Software Data Engineering Manager

Job Description
See what you're missing. Our employees work on the world's most advanced software and electronics - from developing world-class autonomous mission management capabilities to advanced data analytics that support warfighters and the intelligence community. Spanning air, land, sea, and space, we develop the technology of tomorrow, delivered today. Drawing strength from our differences, we innovate for the future. And you can, too.
Our flexible work environment gives you the opportunity to change the world without giving up your personal life. We put our customers first, exemplified by our mission: "We Protect Those Who Protect Us®." Sound like a team you want to be part of? Come build your career with BAE Systems.
Our engineers are the lifeblood of our company, and we're more than 5,000 strong. With robust educational and career-development opportunities, your potential to grow is limitless.
The Digital Architecture Team (DAT) is seeking a highly experienced Software (Data) Engineering Manager to leads the team responsible for the lifecycle of engineering and operations data. The team designs and operates data pipelines, schemas, governance controls, databases, transformation workflows, and data-serving capabilities used by internal and external customers.
This is a player-coach role. The manager will lead engineers, set technical direction, work with stakeholders, and remain involved in architecture, delivery, and production support.
Our team has built a highly scalable, containerized gRPC microservices platform and micro-frontend web applications. You will help ensure that the data powering those systems is collected, transformed, secured, discoverable, reliable, and performant for our end customers.
Pursuant to a government contract, this position requires U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a future Secret clearance.
Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of data engineers, data analytics engineers, and business intelligence engineers.

• Set the technical direction, roadmap, architecture, and delivery priorities for data pipelines, data schemas, Protobuf models, data governance automation, database administration, and data-platform operations.

• Design and maintain data pipelines for ingestion, transformation, validation, storage, and delivery.

• Develop data schemas, Protobuf models, and data contracts that support reliable data exchange across systems.

• Implement data transformation practices using dbt or comparable tools. Establish standards for testing, documentation, lineage, data quality, and reusable transformation models.

• Establish workflow orchestration practices using Dagster or comparable tools. Ensure workflows support scheduling, dependency management, retries, backfills, observability, and incident response.

• Apply Medallion architecture principles to organize raw, refined, curated, and serving data layers.

• Design and optimize data marts for analytical workloads, including complex calculations, aggregations, dashboards, reporting, and data visualization.

• Lead PostgreSQL administration and performance optimization. This includes query analysis, index design, schema design, partitioning, maintenance, backup and recovery, reliability, security, and capacity planning.

• Work with engineering, operations, security, and customer stakeholders to define requirements and deliver usable data solutions.

• Establish standards for data governance, lifecycle management, access controls, retention, lineage, and legacy-system retirement.

• Improve production reliability through monitoring, incident response, root-cause analysis, and preventive engineering work.

• Manage project plans, staffing, budgets, priorities, and resource allocation for the team's portfolio.

• Recruit, hire, onboard, and retain data engineering talent.

• Define and use measures for delivery, quality, reliability, and team performance.

Required Education, Experience, & Skills

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, or a related technical field.

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, platform engineering, or a related discipline.

• 3+ years of technical leadership experience as an engineering manager, technical lead, or team lead.

• Experience leading and developing software or data engineering teams.

• Experience delivering data platforms or data products that include data pipelines, data models, data governance, databases, and production operations.

• Experience with data transformation, data quality, lineage, governance, lifecycle management, and retirement or modernization of legacy data solutions.

• Strong SQL and PostgreSQL experience, including query tuning, execution-plan analysis, indexing, schema and data-model design, and database maintenance.

• Experience building data marts or analytical data models for aggregation-heavy reporting, dashboards, and visualization.

• Experience designing or operating data-serving patterns such as semantic layers, governed metrics, or comparable analytical consumption models.

• Experience with cloud technologies, Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD practices.

• Strong Python experience and familiarity with C#, Protobuf, and gRPC in a production software environment.

• Experience with GitLab, CI/CD pipelines, source control, and software configuration management.

• Experience conducting code reviews and applying engineering standards that improve code quality and maintainability.

• Experience supporting production systems, resolving incidents, and preventing recurring reliability issues.

• Ability to communicate technical decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Experience planning and delivering complex technical work across multiple teams or over multiple years.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Clear written and verbal communication and ability to present technical material to varied audiences.

• Ability to work effectively with engineering, operations, security, management, and customers.

• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-moving environment.

• Experience working in Agile or Scrum teams.

• Must be able to obtain a U.S. Secret Clearance.

Preferred Education, Experience, & Skills

• Hands-on experience with dbt, including testing, documentation, lineage, and modular transformation development.

• Hands-on experience with Dagster, including asset-based orchestration, scheduling, observability, and operational workflows.

• Experience implementing Medallion architecture patterns.

• Experience implementing semantic layers or governed metrics for analytics, business intelligence, data products, or AI-enabled applications.

• Experience with Grafana, Prometheus, MinIO, and GitLab runners.

• Experience designing and operating data systems in Kubernetes environments.

• Experience with SQLAlchemy, PgAdmin, PostgreSQL extensions, high availability, or disaster recovery.

• Experience working with structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

• Experience working with senior management on technical strategy, investment decisions, and delivery tradeoffs.

• Experience mentoring junior and mid-level engineers.

Tech Stack: Python, C#, Linux, Windows, Kubernetes, Docker, GitLab, PostgreSQL, Protobuf/gRPC, dbt, Dagster
Pay Information
Full-Time Salary Range: $132962 - $226035
Please note: This range is based on our market pay structures. However, individual salaries are determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to: business considerations, local market conditions, and internal equity, as well as candidate qualifications, such as skills, education, and experience.
Employee Benefits: At BAE Systems, we support our employees in all aspects of their life, including their health and financial well-being. Regular employees scheduled to work 20+ hours per week are offered: health, dental, and vision insurance; health savings accounts; a 401(k) savings plan; disability coverage; and life and accident insurance. We also have an employee assistance program, a legal plan, and other perks including discounts on things like home, auto, and pet insurance. Our leave programs include paid time off, paid holidays, as well as other types of leave, including paid parental, military, bereavement, and any applicable federal and state sick leave. Employees may participate in the company recognition program to receive monetary or non-monetary recognition awards. Other incentives may be available based on position level and/or job specifics.
About BAE Systems, Inc.
BAE Systems, Inc. is a defense, aerospace, and security company headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with more than 40,000 employees worldwide. We serve, supply, and protect those who protect us. As one of the most geographically diverse international defense companies, we deliver a full range of products and services spanning air, land, maritime, space, and cyber, including advanced electronics, intelligence solutions, and dedicated customer support.
Our culture is performance-driven and values-led, built on curiosity, creativity, and collaboration. Purpose isn't a tagline here. It's what drives us. We're developing breakthrough technologies that defend national security and make a lasting impact on our communities and our planet. When you join BAE Systems, you're not just building a career. You're contributing to a mission that truly matters.
This position will be posted for at least 5 calendar days. The posting will remain active until the position is filled, or a qualified pool of candidates is identified.