Data Engineer, Lead
Booz Allen Hamilton
McLean, VA · $78k–$176k a year · Posted October 16, 2026
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Where McLean, VA ranks
Where McLean, VA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in the Mid-Atlantic79 / 100 · of 37
- #1Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in the Southeast78 / 100 · of 33
- #1Best all-round cities for AI careers in the Southeast91 / 100 · of 33
- #2Best cities for AI-skill jobs in the Southeast17% · of 87
- #2Best all-round cities for AI careers in the Mid-Atlantic89 / 100 · of 37
- #3Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills in the Southeast10% · of 77
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
- Best cities for data and analytics jobs #1 New York (1,713 openings)
- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
- Most requested AI skills in data and analytics jobs #1 Machine learning engineering (17.1%)
- AI tools named most often in data and analytics jobs #1 Databricks (7.6%)
- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
Data & Analytics jobs · Top Data & Analytics employers · All rankings
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $126,800 a year. Across 216 open data engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $112,500 to $159,500 and the median is $135,000. That is inside the middle half of those listings, 6% below the median.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among database architects, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for database architects: 58% (high).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
Data Engineer, Lead The Opportunity:
Make enterprise data and knowledge usable, governed, and dependable for AI applications. You will design data architectures and build the pipelines, knowledge indexes, and retrieval services that ground agents in authorized enterprise information.
You will work with source-system owners and engineering teams to define data contracts, integrate structured and unstructured sources, and maintain permissions, lineage, quality, and freshness. You will own the reliability of data and retrieval services while partnering with AI Engineering on application retrieval behavior and response quality. Architect positions emphasize architecture and governance decisions, engineer positions emphasize pipeline, connector, and service implementation. Due to the nature of work performed within this facility, U.S. citizenship is required.
Join us. The world can't wait.
You Have:
Experience designing or implementing enterprise data platforms, lakehouse architectures, and integrations for structured and unstructured data
Experience in SQL and Python, with developing, testing, and operating ETL or ELT pipelines
Experience defining data models, schemas, data contracts, APIs, and access patterns that support downstream applications
Experience with data governance, source permissions, lineage, quality controls, and monitoring for freshness and availability
Knowledge of retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector indexes, and semantic or hybrid search
Ability to troubleshoot ingestion and retrieval failures and assess relevance, latency, scalability, and data quality
Ability to translate enterprise requirements into architecture decisions, integration standards, and governance patterns
Ability to implement and maintain ingestion, transformation, indexing, synchronization, and retrieval services
Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or Suitability/Fitness determination based on client requirements
Bachelor's degree
Nice If You Have:
Experience with Databricks, Spark, Delta Lake, vector databases, or comparable platforms
Experience with permission-aware retrieval, metadata enrichment, incremental ingestion, or knowledge engineering
Experience delivering reusable customer connectors and data services for production AI applications
Vetting:
Applicants selected will be subject to a government investigation and may need to meet eligibility requirements of the U.S. government client.
Compensation
At Booz Allen, we celebrate your contributions, provide you with opportunities and choices, and support your total well-being. Our offerings include health, life, disability, financial, and retirement benefits, as well as paid leave, professional development, tuition assistance, work-life programs, and dependent care. Our recognition awards program acknowledges employees for exceptional performance and superior demonstration of our values. Full-time and part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week on a regular basis are eligible to participate in Booz Allen’s benefit programs. Individuals that do not meet the threshold are only eligible for select offerings, not inclusive of health benefits. We encourage you to learn more about our total benefits by visiting the Resource page on our Careers site and reviewing Our Employee Benefits page.
Salary at Booz Allen is determined by various factors, including but not limited to location, the individual’s particular combination of education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, as well as contract-specific affordability and organizational requirements. The projected compensation range for this position is $77,600.00 to $176,000.00 (annualized USD). The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position and is just one component of Booz Allen’s total compensation package for employees. This posting will close within 90 days from the Posting Date.
Identity Statement
As part of the hiring process, we will ask you to complete an identity verification process that leverages advanced biometrics and artificial intelligence to ensure authenticity and protect against identity fraud. You are expected to be on camera during interviews and assessments. We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud.
Candidate AI Usage Policy
AI is a part of our daily work at Booz Allen, and we are committed to the responsible and ethical use of AI tools. However, we want to ensure a fair candidate process based on your own skills and knowledge. As part of this commitment, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) or other tools to assist with responses during interviews (whether in-person or virtual) is prohibited unless permission is explicitly provided .
Work Model Our people-first culture prioritizes the benefits of collaboration. To support engagement and effective communication, employees working virtually are generally expected to have their cameras on during meetings.
Remote : If this position is listed as remote, there may still be occasions when you are required to work in person at a Booz Allen or customer facility.
Hybrid : If this position is listed as hybrid, you will be expected to work from a Booz Allen or customer facility, in alignment with your leadership's expectations and the needs of the role.
Onsite : If this position is listed as onsite, work will primarily be performed full-time at a customer facility, where employees will collaborate directly with colleagues and customers as required by the role.
Commitment to Non-Discrimination
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local, or international law.