Job Title: Senior Data Modeler – Integration & Events
Location: Washington, DC (On-site)
Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099)
About the Opportunity:
ZipStaff is seeking a Senior Data Modeler – Integration & Events to serve as a key technical authority across the Transportation Operations portfolio for a leading transportation organization.
In this role, you will define and govern conceptual, logical, and physical data models, shared semantic standards, and event/API contracts to bridge legacy systems (including mainframe) with modern distributed architectures. By standardizing canonical models, managing schema lifecycles, and establishing formal data contracts in Kafka/Confluent environments, you will ensure reliable, interoperable, and scalable data exchange across mission-critical rail and transit operational platforms. This is an on-site role in Washington, DC.
What You’ll Do:
- Design, implement, and maintain conceptual, logical, and physical data models for operational data at rest and data in motion across relational, NoSQL, and event-driven systems.
- Lead the definition, evolution, and governance of standardized event contracts and API schemas using Kafka Schema Registry, enforcing compatibility modes, schema references, and consumer-impact standards.
- Establish and govern canonical information models, shared operational entities, authoritative definitions, relationships, and naming conventions aligned with enterprise standards (such as ISO/IEC 11179-5).
- Reverse-engineer and analyze legacy operational systems—including mainframe environments—to support target-state modernization and seamless data integration.
- Partner with solution architects, application engineers, business SMEs, and data integration teams to maintain end-to-end traceability between business concepts, logical models, physical schemas, and event streams.
- Review database and schema designs to verify data integrity, normalization tradeoffs, history/effective dating structures, and compliance with enterprise security and governance policies.
- Facilitate modeling working sessions to translate complex transportation business rules into reusable, consistent technical definitions across systems.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 8+ years of hands-on data modeling experience designing enterprise conceptual, logical, and physical schemas for mission-critical, highly integrated transactional or operational systems.
- Proven mastery of data modeling fundamentals, including grain definition, key strategies, normalization/denormalization trade-offs, constraints, temporal/effective dating, and state management across both Relational and NoSQL platforms.
- Hands-on experience with Kafka and Confluent Schema Registry, with practical knowledge of subjects, schema evolution rules, compatibility modes, and reusable event contracts.
- Demonstrated track record establishing governed semantic naming standards, metadata dictionaries, and enterprise data models (exposure to ISO/IEC 11179-5 principles preferred).
- Strong understanding of distributed architectures, middleware, API integration, and hybrid legacy-to-cloud migration patterns (mainframe exposure is a plus).
- Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder facilitation skills.
- Ability to work on-site in Washington, DC.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Domain experience in transportation, railroad, logistics, transit, aviation, or utilities.
- Experience reverse-engineering mainframe systems for modernization and data integration.
- Familiarity with enterprise data governance standards such as ISO/IEC 11179-5.
- Experience facilitating modeling sessions with business and technical stakeholders in complex operational environments.
Benefits:
- Health Insurance.
- Dental Insurance.
- Vision Insurance.
- 401(k) + 401(k) matching.
- Paid time off.
- Referral Program.
About ZipStaff:
ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches, clear communication, and long-term success for candidates and clients.
To apply, submit your resume highlighting your 8+ years of enterprise data modeling experience, hands-on Kafka/Confluent Schema Registry work, and experience designing conceptual, logical, and physical models for operational or transactional systems. Pure research or junior experience will not be considered.