Entry Level Data Engineering Jobs in Madison, WI

At HDR, our employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, a place where everyone is empowered to bring their authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. As we foster a culture of inclusion throughout our company and within our communities, we constantly ask ourselves: What is our impact on the world? Each and every role throughout our organization makes a difference in our ability to change the world for the better. We believe water is more than a resource, it's a shared responsibility. As part of our Water Business Group, you'll help shape how communities manage water for generations to come. From delivering safe drinking water and treating wastewater responsibly to developing sustainable water supplies and protecting lives and property through flood control, your work will directly support public health, environmental sustainability, and infrastructure resilience. We bring together experts across disciplines to solve complex challenges with bold thinking and technical excellence. Whether you're modernizing aging systems or pioneering innovative approaches, your contributions will make a meaningful difference in people's lives. This isn't just a job, it's a chance to lead change, drive progress, and leave a lasting legacy.

HDR is seeking an entry-level Utility Data, Asset Management & Hydraulic Modeling Analyst to support water and wastewater utility projects through applied hydraulic modeling analysis, data analytics, GIS, and asset management. This position contributes to system evaluations, capital planning, regulatory analysis, and development of technical deliverables for municipal utility clients. The successful candidate will demonstrate strong analytical capability, technical rigor, and an interest in advancing data-driven utility planning.

• Hydraulic Modeling & System Analysis
• Assist with building and maintaining hydraulic model data for water distribution and wastewater collection systems using GIS datasets, as-built drawings, and field data.
• Support hydraulic simulations, system performance evaluations, and scenario analyses for planning studies and operational assessments.
• Utilize data from industry modeling tools such as InfoWater, InfoSewer, InfoSWMM, InfoWorks ICM, SewerGEMs, WaterGEMs, EPANet, and ArcGIS Pro.
• Data Engineering, Analytics & Visualization
• Perform data acquisition, cleaning, validation, and exploratory analysis on large datasets including SCADA data, metering data, GIS layers, and monitoring records.
• Develop analytical and visualization outputs using SQL, Power BI, Python, R, and GIS platforms to support technical evaluations.
• Support database management, data structuring, and creation of modeling-ready datasets to improve study reliability and documentation.
• Handle highly sensitive and confidential information with professionalism and discretion.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to improve business decisions by identifying patterns and trends in data.
• Develop data products including reports, visualizations, and dashboards.
• Adhere to software and data science development standards.
• Perform data acquisition, sourcing, cleaning and exploratory data analysis (EDA).
• Transform raw data into usable attributes for machine learning modules through feature engineering.
• Manage model lifecycle including development, deployment, data drift detection, model retraining, and model inference.
• Create automated data pipelines and data engineering solutions.
• Develop advanced and custom predictive models (classification, regression, time series, neural networks, natural language processing, and computer vision).
• Tune models with training, hyperparameters with comprehensive validation and testing processes.
• Asset Management & Capital Planning
• Contribute to asset inventory development, condition assessment processes, and risk prioritization activities supporting water and wastewater capital planning.
• Assist in preparing asset management and capital improvement plan documents, including risk modeling graphics, lifecycle analysis summaries, and decision-support exhibits.
• Integrate asset, condition, and geospatial data to support long-term strategic planning for utility infrastructure.
• Utility Planning, Policy Analysis & Technical Reporting
• Support development of technical reports, planning documents, regulatory analyses, and client presentations.
• Assist with evaluating impacts of evolving state and federal environmental policies on client utility systems.
• Leverage predictive models to optimize business results.
• Contribute to studies involving financial planning, rate evaluation, and long-range system needs assessment.
• Professional Collaboration
• Actively participate in HDR's employee-owned, collaborative culture by working closely with multidisciplinary teams including engineers, planners, analysts, and project managers.
• Communicate findings through written reports, visualizations, engineering graphics, and presentations.
• Maintain high standards of quality control, documentation, and analytical accuracy.

Bachelor's Degree

A minimum of 3 years experience in a data science role

Foundational knowledge or academic experience in hydraulics, environmental systems, data analytics, GIS, or related disciplines.

Familiarity with or academic exposure to hydraulic modeling concepts or tools.

Experience with ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Pro, or ArcGIS Online.

Oracle Spatial or SQL Server Spatial back-end data processing experience

Understanding of asset management principles such as condition assessment, risk scoring, or lifecycle planning.

Interest in environmental regulations and policy frameworks related to water and wastewater utilities.

A degree in a closely related field or combination of education and relevant experience

A minimum of 3 years experience with data engineering tools and languages such as SQL, Power Query, and Pandas

A minimum of 3 years experience with business intelligence tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Plotly, Seaborn, and Matplotlib

A minimum of 3 years experience with data science languages such as Python and R

Self-motivated, detail-oriented professional, ability to multitask a must

Proficiency with MS Office including Word and Outlook

Ability to handle confidential information

Excellent writing and people skills

Strong math and organizational skills

Flexibility and ability to prioritize and handle multiple tasks and various managers in a fast-paced environment

Excellent verbal and written communication skills including grammar, punctuation, proofreading, spelling and telephone skills

An attitude and commitment to being an active participant of our employee-owned culture is a must

In-depth knowledge of machine learning algorithms, statistical models, and data analytics

Experience completing multiple data science projects