Data Engineer - Casual

Mission Statement

The mission of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) is to work in partnership with communities to protect and promote the health and well-being of all Boston residents, especially those impacted by racism and systemic inequities. The BPHC sets an expectation that all staff and leadership commit, individually and as part of the BPHC team, to hold ourselves accountable to establishing a culture of anti-racism and advance racial equity and justice through each of our bureaus, programs, and offices.

Job Description

The Data Engineer - Casual will support the Boston Public Health Commission’s Data Modernization Initiative (DMI), focusing on building and maintaining data pipelines in Microsoft Azure platform ( Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Gen2), improving data quality, and supporting the development of BPHC’s Azure Data Lake. This role offers hands-on experience with cloud data engineering, automation, write SQL or Python scripts to clean, transform, and validate datasets prior to storage in the Azure Data Lake and governance tools used to modernize public health systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Assist in building and maintaining ETL/ELT data pipelines that load data into the BPHC Data Lake and Data Warehouse.
• Help design and implement data ingestion workflows for structured and unstructured datasets from APIs, external systems, databases, flat files, and public data sources.
• Support Data Lake organization, including folder structures, metadata tagging, data partitioning, and schema alignment.
• Maintain high-quality data storage practices including data versioning, lineage tracking, and format optimization (e.g., Parquet, Delta).
• Participate in building and optimizing data models, tables, and views used by dashboards and analytic systems.
• Support data validation, quality checks, deduplication, and data cleaning processes.
• Document data flows, pipeline logic, and transformations for the Data Lake environment.
• Assist in automating ingestion and transformation processes using Python, SQL, and Azure-based tools.
• Collaborate with analysts and program teams to understand data needs and implement scalable solutions.

Minimum Qualifications

• Foundational programming experience in SQL, Python, or R.
• Basic understanding of data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and data modeling concepts.
• Exposure to cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud (Azure preferred).
• Familiarity with tools like Azure Data Factory, Databricks, or Synapse Analytics is a plus.
• Experience with version control (e.g., GitHub) and data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI or Tableau) preferred.
• Awareness of data security, privacy, and governance principles (HIPAA, metadata standards, etc.) is a plus. 

Additional Information

• A Criminal Offenders Records Information request must be completed for this position. However, a record is not an automatic bar to employment but is reviewed in relation to the job applied for.
• Certain immunizations will be recommended and/or required prior to commencement of employment duties.
• Any position that requires an advanced degree will be subject to education verification.
• Certain positions at the BPHC may be Grant Funded.
• The Boston Public Health Commission is an EEO Employer and all applicants meeting the minimum requirements are eligible to apply.
• Certain positions at the BPHC may require Child Protective Service Background verification.
• The advertised shift and schedule are subject to change at the department's discretion.

Shift

Monday - Friday/20 Hours 

Grant Funding Information

This position is not dependent on grants / external funding sources.

Pay Range

$20-$25 Hourly