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Data Engineer Contract Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Archer

Staff Data Engineer

San Jose, CA · On-site

$17K - $215K/yr

Partner with ML engineers to define feature stores, dataset versioning, and experiment-to-production data contracts; integrate with tools like MLflow for dataset and artifact tracking. * Work closely ...

Braintrust

Data Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$134K - $162K/yr

You'll partner with Product and Engineering on usage data and event schemas, and work directly with ... Clear judgment about data modeling, schema evolution, contracts, and lineage, with an instinct for ...

Cypress HCM

Data Engineer 3

San Jose, CA · Hybrid

$65.49/hr

Data Engineer 3 (Contract) * Location: San Jose, CA 95110 (Hybrid) * Duration: 12/08/2025 to 12/08/2026 * Team: DME Planning Strategy & Consolidation About the Role: * The Financial Data Engineer ...

Mill

Data Engineer - Data Platform

San Bruno, CA · On-site

$185K - $210K/yr

The Role As a Data Engineer at Mill, you'll build and maintain the core data infrastructure that ... Familiarity with data contract or data mesh patterns, or RBAC/access governance on a warehouse

New

Mindsource Inc

Data Engineer (DataOps)

Cupertino, CA · On-site

$141K - $169K/yr

Contract - W2 Summary: We are seeking a capable, detail-minded Data Engineer with a DataOps focus to join our worldwide business development and strategy team. You will build and operate the data ...

Prodege LLC

Principal Data Engineer

El Segundo, CA

Platform patterns for Medallion architecture, data contracts, schema evolution, governance, and ... The evolution of Data Engineering toward a more AI-first way of working What Makes This Role ...

Prodege LLC

Principal Data Engineer

El Segundo, CA · On-site +1

Platform patterns for Medallion architecture, data contracts, schema evolution, governance, and ... The evolution of Data Engineering toward a more AI-first way of working What Makes This Role ...

Mill

Data Engineer - Data Platform

San Bruno, CA

$185K - $210K/yr

The Role As a Data Engineer at Mill, you'll build and maintain the core data infrastructure that ... Familiarity with data contract or data mesh patterns, or RBAC/access governance on a warehouse

New

Monks

Data Engineer - DataOps

Cupertino, CA · Hybrid

$141K - $169K/yr

Data EngineerAbout the Role We are seeking a capable, detail-minded Data Engineer with a strong ... This is a contract role based out of Cupertino, CA , with a hybrid schedule requiring you to be on ...

Agilent

AI Data Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$134K - $161K/yr

AI consumption changes what "model-ready" means: data must be retrieval-ready, semantically annotated, contract-governed, and quality-scored, and the AI Data Engineer often uses agents to do the ...

Hadrian Automation

Data Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$150K - $230K/yr

You'll run data-quality programs end to end, from profiling and anomaly detection to root-cause analysis, partner with Data Platform Engineering on pipeline architecture, data contracts, and quality ...

Hadrian Automation, Inc

Data Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$150K - $230K/yr

You'll run data-quality programs end to end, from profiling and anomaly detection to root-cause analysis, partner with Data Platform Engineering on pipeline architecture, data contracts, and quality ...

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Showing results 41-60

All JobsData Engineer Contract JobsData Engineer Contract Jobs in California

Data Engineer Contract information

See California salary details

$43.9K

$128K

$175.2K

How much do data engineer contract jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 22, 2026, the average yearly pay for data engineer contract in California is $128,018.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $113,000.00 and $135,700.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a data engineer contract?

A Data Engineer Contract job is a temporary or project-based role where a data engineer is hired for a specific duration to design, build, and maintain data pipelines and infrastructure. Contract data engineers often work with big data technologies, ETL processes, and cloud platforms to ensure data is efficiently processed and accessible. These roles can be short-term (a few months) or long-term (a year or more), depending on the project's needs. Contractors may work independently or as part of a larger data team, and they are typically paid hourly or per project rather than receiving a fixed salary and benefits like full-time employees.

What are the typical daily responsibilities of a data engineer contract?

As a Data Engineer contractor, your day-to-day tasks often include designing, building, and maintaining data pipelines, implementing ETL processes, and preparing datasets for analytics or machine learning teams. You may be asked to collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and other engineers to understand data requirements and resolve technical issues. Contractors also frequently assess data quality, optimize performance, and document their work for seamless team integration. The role is fast-paced and may require you to quickly adapt to new projects or technologies, making it ideal for those who enjoy dynamic, project-based environments.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the data engineer contract position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Data Engineer Contract, you need expertise in data modeling, ETL processes, and proficiency with programming languages such as Python or SQL, often supported by a degree in computer science or related field. Familiarity with big data platforms like Hadoop or Spark, experience with cloud services (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and certifications in relevant technologies are highly valued. Strong problem-solving skills, effective communication, and the ability to work independently are crucial soft skills. These abilities ensure data engineers can efficiently design scalable pipelines, troubleshoot issues, and collaborate across teams to support data-driven decision-making.

What are the most commonly searched types of Data Engineer jobs in California?

The most popular types of Data Engineer jobs in California are:

What are popular job titles related to Data Engineer Contract jobs in California?

For Data Engineer Contract jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Data Engineer Contract jobs in California look for?

The top searched job categories for Data Engineer Contract jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for Data Engineer Contract jobs?

Cities in California with the most Data Engineer Contract job openings:

Data Engineer Contract jobs near you
Infographic showing various Data Engineer Contract job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 50% Full Time, and 50% Contract. Highlights an 100% In-person job distribution, with an average salary of $128,018 per year, or $61.5 per hour.

Staff Data Engineer

Archer

San Jose, CA • On-site

$17K - $215K/yr

Full-time

Posted 8 days ago

Job description

Archer is best known for Midnight, our electric aircraft. This role isn't on that program. The AI Products Org is building software for the general aviation industry. As a Staff Data Engineer on the AI Platform team, you will design, build, and operate the data infrastructure that powers large-scale model training and inference. You will own the pipelines, storage systems, and data quality mechanisms that sit upstream of our ML platform, ensuring models train on clean, high-throughput, well-governed data.


What You'll Do:

  • Design and maintain high-throughput, fault-tolerant ingestion and transformation pipelines that feed training workloads at scale, with a focus on latency, throughput, and correctness.
  • Build and operate the data lakehouse - defining table formats (Iceberg, Paimon, Parquet), partitioning strategies, and compaction policies optimized for ML consumption patterns.
  • Instrument pipelines with data quality checks, lineage tracking, and anomaly detection so that model failures trace back to data problems quickly.
  •  Partner with ML engineers to define feature stores, dataset versioning, and experiment-to-production data contracts; integrate with tools like MLflow for dataset and artifact tracking.
  • Work closely with AI researchers, platform engineers, and software engineers to understand data access patterns, optimize query performance, and unblock training runs.
 
What You Need:
  • 5+ years of professional data engineering experience excluding internships. 
  • BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related field.
  • Hands-on experience building production pipelines with tools like Apache Spark, Flink, Airflow, dbt, or similar batch/streaming frameworks.
  • Deep proficiency with columnar formats (i.e. Parquet), open table formats (Apache Iceberg or Apache Paimon), and object storage systems (S3 or equivalent).
  • Experience with high-throughput messaging systems such as Apache Pulsar or Kafka for real-time data ingestion.
  • Strong SQL skills; experience with StarRocks for large-scale analytical queries and real-time analytics over the lakehouse.
  • Familiarity with AWS data services (S3, Glue, EMR) and containerized workloads (Docker/Kubernetes) in production environments. Airflow/Prefect/Dagster

Bonus Qualifications:
  • Experience with CDC (Change Data Capture) replication from transactional systems (i.e. PostgreSQL Lakehouse via Debezium or Airbyte).
  • Exposure to audio or time-series data pipelines, including preprocessing for ASR or speech model training.
  • Prior experience in aerospace, aviation, or other safety-critical domains where data lineage and auditability are non-negotiable.
About The Team:
AI Products is a roughly 100-person software org inside a company of aerospace engineers, and we expect to grow substantially over the next year. You get the resources and momentum of a real org, but the products themselves are early - which means Data Engineers here get the kind of ownership that usually only exists at startups.
 

If you want to hear more about what we're building before you apply, you can't. Apply, and we'll tell you plenty.


At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company's business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $175,00.00 - $215,000.00 . Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer's People Team at people@archer.com. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

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