Senior Data Engineer (1043) - Datasf

Senior Data Engineer

DataSF is seeking a Senior Data Engineer with 3+ years of experience to join our growing team. Reporting to the Principal Data Engineer, you will be instrumental in designing, building, and maintaining the City's data infrastructure, enabling robust data pipelines and reliable data access for analytical and operational needs. This is an exciting position for someone eager to apply advanced data engineering techniques to complex urban challenges, contributing directly to San Francisco's commitment to efficient, equitable, and ethical service delivery.

Essential duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Platform Administration: Manage our central Snowflake data warehouse, including access control, security policies, resource monitoring, performance tuning, and cost optimization. Administer our platform with a focus on data democratization and accessibility, while protecting privacy and security.
• Pipeline Development: Build and maintain scalable and resilient pipelines to ingest and structure data from diverse sources. Design infrastructure to support both streaming and batch processes, and both structured and unstructured data sources.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Use Terraform to define, deploy, and manage data infrastructure, ensuring our pipelines are reproducible, version-controlled, and production-ready.
• Best Practices & Innovation: Champion and implement best practices for documentation, data modeling, warehouse architecture, SQL optimization, and testing. Think creatively to find new ways to improve our data platform's capabilities and efficiency. Provide guidance to department partners on data engineering best practices.
• Collaboration: Work closely with data scientists, analysts, product managers, software engineers, and nontechnical stakeholders in diverse domains to understand data requirements and build solutions that meet their needs.
• Monitoring & Support: Proactively monitor the health of the data platform and pipelines, troubleshoot issues, and ensure high standards of data quality and availability.

Desirable Qualifications:

• Technical Knowledge: Hands-on experience administering and developing on managed cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, BigQuery, or Databricks.
• Demonstrated expertise in writing advanced, performant SQL, and using tools like dbt for SQL-based data transformation and modeling.
• Strong programming skills in Python (with libraries like pandas, PySpark) for data processing and automation.
• Proficiency with an Infrastructure as Code tool, with a preference for Terraform.
• Experience building and deploying data pipelines using orchestration tools like Azure Data Factory, Airflow, Dagster, or similar technologies.
• Deep understanding of data warehousing concepts, data modeling, and modern ELT principles.
• Understanding of data governance, data security, and data privacy principles.
• Experience with real-time data streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, Snowpipe).
• Experience deploying and managing data pipelines for machine learning models.

Collaboration and Communication Skills:

• Strong problem-solving skills with ability to design practical and effective data solutions.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• A collaborative mindset with enthusiasm to work across diverse, cross-functional teams.

Mission Alignment:

• Commitment to equity, transparency, and ethical data use.
• Passion for public service and using data to improve government services.
• Empathy for San Francisco's diverse communities and a drive to make data and services more accessible for SF residents.
• Interest or experience in public sector data or social impact work.

Education: An associate degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems, or a closely related field from an accredited college or university OR its equivalent in terms of total course credits/units [i.e., at least sixty (60) semester or ninety (90) quarter credits/units with a minimum of twenty (20) semester or thirty (30) quarter credits/units in one of the fields above or a closely-related field]. Experience: Three (3) years of experience analyzing, installing, configuring, enhancing, and/or maintaining the components of an enterprise network. Substitution: Additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree on a year-for-year basis (up to a maximum of two (2) years). One (1) year is equivalent to thirty (30) semester units/ forty-five (45) quarter units with a minimum of 10 semester / 15 quarter units in one of the fields above or a closely related field.

Verification: Please make sure it is clear in your application exactly how you meet the minimum qualifications. Applicants will be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience during the recruitment and selection process.

Note: Falsifying one's education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco. Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement by the final application deadline unless otherwise noted.

Selection Procedures: The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements and assessment of candidates' job-related knowledge, skills and abilities. Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to evaluate candidate qualifications. This typically includes an oral interview and/or a written or performance exercise. If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the Department needs will be invited to continue in the selection process. Applicants meeting the minimum requirements are not guaranteed advancement in the selection process.

To find Departments which use this classification, please see: Position Counts by Job Codes and Department FY 2022-23.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Employee Benefits Overview
• Equal Employment Opportunity
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

How to Apply: Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit careers.sf.gov and begin the application process.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible, as this job announcement will close at any time, but not before Friday, January 9, 2026 (11:59 PM, PST). Select the "Apply Now" button and follow instructions on the screen. You MUST include a cover letter. As part of the application process, you must also complete a Supplemental Questionnaire using this link: https://forms.office.com/g/Dh3S0377ZV For best practices on the application process, please visit Apply for Jobs in the City and County of San Francisco Best Practices Guide.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this announcement and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from