he Aspen Group (TAG) is one of the largest and most trusted retail healthcare business support organizations in the U.S., supporting over 23,000 healthcare professionals and team members at more than 1,150 locations across 48 states. Our five supported healthcare practices operate under the brands Aspen Dental, ClearChoice, WellNow, Chapter Aesthetic Studio, and Lovet. We’re committed to enabling healthcare professionals to focus on patient care while we handle the business operations that support them.
As part of our continued investment in data-driven innovation, we are looking for a Senior Data Engineer to join our growing team. In this high-impact role, you will architect and build the data backbone that powers our next-generation scheduling platforms and patient demand forecasting models. You will move beyond traditional reporting to build "intelligence pipelines"—systems that ingest real-time operational data, feed advanced optimization algorithms, and write actionable insights back into clinical workflows.
If you are passionate about using data to reduce patient wait times, optimize provider utilization, and ensure the right resources are available at the right time, this is the role for you.
How You'll Operate
- Own the system, not just the task. The job is not building a pipeline someone else specified. It is deciding what to build — sourcing, movement, storage, structure — and making it run reliably at scale.
- Choose deliberately. ETL vs. ELT, batch vs. streaming, dimensional vs. wide. You should be able to explain why you chose one for a given data volume, latency requirement, and tool stack. Defaulting to a single approach because it is the one you know is not senior work.
- Translate for the room. You can explain to a non-engineer why you recommend Option A over Option B and what is given up either way. "It's best practice" is not an answer; "compared to what, and why" is.
- Bring the plan. You propose an approach and defend it rather than waiting to be told what to do. You surface risks and ask the clarifying questions up front, before they become rework.
Key Responsibilities
Hybrid Pipeline Architecture (Batch & Streaming)
- Design event-driven pipelines that ingest live patient interactions to power real-time inference to be able to calculate various propensity scores depending on the stage of patient journey
- Batch Processing: Maintain scalable batch processes for time-series analysis and other advanced statistical analysis as well as ML/LLM models that require heavy historical data aggregation and feature engineering
- Patient Clustering: Build pipelines that aggregate clinical and behavioral attributes to support unsupervised learning (clustering) for patient segmentation which then might be used for different business use cases from scheduling to marketing
- Scheduling Optimization: You will transform raw availability data into clean inputs for linear programming and constraint optimization solvers.
- Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical specifications for ML solutions.
System Architecture & Observability
- Collaborate with Data Scientists and Operations Researchers to deploy forecasting and optimization models into production.
- Build Feature Stores that serve consistent features to both training and inference environments.
- Ensure the "reverse ETL" of model outputs—writing optimized schedules and recommended appointment slots back into operational systems for front-line staff to use.
Collaboration & Mentorship
- Create clear, comprehensive documentation and support guides for newly implemented tools.
- Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers and data scientists.
- Stay current with advances in machine learning, data engineering, and software development, implementing industry best practices for reliability and maintainability.
Qualifications
Experience:
- 5+ years of Data Engineering experience with a focus on Python and complex SQL.
- Cloud Data Platform Mastery: Deep experience with AWS (Glue, Lambda, Kinesis), Azure (Data Factory, Synapse), or GCP (Dataflow, BigQuery).
- Workflow Orchestration: Advanced proficiency with tools like Apache Airflow, Prefect, or Dagster.
- Data Modeling: Experience designing dimensional models (Star Schema) and "One Big Table" structures for analytical performance.
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or related technical field.
- Experience with scheduling, optimization algorithms, or decision-support systems.
- Forecasting Knowledge: Familiarity with time-series data preparation (handling seasonality, lag features, moving averages).
- Familiarity with responsible AI practices and governance.
*This role is onsite 4 days/week in our Chicago office (Fulton Market District)
- A generous benefits package that includes paid time off, health, dental, vision, and 401(k) savings plan with match
- Salary: $129,000-152,000/year
Skills Required
- 5+ years of data engineering experience focused on Python and complex SQL
- Deep experience with at least one major cloud data platform: AWS Glue, Lambda, and Kinesis; Azure Data Factory and Synapse; or GCP Dataflow and BigQuery
- Advanced proficiency with workflow orchestration tools such as Apache Airflow, Prefect, or Dagster
- Experience designing dimensional models, including Star Schema and One Big Table structures
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
- Experience with scheduling, optimization algorithms, or decision-support systems
- Familiarity with time-series data preparation, including seasonality, lag features, and moving averages
- Familiarity with responsible AI practices and governance
TAG - The Aspen Group Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about TAG - The Aspen Group and has not been reviewed or approved by TAG - The Aspen Group.
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Healthcare Strength — Multiple medical plan choices with defined costs, HSA support, and accessible plan documents indicate a robust health offering. Distinctive features like GLP‑1 coverage on the HSA plan and clear SBCs add clarity for election decisions.
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Retirement Support — A clearly outlined 401(k) program features an immediately vested employer match with explicit eligibility timing. Consistent references to the plan and enrollment resources across brand sites underscore ease of access.
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Affordable Benefits — Dental-care discounts through the Aspen Dental network—free preventive services and reduced rates for procedures—help lower out‑of‑pocket costs. Additional perks like brand discounts and pet insurance can further stretch total value for some roles.
TAG - The Aspen Group Insights
What We Do
When we helped launch Aspen Dental, we set out to break down the barriers that made it hard for patients to keep up with their dental health — affordability, transparency, and access. We knew the key to better patient care started with the provider, so we changed how the dental business worked. We built new relationships, expertise, and tools to help dentists run their businesses more effectively and better care for their patients. Fast forward, and over 25 years later, we support more than 1000 Aspen Dental locations—by doing so, we are proud to say we have changed access to dental care nationwide. But there’s more work to do. Healthier, happier smiles were just our beginning. We came together to launch TAG – The Aspen Group, officially expanding beyond dental and embracing a new vision. By bringing together Aspen Dental, Chapter, ClearChoice, WellNow, and Lovet into one family of brands, we set out to achieve one simple goal together: to bring better healthcare to more people - because we believe in a future where health and wellness is accessible for all. With that mission in mind, TAG now supports over 5,300 clinicians across more than 1,400 locations. While our vision is now broader, how we achieve it remains the same. The best care starts with the provider - and TAG exists to power them so they can meet patients where they are, no matter their specialty, and deliver better care. Because we know that at the end of the day, better healthcare is simple — empower the provider and their teams, and the rest will follow. United as one group, we’re not just breaking down barriers; today, we’re breaking through. We’re challenging the status quo. Together, we can prove healthcare can be better for both providers and patients. Together, we can bring better healthcare to more people.
Why Work With Us
TAG - The Aspen Group employs and/or supports over 25,000 healthcare professionals and team members at more than 1,400 health and wellness offices across 46 states in four distinct categories: Dental care, urgent care, medical aesthetics, and animal health. Every day we wake up to empower providers to do what they do best: focus on the patient.
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