production-ready data pipelines to integrate clinical data from various sources like EHR systems, health information exchanges, and third-party vendors. These pipelines should support sub-hour latency and achieve at least 99.9% reliability.
• Lead the technical aspects of integrating with health plans, HIEs, provider organizations, and data vendors, including technical evaluation, connectivity, data mapping, and rollout.
• Develop and optimize cloud-based data infrastructure on AWS, utilizing orchestration tools like Step Functions and dbt, with a focus on data quality monitoring and lineage tracking.
• Create reusable backend frameworks and internal tools to streamline the onboarding of new data sources, aiming to reduce new partner integration time by 50% or more.
• Collaborate with data science, analytics, product, and clinical teams to build data foundations for predictive models, care gap identification, and patient outreach.
• Ensure all data systems adhere to HIPAA, HITECH, and other privacy regulations, implementing necessary security measures for Protected Health Information (PHI).
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to other engineers, promoting best practices in healthcare data handling.

Requirements

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with a significant focus on healthcare data engineering or EHR integration for Senior level, or 8+ years for Principal level.
• Expert proficiency in Python and experience with at least one compiled or concurrent language, such as Elixir.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud computing (AWS), and backend system design, including API architecture, microservices, event-driven systems, message queues (RabbitMQ), and caching.
• Strong background in data modeling, schema design, performance optimization, and experience with relational (PostgreSQL) and analytical databases (Redshift).
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Ability to design data integration systems that can handle inconsistent, incomplete, and delayed clinical data from diverse EHRs and payer systems using standards like FHIR APIs, HL7v2, or CCDA.
• Proven experience in mapping and normalizing healthcare standards including ICD-10, SNOMED CT, LOINC, and RxNorm.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of explaining technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• For Principal level: Demonstrated ability to set technical direction for complex platforms and influence engineering strategy across multiple teams, acting as a principal individual contributor.

Nice to have

• An advanced degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience in value-based care, population health, or government healthcare data environments.
• Familiarity with ML/AI frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and MLOps practices in healthcare.

Skills & tools

• Python
• Elixir
• AWS
• Step Functions
• dbt
• PostgreSQL
• Redshift
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• RabbitMQ
• FHIR R4 APIs
• HL7v2
• CCDA
• ICD-10
• SNOMED CT
• LOINC
• RxNorm

Practical notes

• Salary ranges vary by US
• San Francisco/Bay Area, New York City: $160,000 - $229,000
• Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington DC: $147,200 - $211,000
• Arlington, Denver, San Diego, Sacramento: $140,800 - $201,000
• Albany, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Central/Southern, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Portland, Research Triangle, Salt Lake City, Twin Cities: $128,000 - $183,000
• Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Charleston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Daytona Beach, Indianapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Omaha, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tampa: $124,160 - $178,000
• Comprehensive benefits package includes stock options, a home office stipend, medical, vision, and dental coverage, life insurance, 20 vacation days plus 11 holidays, 16 weeks paid parental leave for birthing parents and 8 weeks for non-birthing parents, 401(k) with company contribution, and commuter benefits.
• A professional development stipend is also provided.
• Employment is contingent on a successful background check, including verification of employment history and degrees.
• Waymark encourages applications even if you don't meet every qualification.