Data Engineer Contract Jobs in Racine, WI (NOW HIRING)

About Us

Founded in 1908, Merz is a successful, family-owned specialty healthcare company with a rich history. As a leading global aesthetics business, our award-winning portfolio of injectables, devices, and skincare products empowers healthcare professionals to enhance confidence through aesthetic medicine. Our purpose is to fuel confidence by helping people look better, feel better, and live better. We believe you do not have to choose between living life and making a living. Live your best life with Merz Aesthetics.

A Brief Overview

As the organization's initial data engineering hire, this position will develop and support reliable OT to MES/UNS pipelines, integrate enterprise applications (ERP, QMS, complaints) through REST/SOAP APIs, and help establish repeatable integration practices for the data platform. Furthermore, they will collaborate with the first data scientist to build and maintain the organization's digital backbone.

What You Will Do

• Pipeline Engineering (Batch & Streaming) Design, implement, and operate reliable batch and streaming pipelines from OT and enterprise systems to the UNS and analytics platforms, implement event/streaming ingestion (e.g., MQTT, Kafka/Azure Event Hubs) and high-throughput batch workflows, and ensuring performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Systems Integration Connect laboratory and shop-floor equipment to MES, ELN, LIMS and/or the UNS (e.g., OPC UA servers, Kepware, Ignition, industrial gateways), and integrate enterprise applications via REST/SOAP APIs, file drops/EDI, and CDC/connectors (e.g., ERP, QMS, CRM, complaints), with appropriate data contracts and versioning.
• Platform, CI/CD, and Reliability Build Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) environments and implement CI/CD for data pipelines, including automated unit, integration, and data quality testing, and establish observability (logging, metrics, tracing), define SLAs/SLOs/SLIs, and author runbooks to support on-call operations and continuous improvement.
• Security, Compliance, and Validation Enforce least-privilege access, OT/IT network segmentation (including DMZ patterns), and secure secrets management and collaborate on CSV/GAMP 5 deliverables and ensure audit trails and change controls aligned to 21 CFR Part 11.
• Collaboration and Standards Partner with data science and cross-functional stakeholders to define and maintain data contracts, schemas, and naming conventions and develop reusable connectors, templates, and documentation to accelerate future integrations and promote consistency.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree Data Engineering or Computer Science
• 3-5 years of data engineering and/or systems integration, with strong exposure to industrial/OT data or high-throughput production systems
• 3-5 years of hands-on experience with OPC UA, AMQP and SCADA gateways.
• 3-5 years working with REST/SOAP APIs, schema evolution, and CDC patterns.
• 2+ years working in GxP environments with awareness of CSV expectations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience integrating MES, ERP, QMS, lab equipment and SCADA.
• Experience working with Ignition, Litmus, and Fuuz.
• Experience working with prompt engineering large language models.

Technical & Functional Skills

• Build/operate batch & streaming pipelines; performance tuning, backpressure handling, and idempotency.
• Tooling familiarity (e.g., Spark/Databricks/Synapse, Event Hubs/Kafka/IoT Hub or equivalent).
• Protocol familiarity (i.e. OPC UA, MQTT, AMQP, REST/SOAP, file/EDI).
• API design/consumption: pagination, throttling, OAuth/SAML/SAS, bulk loads, file drops with integrity checks.
• Translating ambiguous business needs into clear data contracts, SLAs, and acceptance criteria.
• Strong Python and SQL; Git-based workflows; CI/CD (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps).
• Proficiency with streaming and batch paradigms (e.g., Kafka/Event Hubs/IoT Hub, or equivalents).
• Good knowledge about organization standards, processes and customers, capability to expand this knowledge
• Ability to work with moderate guidance
• Ability to resolve problems by applying prescribed guidelines and policies
• Ability to explain complex information effectively & and support others in straight forward tasks
• Good MS Office package skills & familiarity with the most common AV technology

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
• 20 days of Paid Time Off
• 15 paid holidays
• Paid Sick Leave
• Paid Parental Leave
• 401(k)
• Employee bonuses
• And more!

 Your benefits and PTO start the date you're hired with no waiting period! 

Work Authorization & Visa Sponsorship: Merz will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity. No sponsorship is available for any employmentbased visas, including but not limited to H1B, L1, TN, O1, E3, H1B1, F1, J1, OPT, CPT, or any other employmentbased visa category.

Relocation: this position is not eligible for relocations assistance. Candidates must reside in or relocate to the area at their own expense.