Data Reliability Engineer

Our vision for the future is based on the idea that transforming financial lives starts by giving our people the freedom to transform their own. We have a flexible work environment, and fluid career paths. We not only encourage but celebrate internal mobility. We also recognize the importance of purpose, well-being, and work-life balance. Within Empower and our communities, we work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, and our associates dedicate thousands of hours to volunteering for causes that matter most to them.

Chart your own path and grow your career while helping more customers achieve financial freedom. Empower Yourself.

***Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time, including CPT/OPT.***

The Data Reliability Engineer will own the reliability, stability, and operational excellence of an AWS-based data platform. This role will operate, troubleshoot, and improve production data systems to ensure data pipelines and analytics platforms are resilient, performant, and meet business-critical SLAs. The Data Reliability Engineer will work closely with data and platform engineering teams to diagnose issues, resolve production incidents, and improve design and operational practices across the data ecosystem.

What you will do:

• Own the reliability and stability of production data pipelines and data platform services.
• Define, improve, and enforce data SLAs/SLOs for batch and streaming products, including freshness, latency, and completeness.
• Diagnose and resolve data pipeline failures, delays, and data quality issues in production environments.
• Investigate issues across distributed data systems, including Spark/EMR workloads, ingestion pipelines, and warehouse performance.
• Lead or support incident response, including triage, mitigation, and long-term resolution.
• Perform root cause analysis and implement durable fixes to prevent recurrence.
• Design and enhance monitoring, alerting, and observability for data systems.
• Develop automation and tooling to reduce operational toil and improve system resilience.
• Contribute to disaster recovery and resiliency planning, including backup validation and recovery workflows.
• Partner with engineering teams to improve pipeline design, reliability, and operational readiness.
• Create and maintain runbooks, Standard Operating Procedures, and operational documentation.
• Participate in occasional off-hours support for production data systems when required.

What you will bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or analytics platform roles, including 3+ years operating in a production cloud data warehouse environment such as Redshift or Snowflake.
• 3+ years of experience building AWS data pipelines and supporting them through production, including exposure to real-world failures and operational challenges.
• 3+ years of experience working with production data platforms in AWS environments, with a focus on anomaly detection, reconciliation, and end-to-end validation.
• 3+ years of experience with Python and SQL in real data systems.
• Hands-on experience troubleshooting distributed data processing systems such as Spark/EMR, Redshift, and streaming systems.
• Proven ability to debug and resolve production issues in data pipelines and data platforms.
• Experience with AWS data services such as EMR, Redshift, DynamoDB, S3, or similar.
• Proven ability to handle production incidents and perform root cause analysis.
• Strong problem-solving mindset and ability to work through ambiguous production issues.

What will set you apart:

• Experience handling real-world data issues such as pipeline delays or failures.
• Experience with data backfills and reprocessing.
• Experience with late-arriving data or incomplete datasets.
• Experience improving observability and alerting specifically for data systems.
• Experience influencing or guiding data pipeline reliability and operational practices.
• Exposure to streaming or event-driven systems such as Kafka, Kinesis, and CDC patterns.
• Experience with disaster recovery, backup validation, and resiliency testing.
• Strong communication during incidents with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Prior FinOps or capacity-planning ownership for data platforms.
• Familiarity with BI semantic layers and contract enforcement at consumption, including Looker, Power BI, or Tableau.

This job operates in a professional office environment.

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications of the job. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. You will be evaluated in part based on your performance of the responsibilities and/or tasks listed in this job description. You may be required to perform other duties that are not included on this job description. The job description is not a contract for employment, and either you or the employer may terminate employment at any time, for any reason, as per terms and conditions of your employment contract.

What we offer you

We offer an array of diverse and inclusive benefits regardless of where you are in your career. We believe that providing our employees with the means to lead healthy balanced lives results in the best possible work performance.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• Retirement savings – 401(k) plan with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%), financial advisory services, potential company discretionary contribution, and a broad investment lineup
• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year
• Business-casual environment that includes the option to wear jeans
• Generous paid time off upon hire – including a paid time off program plus ten paid company holidays and three floating holidays each calendar year
• Paid volunteer time — 16 hours per calendar year
• Leave of absence programs – including paid parental leave, paid short- and long-term disability, and Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
• Business Resource Groups (BRGs) –  BRGs facilitate inclusion and collaboration across our business internally and throughout the communities where we live, work and play. BRGs are open to all.

Base Salary Range

$87,400.00 - $123,400.00

The salary range above shows the typical minimum to maximum base salary range for this position in the location listed. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation offered may vary from posted hiring range based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.

Equal opportunity employer •  Drug-free workplace

We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity.  All individuals, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age (40 and over), race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, religion, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable state or local law. 

***For remote and hybrid positions you will be required to provide reliable high-speed internet with a wired connection as well as a place in your home to work with limited disruption. You must have reliable connectivity from an internet service provider that is fiber, cable or DSL internet. Other necessary computer equipment, will be provided. You may be required to work in the office if you do not have an adequate home work environment and the required internet connection.***

Job Posting End Date at 12:01 am on:

07-06-2026

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