Senior Data Engineer (Offutt AFB)

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) delivers high-impact, technical solutions to complex national security issues. With over 50 years of business expertise and consistent growth, we are known for continuous innovation for our government customers, in both the US and abroad. Our exceptionally talented team is highly collaborative in spirit and practice, producing Results that Matter. Come work with the best! We offer opportunity, unique challenges, and clear-sighted commitment to the mission. SPA: Objective. Responsive. Trusted.  

The Strategic Division (SD) supports high-reliability organizations including Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, and the Department of Energy (DOE), among others. Our support across our client base is expanding rapidly and encompasses important services, such as data analytics and visualization, threat analysis, risk management, modeling and simulation, cost estimating, earned value management, program management, system engineering, independent evaluation, and High Consequence Event prevention.

The Strategic Systems Analysis Group (SSAG) supports government and private sector strategic planning, decision making, and program management. SSAG integrates deep client knowledge, advanced analytics, and subject matter expertise to provide timely and objective technical, operational, programmatic, acquisition, and policy analysis. SSAG is hiring for a full-time Senior Data Engineer / Integration Specialist at HQ USSTRATCOM, Offutt AFB, NE.

The Senior Data Engineer / Integration Specialist serves as the senior technical analyst responsible for data engineering, data integration, and enterprise‑scale data solutions that enable Command, Control, and Communications (C3) and Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) modernization and strategic deterrence missions. In this role, the engineer leads the design, development, and optimization of secure, scalable data‑ingestion, transformation, and integration pipelines that support testing, experimentation, and rapid prototyping of new C3 and NC3 capabilities. The position architects both real‑time and batch data‑flow systems to facilitate data exchange across legacy Department of War(DoW) Nuclear Command‑and‑Control (NC2) systems, sensors, platforms, and modern cloud environments. The engineer integrates structured and unstructured data sources into authoritative datasets, ensuring data quality, lineage, governance, and compliance with Impact Level 5 (IL5) and Impact Level 6 (IL6) security requirements. The role involves developing and maintaining application programming interfaces (APIs), messaging middleware, schemas, data models, and interface control documents that support system‑to‑system integration. The engineer provides technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineers, analysts, and integration specialists, fostering growth and consistency in engineering practices. The position requires close collaboration with systems engineers, software developers, modelers, and mission stakeholders to translate operational needs into data‑driven technical requirements and architectures. The engineer also supports technology evaluations, experiments, demonstrations, and capability‑prototype assessments involving data‑centric solutions and distributed architectures. Additionally, the role includes preparing high‑quality technical documentation, data‑flow diagrams, engineering artifacts, and senior‑leader briefings that clearly communicate findings and recommendations.

Required Qualifications:

• Must be a U.S. citizen and possess an active Top Secret (TS) security clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) eligibility, along with eligibility for Nuclear Command and Control – Extremely Sensitive Information (NC2‑ESI), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Special Access Required (SAR) programs on day one, and must maintain all required clearances and program eligibilities throughout employment.
• Must be able to work full‑time onsite, 5 days a week, at Offutt Air Force Base (AFB).
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field.
• 6–10 years of progressive experience in data engineering, data integration, or software development, including 3+ years supporting DoW, DoD, or Intelligence Community missions.
• Demonstrated expertise designing and implementing complex Extract Transform Load / Extract Load Transform (ETL/ELT) pipelines and integration workflows.
• Strong proficiency in Python, Java, or comparable languages used in enterprise data engineering.
• Hands‑on experience with streaming and distributed data frameworks (Apache Kafka, NiFi, Spark, or similar).
• Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server) and NoSQL/graph databases.
• Proven experience developing and consuming RESTful APIs and gRPC within distributed architectures.
• Experience with cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP), hybrid environments, DevSecOps pipelines, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible), and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience supporting USSTRATCOM, NC3, or strategic C3 modernization efforts.
• Knowledge of data‑centric modernization, Digital Mission Engineering, and Authoritative Sources of Truth frameworks.
• Experience with graph databases (Neo4j, JanusGraph) for modeling complex interdependencies.
• Familiarity with data governance, data quality frameworks, and lineage tools.
• Experience working within IL5/IL6 classified environments.