Data Engineer Contract Jobs in Colorado (NOW HIRING)

About Us:
VT-ARC, a technical services and applied research company, has built an organizational culture marked by four primary values: Teamwork, Integrity, Excellence, and Service. Integral to our success is our staff's enthusiasm for solving tough problems by working together in teams to get the job done. We foster a culture where every employee's contribution is valued and performed with integrity while maintaining a fun work environment. VT-ARC strives for excellence in all that is done for our clients, and such achievement is recognized through service/merit awards. Moreover, we promote a sense of community larger than VT-ARC alone, where staff and institutional resources can be applied in service to our country.
We are proud to be the recipient of the Best Workplace in Defense Award by Emergent Magazine, an honor that recognizes companies with positive cultures that not only impact their people but also make a meaningful difference in the community.
About You:
You are a curious, innovative, and solutions-driven data engineering expert who thrives on turning complex data into meaningful insights and mission impact. You enjoy designing scalable data architectures, building efficient data pipelines, and enabling emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and knowledge graphs to solve challenging problems. With strong collaboration and communication skills, you work effectively with stakeholders, engineers, and analysts to deliver data-driven solutions that support informed decision-making and operational success.
Position Overview:
The Senior Data Engineer serves as a lead-level Subject Matter Expert (SME) responsible for designing, developing, and implementing enterprise data architectures, data integration solutions, and advanced analytical capabilities supporting mission-critical operations. This role supports the collection, transformation, organization, and exploitation of complex data across classified and unclassified environments.
The successful candidate will possess expertise in data engineering, data modeling, ontologies, taxonomies, metadata management, data transformation, and modern AI-enabled data architectures. The position requires experience designing and implementing scalable data solutions across cloud and hybrid environments utilizing data lakes, data meshes, data warehouses, knowledge graphs, and emerging artificial intelligence technologies including Large Language Models (LLMs) and agentic architectures.
The Senior Data Engineer will work closely with mission stakeholders, engineers, analysts, and leadership to translate operational requirements into data pipelines, workflows, and decision-support capabilities that enhance mission effectiveness and strategic decision-making.
This position is contingent upon contract award, with performance anticipated to begin on or about September 15 th , 2026.
Duties and Responsibilities:

• Serve as a technical SME for enterprise data architecture, data engineering, and advanced analytics initiatives.
• Analyze mission and operational requirements and translate them into scalable data pipelines, workflows, and integration solutions.
• Design, develop, and maintain enterprise data architectures supporting structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data environments.
• Develop and implement data models, ontologies, taxonomies, metadata frameworks, and data governance standards.
• Engineer data ingestion, transformation, translation, normalization, and enrichment processes across multiple data sources.
• Design and support data lakes, data meshes, data warehouses, and knowledge graph solutions.
• Develop and maintain metadata tagging strategies to improve data discoverability, lineage, quality, and interoperability.
• Support the integration and transformation of diverse message formats, schemas, protocols, and data standards.
• Design and optimize cloud-native and hybrid-cloud data architectures.
• Evaluate and support implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, including:
  • Large Language Models (LLMs)
  • Generative AI solutions
  • Agentic architectures
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) frameworks
  • Knowledge graph-enabled analytics
• Collaborate with mission stakeholders to identify data requirements and define technical solutions that support operational objectives.
• Develop technical documentation, architecture diagrams, data flows, and implementation strategies.
• Support analytical and decision-support initiatives utilizing complex data sets and predictive insights.
• Prepare technical briefings, reports, and recommendations for government leadership and stakeholders.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend innovative solutions that improve data accessibility, usability, and mission impact.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 9 years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, analytics, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, or related technical fields.
• Demonstrated expertise in:
  • Data modeling
  • Ontologies
  • Taxonomies
  • Metadata management
  • Data transformation and translation
  • Data integration
• Experience designing and implementing:
  • Data lakes
  • Data meshes
  • Data warehouses
  • Knowledge graphs
• Experience building data pipelines and workflow automation solutions.
• Experience supporting cloud and hybrid-cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of data architecture, interoperability, data governance, and data lifecycle management.
• Experience supporting AI/ML initiatives and emerging technologies including LLMs and agentic architectures.
• Demonstrated ability to capture stakeholder requirements and translate them into technical data solutions.
• Active TS/SCI security clearance.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience supporting U.S. Space Force, USSPACECOM, Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, or National Security Space organizations.
• Knowledge of classified government networks, systems, and mission environments.
• Experience supporting Space Domain Awareness (SDA), intelligence, cyber, command and control, or mission operations data environments.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Experience with data governance frameworks and enterprise data management practices.
• Experience implementing semantic technologies and graph-based analytics.
• Knowledge of AI/ML operationalization, model deployment, and data engineering pipelines supporting advanced analytics.

Primary Work Location: Work is expected to be fully onsite in Colorado Springs, CO. The selected candidate must be able to support in-person program, customer, and technical coordination activities as required.
Special Work Conditions: Travel will be required, up to 25%.
Security:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Active Top Secret/SCI clearance is required

Competitive Salary: VT-ARC offers a competitive salary and benefits package designed to attract and retain senior technical talent supporting mission-critical programs.
Salary Range: $150,000 - $200,000 annually
Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation: VT-ARC is a 501(c)(3), non-profit R&D organization affiliated with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech or VT). Our mission is to provide superior analytic and technology solutions across multiple domains by leveraging Virginia Tech's multidisciplinary research and innovation ecosystem. With unique access to the broad and rich research enterprise found at Virginia Tech, VT-ARC forms multi-disciplinary teams to apply innovative solutions to the real-world problems that strain our social, political, industrial, and economic foundations.
To learn more about VT-ARC's Benefits, Perks, Culture & more visit our Careers page: https://vt-arc.org/careers/
Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by law. As a federal contractor, we are committed to providing equal employment opportunity and affirmative action for qualified individuals with disabilities under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact Human Resources at hr@vt-arc.org
Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.E-Verify.gov .