Freelance Aviation Data Analyst Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Shape the Future of America's Skies with Peraton

Join Peraton in advancing the safety, efficiency, and modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS) through the FAA's Brand New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS) contract. As a trusted partner to the Federal Aviation Administration, Peraton delivers the mission-critical systems and services that keep our nation's skies safe, secure, and connected.

We're seeking innovative professionals who thrive in high-impact, mission-driven environments and are excited to help transform the future of air traffic management. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to one of the world's most vital transportation infrastructures while collaborating with leaders in aviation, engineering, data science, and systems integration.

At Peraton, you won't just support the mission-you'll help define it.

Enterprise Data Architect

Location: Herndon, VA

Defines enterprise data architecture, canonical data models, aviation data exchange standards compliance, data integration patterns, data governance frameworks, and cross-package data flow architecture for BNATCS. Owns the authoritative data models and integration patterns that enable NEEDS package systems to exchange information reliably, securely, and in conformance with FAA aviation data standards.

This role complements the existing SW & Data Architect positions by providing dedicated depth on data modeling, aviation exchange formats, master data management, and data integration engineering - freeing the SW & Data Architects to focus on software, cloud, and pipeline architecture.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain canonical data models (conceptual, logical, physical) for BNATCS domain areas and enforce naming, typing, and semantic conventions across NEEDS package teams
• Define and steward the enterprise data governance framework - data ownership, stewardship roles, quality standards, retention, and lifecycle management
• Design data integration patterns (ETL/ELT, streaming, event-driven, request-reply) for cross-package data flows and adjacent NAS system interfaces
• Enforce aviation data exchange format compliance - SWIM, FIXM, AIXM, WXXM, ASTERIX - across domain teams; review interface payloads for schema conformance
• Produce data architecture artifacts for current active applicable NEEDS package systems - data dictionaries, metadata catalogs, data flow diagrams, entity-relationship models, canonical schemas
• Establish and operate a master data management (MDM) capability for shared reference data (facilities, sites, CIPs, JCNs, systems, personnel roles)
• Define data quality metrics, monitoring, and remediation workflows; establish data quality gates for ingestion into shared analytical environments
• Design analytical data architecture - data lake / lakehouse patterns, warehouse structures, curated data products - supporting the Digital Command Center and Knowledge Base Expansion
• Partner with the SW & Data Architects on the data side of ICDs - payload schemas, semantic contracts, versioning strategy, backward-compatibility rules - while software architects own transport, security, and API structure
• Support MBSE / DNA integration by aligning canonical data models to UAF DIV-2 / DIV-3 artifacts and the DNA knowledge graph ontology
• Support procurement trade studies with data architecture evaluation criteria (data model maturity, exchange format compliance, integration effort estimates)

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 12 years with BS/BA; Minimum of 10 years with MS/MA; Minimum of 7 years with Ph.D., 16 years in lieu of a degree
• US Citizenship and the ability to obtain/maintain a public trust clearance
• Proficiency in relational, dimensional, and graph data modeling; conceptual/logical/physical modeling discipline
• Deep experience with data modeling tools (ERwin, Sparx EA, PowerDesigner, or equivalent)
• Demonstrated experience with data governance frameworks and master data management
• Working knowledge of aviation data exchange formats - SWIM, FIXM, AIXM - or comparable domain-specific exchange standards (HL7, ISO 20022) with a plan for aviation ramp-up
• Experience designing data integration patterns - ETL/ELT, streaming (Kafka, Kinesis), event-driven, CDC - for high-volume operational data
• Experience with cloud data platforms (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government) - Redshift, Glue, Athena, Snowflake, Databricks, or equivalents
• Experience defining data dictionaries, metadata catalogs, and lineage tracking
• FAA or DoD data architecture experience preferred

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience with SWIM / NEMS interface design, JMSDD authoring, or SWIM Content Filtering
• Experience with data catalog and lineage tools (Collibra, Alation, Informatica EDC, DataHub, Apache Atlas, Purview)
• Background in operational data stores supporting real-time decision support systems - latency, freshness, and consistency trade-offs
• Familiarity with knowledge graphs, ontology development, or semantic web technologies (RDF, OWL, SHACL, SPARQL) - relevant for DNA and MBSE integration
• Experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) or architecture modeling tools (Cameo, Sparx EA, Archi) - particularly UAF DIV / SV-6 data artifacts
• Experience with data virtualization, data mesh, or data product architectures
• Familiarity with data privacy, information classification, and controlled unclassified information (CUI) handling in federal environments
• Relevant certifications such as CDMP (Certified Data Management Professional), TOGAF, or DAMA-DMBOK-aligned credentials

#BNATCS 

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world's leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can't be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we're keeping people around the world safe and secure.