Freelance Geospatial Data Engineer Jobs in Texas

Data Lead — AAM Weather Technology Evaluation

Location: Remote (U.S.) with periodic travel to Fort Worth, TX, and designated test sites as authorized

Company: Aertron, Inc.

Clearance Level: Suitability / Public Trust

Position Overview

Aertron, Inc., a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business specializing in aviation safety, regulatory strategy, and AI/ML integration for safety-critical systems, is supporting an FAA effort to independently evaluate micro-weather sensing, reporting, and forecasting technologies for Advanced Air Mobility environments — including rooftop vertiports and urban air corridors — across climatically diverse test sites, with evaluation criteria aligned to ASTM F3673-24.

Aertron is seeking a Data Lead to own the data backbone of this evaluation end to end. This is a hands-on role for a technical expert who leads by doing, spanning data architecture, data engineering, and data science: you will design the evaluation data architecture, build and operate the pipelines that carry observed and forecast weather data from deployed sensor systems through analysis, and lead the analytical work that determines how each technology performs. Your work is the foundation on which defensible, FAA-facing evaluation conclusions are built.

Key Responsibilities

• Data architecture — define the evaluation data architecture supporting ingestion, storage, processing, and analysis of observed and forecast weather data; design workflows ensuring traceability, consistency, and reproducibility across multiple vendor systems and geographically diverse deployment sites.
• Data engineering — build and operate data pipelines for multi-source data intake across systems and sites; implement validation checks for completeness, consistency, and usability; identify and resolve data integration and workflow issues across four quarterly data collection periods.
• Data science and evaluation — define forecast validation methodologies comparing forecast outputs to observed conditions across defined lead times; define performance metrics and assessment criteria aligned with ASTM F3673-24; lead technical analysis of system performance, data quality, and forecasting behavior.
• Verify end-to-end data flow during evaluation readiness assessments and dry runs at each deployment site.
• Maintain traceability between data sources, performance metrics, analytical outputs, and evaluation conclusions to support defensible reporting.
• Assess preliminary data and emerging trends for Technical Interchange Meetings; recommend adjustments to evaluation approaches, workflows, or analytical methods as data collection progresses.
• Execute conformance assessments against ASTM F3673-24 and synthesize results into clear, defensible narratives, conclusions, and recommendations for Evaluation Final Reports.
• Contribute technical content to evaluation plans, quarterly reporting, TIM briefing materials, and final deliverables through structured FAA review cycles.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Atmospheric Science, or related field; or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of hands-on experience spanning data architecture, data engineering, and applied data science — with demonstrated depth in at least two and working fluency in the third.
• Proven experience designing data architectures and building production pipelines for multi-source ingestion, validation, and integration (e.g., Python, SQL, workflow orchestration).
• Experience designing and executing evaluation, validation, or verification methodologies for complex systems, with statistically sound analysis practices.
• Strong documentation and technical writing skills; ability to produce artifacts and analyses that withstand federal or regulatory review.
• Self-directed individual contributor comfortable owning a technical domain end to end on a small, senior team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with weather, environmental, sensor, telemetry, or geospatial data; familiarity with forecast verification methods.
• Experience in aviation, Urban Air Mobility (UAM)/AAM, or other safety-critical or regulated domains.
• Familiarity with ASTM F3673-24 or comparable standards-based performance evaluation.
• Systems test and evaluation exposure — deployment planning, installation oversight, or field readiness verification — is a strong plus and may expand the scope of the role.
• Experience supporting FAA, DoD, NASA, or other federal research programs.

Aertron, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This position may require access to sensitive information and systems.