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# Data Lead (Defense)

- **Company:** Air Inc
- **Location:** United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Airflow, Data Infrastructure, Software Debugging, Protocol Buffers, JSON, Network Protocols, Operational Data Store, Extensible Markup Language (XML), Apache Spark, HybridCloud, Firewalls (Computer Science), Kubernetes, Apache Flink, Apache Kafka, Graphql, Api Design
- **Published:** September 4, 2026
- **Apply:** https://startup.jobs/data-lead-defense-air-space-intelligence-8294941

## About the Role

* Demonstrated ability to debug data: profiling, anomaly detection, reconciling sources, and separating signal from noise while cross-validating.
 * Strong technical communication skills: you can explain what the data is doing, what it means, what is broken, why it matters, and what engineering should change.
 * Comfort with distributed messaging and processing (Kafka, Flink, Spark, or equivalents) and modern orchestration (Airflow, Dagster, Temporal, or similar).
 * Strong grasp of API design and integration patterns (REST, gRPC, GraphQL) and experience working across a range of data formats and wire-level protocols (JSON, XML, Protobuf, and binary protocols like JREAP-C or CMF-B).
 * Working knowledge of modern network protocols, firewalls, system level connections, cross-system authentication, and an enthusiasm to get data flowing.
 * Familiarity with defense operational data and mission systems, with an appreciation for delayed reporting, inconsistent identifiers, changing semantics, and obscure edge cases.
 * Comfort operating in classified network environments (e.g., SIPR, JWICS) and working within accreditation boundaries (IL5/IL6, ATO processes).
 * Experience deploying data infrastructure on Kubernetes and across hybrid cloud and on-prem environments.
 * A bias for action and distinct aptitude for problem solving in ambiguous environments.
 * Active SECRET or TOP SECRET U.S. Security Clearance.

## Description

* Strong fluency with modern data engineering tooling and patterns: streaming and batch pipelines, schema evolution, data contracts, and lineage.


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