Education Data Engineer

About EmpowerK12

At EmpowerK12, we envision a world where students of all backgrounds can thrive in the life path of their choice. Our mission is to empower education systems with rigorous data analytics and tools to drive collaborative improvement and equitable student outcomes. By education systems, we mean all the components that are critical to ensuring student success including students, parents/families, teachers, school leaders, district leaders, policymakers, support organizations and businesses, researchers, and innovators.

To that end, we empower schools with data analytics tools along with professional development and coaching to turn data into action. Our data analytics tools focus on putting real-time, actionable data in the hands of teachers and administrators so that they can most effectively support students.Our team supports 93 schools across 35 school networks, and we strive to support DC’s broader cross-sector community through citywide research projects such as honoring Bold Schools and understanding math bright spots.

Our Team Culture

We are a tight-knit team that prides ourselves on figuring out how to overcome problems in pursuit of solutions for our partners. Our personal interests vary from DIY home renovation, astronomy, and March Madness to reality TV and probability modeling. We check-in as a team frequently and participate in team-building activities that include trying new restaurants, playing board games, and exploring the District. We prioritize our team’s professional growth by ensuring that each team member has both the challenging projects and the support they need to take their skills to new heights. When you join our team, you become part of a dynamic community that encourages everyone to learn new skills and share our learning to grow as individuals and as an organization.

You may fit in well with our culture if your approach to work aligns with ours:

• We are collaborative team players who are excited about building strong relationships among diverse communities
• We are tenacious and willing to ask for help; we understand that challenges are a signal to work smarter, collaboratively involve others, and creatively problem solve
• We desire feedback as part of our commitment to self-development and to improving skills
• We are excited to work in a startup environment where challenges arise daily and where each individual’s ideas make an important impact and take EmpowerK12’s services to the next level

Position Overview

The data engineer will support the development and maintenance of reliable, scalable data systems that ensure accurate and timely data for educators and school leaders. This role focuses on building and maintaining ETL pipelines, performing data transformations, and ensuring data quality and integrity across multiple sources. The engineer will support the modernization of existing workflows and contribute to the implementation of automation processes and error-handling processes. Working closely with the analytics engineers and data analysts, this position will help deliver clean, well-structured data that powers actionable insights and reporting.

This position is a hybrid position based in Washington, DC. We have a flexible work policy where you should expect to work an 8-hour workday between the hours of 8am-6pm. Hybrid schedule for EmpowerK12 employees entails on average spending at least two days per week in-person. In-person time can vary between time at the office, partner school, or external events. There are occasionally evening and weekends events that employees are expected to attend and support throughout the year.

Responsibilities

• Anything it takes to serve our education partners’ needs
• Support the modernization of the EmpowerK12’s ETL pipeline, migrating existing process to more scalable, automated workflows
• Build and maintain ETL pipelines to extract, transform, and load data from multiple sources for use in developing innovative metrics and interactive dashboards
• Optimize data processes to improve the efficiency and quality of our analysis work
• Collaborate with analytics engineers and data analysts to ensure pipelines meet reporting and partner needs.
• Document workflows and troubleshoot pipelines issues to maintain system integrity.
• Implement data validation and quality checks to ensure accuracy and compliance with data governance standards

Qualifications

• Commitment to educational equity and EmpowerK12’s mission; direct experience in education is preferred, but we will consider candidates who demonstrate commitment to our mission in other ways as well
• Demonstrated ability to fulfill the responsibilities listed above
• Proficiency in programming languages commonly used for data engineering (e.g., Python, SQL)
• Experience with workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Prefect, Airflow)
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS) for hosting and managing data systems.
• Familiarity with containerization tools such as Docker for packaging and deploying data workflows
• Meticulous attention to detail; demonstrated reliability and accuracy in infrastructure creation and management
• Systematic approach to problem solving
• Strong interpersonal skills to listen to teammates’ needs and clearly explain the systems you build
• Self-directed, self-starter with a willingness to own high-priority projects and do whatever it takes to meet partner and organizational needs
• Effective project manager with ability to drive projects to completion and who is comfortable managing multiple priorities amid ambiguity

Experience and Education

• 3+ years of experience in data engineering role or closely related role, including work with ETL pipelines and data workflows
• Experience contributing to data pipeline modernization or migration projects preferred
• Experience with machine learning and predictive analytics is a plus
• Experience in K-12 education preferred
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• We value a diversity of backgrounds; we will consider candidates that do not meet the listed education and experience requirements if they can demonstrate the qualifications listed above through alternative career paths

Compensation

• At EmpowerK12 we value our team members and offer a robust benefits package and hybrid work environment to encourage balance and support well-being
• Our generous benefits include paid time off, transportation, 401(K), short term-disability, long-term disability, life, health, dental, and vision insurance
• We believe in fair pay—equal pay for equal work; for each role, we apply competitive salary bands based on an annual review of market data and benchmarks

The salary range for this position is $85,000-95,000. Placement within this range is determined by a variety of factors, including knowledge, skills, years and depth of experience, certifications, and equity with internal team members.

Equal Opportunity Statement

EmpowerK12 is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to building an inclusive, high-performing team. EmpowerK12 does not discriminate based on disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This applies to all terms and conditions of employment. We encourage candidates from underrepresented groups to apply.

Applying

If you wish to apply for this position, please visit www.empowerk12.org/apply. Only candidates that submit the application form and a resume will be considered. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with priority given to ones received by January 16, 2026.

Our generous benefits include paid time off, transportation, 401(K), short term-disability, long-term disability, life, health, dental, and vision insurance