Data Modeler

About Us

Rapid Strategy is an award-winning, African-American-owned small business providing advanced cybersecurity and IT services to federal and commercial clients. Our mission is to deliver secure, high-impact solutions that support national objectives and operational resilience. We are currently seeking a Senior Data Modeler with 5 to 10+ years of experience to support an existing federal customer, contingent upon contract award.

This role will support the design, development, and optimization of enterprise-scale data models using the Databricks platform in AWS environments. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in data architecture, ELT processes, and performance optimization while applying industry best practices for data governance, compliance, and cloud-based analytics.

Responsibilities

·        Design and implement conceptual, logical, and physical data models within AWS-hosted Databricks environments, optimized for scalability and performance.

·        Work closely with product owners, data engineers, system architects, and vendors to ensure data models meet compute, storage, and query performance goals.

·        Develop and optimize ELT pipelines to extract, transform, and load data from heterogeneous sources (databases, APIs, files) into Databricks.

·        Define and document Bronze/Silver/Gold lakehouse architecture layers, following best practices for modular data lake implementation.

·        Author and maintain detailed data model artifacts, including data dictionaries, definitions, lineage documentation, and version control.

·        Implement and enforce data governance and security policies, ensuring compliance with FedRAMP, FISMA, and other federal regulations.

·        Write and optimize advanced SQL queries and Spark code (Scala/Python) for large-scale data manipulation, aggregation, and analysis in Databricks notebooks.

·        Leverage performance optimization techniques such as partitioning, caching, clustering, and Spark tuning to enhance processing efficiency.

·        Apply knowledge of AWS architecture and cloud-native tools to ensure reliability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness in data product delivery.

·        Collaborate across cross-functional teams to ensure that data modeling aligns with business domain needs, especially in financial services contexts.

·        Contribute to basic data visualization efforts and support dashboard development using tools like Tableau for stakeholder insights.

 Required Qualifications

·        5 to 10+ years of experience in data modeling, data science, or software/data engineering with strong knowledge of modern data ecosystems.

·        Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent combination of education and experience).

·        Expertise in Databricks on AWS, including use of Databricks SQL, Runtime, clusters, and notebooks.

·        Proven ability to build enterprise-scale data models across multiple domains, particularly in regulated industries.

·        Advanced experience developing Spark-based pipelines, ELT frameworks, and data integrations from diverse sources.

·        Strong understanding of data governance, security protocols, and compliance with federal standards.

·        Demonstrated skill in SQL, Spark (Scala or Python), and large-scale data transformation.

·        Familiarity with AWS services relevant to data platforms (e.g., S3, Glue, Redshift, IAM, EMR).

·        Knowledge of federal cloud deployment compliance, including FedRAMP and FISMA.

 Preferred Qualifications

·        Experience designing lakehouse architectures using modular staging (Bronze/Silver/Gold layers).

·        Understanding of financial systems or domain-specific data requirements.

·        Basic experience with data visualization platforms like Tableau or Power BI.

·        Experience mentoring junior team members or leading cross-functional data initiatives.

Who Should Apply

This role is ideal for data architects, senior data engineers, or experienced data scientists with deep technical knowledge in Databricks and cloud-native data ecosystems. If you enjoy transforming complex data environments into efficient, scalable, and compliant architectures—and want to influence high-impact government programs—we encourage you to apply. We are looking for systems thinkers with strong technical skills, domain awareness, and a passion for clean data design.