Senior/Principal Data Engineer

Waymark is a mission-driven team of healthcare providers, technologists, and builders working to transform care for people with Medicaid benefits. They are seeking a highly experienced Data Engineer to lead the design, development, and optimization of data pipelines that integrate clinical data from diverse EHR and payer systems. This role combines deep backend engineering fundamentals with specialized expertise in EHR data integration.

Responsibilities:

• Architect production-grade data pipelines that integrate clinical data through multiple channels—direct EHR connections (e.g., Epic, Cerner, Athenahealth), health information exchanges (HIEs), health alliance networks, and third-party integration vendors—via FHIR R4 APIs, HL7v2 feeds, CCDA documents, and bulk data exports, while enforcing healthcare standards and clinical terminologies (ICD-10, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm), targeting sub-hour latency from clinical event to actionable insight and ≥99.9% pipeline reliability
• Lead end-to-end integration efforts with health plan partners, HIEs, health alliance networks, provider organizations, and data integration vendors—owning partner technical evaluation, connectivity, data mapping, validation, and production rollout
• Build and optimize cloud-native data infrastructure (AWS) and ETL/ELT workflows using modern orchestration tools (e.g., Step Functions, dbt) with robust data quality monitoring and lineage tracking
• Develop reusable backend frameworks, libraries, and internal tooling that accelerate onboarding of new data sources—whether direct EHR feeds, HIE connections, or vendor integrations—with the goal of reducing new-partner integration time by 50% or more while improving developer productivity and reducing operational toil across engineering
• Partner with data science and data analytics teams to build and operationalize the data foundations for predictive risk scores, care gap identification, clinical alerting, and patient outreach prioritization
• Collaborate with product and clinical teams to translate care delivery requirements into scalable, production-grade technical solutions and influence
• Ensure all data systems comply with HIPAA, HITECH, and applicable privacy regulations, implementing access controls, audit logging, encryption, and de-identification processes for PHI
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers across Waymark, raising the bar on healthcare data best practices

Requirements:

• Significant software engineering experience with substantial focus on healthcare data engineering or EHR integration (Senior: 5+ years; Principal: 8+ years)
• Expert-level proficiency in Python (required) and experience in at least one compiled or concurrent language (such as Elixir)
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud computing, and backend system design: API architecture (REST), microservices, event-driven systems, message queues (RabbitMQ), caching strategies, and distributed systems patterns
• Strong background in data modeling, schema design, performance optimization, and both relational (PostgreSQL) and columnar/analytical databases (Redshift)
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (e.g., Docker (required), Kubernetes)
• Design data integration systems resilient to inconsistent, incomplete, and delayed clinical data across heterogeneous EHRs and payer systems either directly or through HIEs, health alliance networks, or integration vendors, using FHIR APIs, HL7v2 interfaces, or CCDA parsing
• Strong experience in mapping/normalizing healthcare standards such as ICD-10, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Demonstrated track record of setting technical direction for complex platforms and influencing engineering strategy across multiple teams
• Comfort operating as a principal IC with broad influence and without direct reports—shaping roadmaps, standards, and architectural decisions
• History of leading the most ambiguous or highest-risk integration efforts end-to-end, including partner-facing technical leadership
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
• Experience working in value-based care, population health, or Medicaid/Medicare data environments
• Experience with ML/AI frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and MLOps practices for healthcare applications