Remote Data Platform Engineer Jobs in Ashburn, VA

Description: ***Candidate offered backed out for FTE (screen for this) -do not resubmit candidates that were reviewed and not selected to interview (check activity) - ASK if there are questions before submitting. Need fresh options, thank you.***
Lead Engineer (Contract) - Data Platforms, Performance & Agentic AI
Location: Remote - EST timezone
Mode: Long term temp (extend 2x/year)
Profile: Lead Engineer that owns the technical architecture - full stack, strong data and app performance experience, Agentic AI solid communication skills
Rates: standard
Process: submit tech stack grid back with info as “why a fit for this role vs career overview” > initial .5 video w/manager followed by a 1-1.5 tech panel > remote start on a Tuesday (8:45-9:00am EST orientation)
About the Team The team owns the platform end-to-end-from data generation and ingestion through application delivery and user experience. We are responsible for building and maintaining high-performance, resilient systems, with a strong emphasis on performance engineering, scalability, and operational readiness. A key part of our mission is enabling the organization through robust test data generation and simulation capabilities that support platform validation, reliability testing, and AI model development.
Technology NO Awareness of technology (0) LITTLE Awareness - read/heard of technology (1) EXPOSURE to technology in environment (2) SOME development in technology (3) Very COMFORTABLE developing in technology (4) EXPERTISE in technology i.e. could teach a class (5)
AWS - Dynamo X
AWS - Lambda X
AWS - S3 X
AWS - SNS/SQS/ Event bridge/ Kinesis X
JavaScript (ES6) X
OpenSearch/ Elastic Search X
node.js Development *distinguish coding or NPM X
React.js X
In this role, you will:
End-to-End Solution Ownership & Product Engineering (40%)
• Own delivery of complex, end-to-end engineering solutions-from data generation and ingestion through analytics, APIs, and user-facing experiences
• Develop a deep understanding of business workflows, especially high-scale exam and operational systems
• Partner with product, architecture, and engineering teams to shape requirements, define scope, and provide accurate level-of-effort estimates
• Drive sprint planning, technical design discussions, and code/design reviews with a focus on speed, quality, and scalability
Architecture, Data Engineering & Implementation (40%)
• Lead design and implementation of scalable, high-performance, cloud-native data and application platforms
• Architect data generation systems (synthetic, event-based, telemetry-driven) to support testing, analytics, and AI model development
• Engineer high-performance systems, focusing on latency, throughput, resiliency, and cost efficiency
• Implement robust observability, telemetry, and performance monitoring across all layers
• Establish and enforce standards for automation, reliability, and performance engineering
• Integrate AI-driven components (prediction, anomaly detection, intelligent insights) into production systems
Agentic AI & AI-Driven Development (20%)
• Design and build agentic AI systems that can autonomously reason, plan, and execute tasks across engineering workflows
• Leverage LLMs and orchestration frameworks to enable intelligent automation in data pipelines, testing, and operations
• Incorporate AI-assisted development practices, including code generation, code review augmentation, and developer productivity tooling
• Evaluate and implement AI-native architectures, including tool-using agents, multi-agent systems
• Ensure responsible, secure, and scalable deployment of AI capabilities in production environments
Technical Leadership & Engineering Excellence
• Act as a senior technical leader driving architectural decisions and solving complex system challenges
• Mentor engineers across backend, data, performance, and AI domains
• Champion engineering best practices in performance optimization, scalability, security, and reliability
• Clearly communicate technical strategy, tradeoffs, and decisions to stakeholders
Performance Engineering & Operational Readiness
• Lead performance engineering efforts, including load testing, capacity planning, and system tuning
• Build frameworks for data-driven performance benchmarking and optimization
• Ensure systems meet strict SLAs for availability, latency, and scalability
• Proactively identify risks and ensure readiness for high-stakes operational events
About You
You have:
• 7+ years of experience building and operating scalable, distributed, cloud-native systems, including data platforms and APIs
• Strong experience with end-to-end system design, from data generation to front-end delivery
• Proven expertise in performance engineering, including profiling, load testing, and system optimization
• Hands-on experience with backend technologies such as Node.js (TypeScript preferred) and Python, building APIs and event-driven systems
• Strong experience designing and operating data pipelines and data platforms (real-time and batch)
• Experience building modern front-end applications (React/TypeScript) for data-intensive interfaces
• Deep knowledge of AWS services (Lambda, S3, Step Functions, SNS/SQS, Redshift, Athena, DynamoDB, etc.)
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (CDK, Terraform, CloudFormation)
• Strong understanding of event-driven architectures, streaming, and telemetry systems
• Experience implementing observability and monitoring solutions (e.g., Grafana or similar)
• Experience with AI/ML systems in production, including model integration and operationalization
AI & Modern Engineering Capabilities
• Experience working with LLMs, agent frameworks, or AI orchestration tools
• Familiarity with agentic workflows, autonomous system
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or similar) and integrating them into development workflows
• Understanding of RAG architectures, prompt engineering, and tool-augmented AI systems
Nice to Have
• Experience in high-scale, mission-critical environments with strict reliability requirements
• Familiarity with cell-based or multi-tenant architectures
• Experience designing systems for data isolation, security, and performance segmentation
• Exposure to synthetic data generation or simulation systems
• Experience with multi-agent AI systems or advanced automation pipelines
• Experience with MCP servers and agents skills
What We’re Looking For
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to drive end-to-end delivery
• Deep focus on performance, scalability, and reliability
• Curiosity and hands-on engagement with emerging AI technologies
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving, contract-based environment
• Clear communication and strong collaboration across technical and non-technical stakeholders

Skills: Agentic AI, AWS Dynamo, AWS Elastic Search, AWS Event Bridge, AWS Kinesis, AWS Lambda, AWS Open Search, AWS S3, AWS SNS/SQS, JavaScript ES6, node