Data Engineer for Asset Management

The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) is a political subdivision established by Chapter 1230 of the 2020 Acts of Assembly. VPRA is responsible for promoting, sustaining, and expanding the availability of passenger and commuter rail services in the Commonwealth, including all administrative and fiduciary responsibilities for Virginia's state-supported passenger rail services. The VPRA also funds Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and administers all capital expansion projects, infrastructure, and land acquisitions related to the $3.7 billion Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative, which will double Amtrak and VRE service in Virginia over the next decade. The VPRA acts as a "responsible public entity" for the acquisition, construction, improvement, maintenance, or operation, or any combination thereof, of a "qualifying transportation facility" under the Public­ Private Partnership Act of 1995. ***Are you a data engineering professional looking to build intelligent, asset-focused data solutions?*** If so, VPRA is looking for you! The Program Management team is seeking a Data Engineer to provide expert analytical support and transform complex data into business intelligence tools that enhance asset decision‑making. Reporting to the Asset Management Senior Manager, this role focuses on developing and maintaining database architecture, GIS solutions, and data visualization tools for VPRA's large and dynamic rail infrastructure program. This new position will play a key technical role in creating data‑driven asset management systems, including backend databases and user‑facing interfaces, as well as supporting the development of GIS‑based Enterprise Asset Management tools for new and existing assets. The Data Engineer will collaborate closely with Engineering and Construction, Planning, IT, and Rail Services teams, serving as VPRA's subject‑matter expert in asset‑focused data solutions. *This full-time position may be based in Alexandria or Richmond, Virginia.* **Responsibilities** - Build, automate, deploy, and support software solutions for the purposes of asset management using contemporary programming practices and DevOps methods; use Git effectively; participate in code reviews; and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver resilient, maintainable applications. - Contribute to the improvement and development of operational workflows. - Design, implement, and maintain secure, efficient, and scalable database solutions for asset management data, including creating logical and physical data models, query optimization, and automation. - Implement and maintain data integration processes (ETL/ELT pipelines, data imports/exports) utilizing relevant languages, use version control for database scripts, automate deployment workflows, and ensure all database work meets and follows VPRA's security and compliance standards - Provide technical oversight and quality review for contractors on the EAM development team, guide decisions related to data architecture and tech stack, and serve as a liaison with the Asset Management Senior Manager. - Mine, translate, and prepare data sources to determine what data is available on new or conveyed assets; convert data into usable tables or geospatial data, and integrate the new data into the asset management databases. - Develop, oversee, and maintain extract, translate, load (ETL) processes for various data sources and execute that process or modify it as needed when new assets require data extraction. - Support the creation of business processes and workflows for asset data collection or handover; identify automation opportunities; ensure efficiency and quality of results; and contribute to streamlining or improving existing workflows that enhance efficiency and quality. - Transform raw data into meaningful information using data-oriented programming languages and visualization software; support testing of data mining, modeling, natural language processing, and machine learning techniqu…