Data Engineer (Contract)

Job description

Protect Democracy seeks highly motivated data engineers to join our data & engineering team on a contract basis for three months , with potential for conversion to full-time employee. While we welcome a range of working arrangements, we will prioritize candidates who are interested in and able to join the team full-time after a successful contract period. We’re looking for someone who is excited to grow with the team and contribute to Protect Democracy’s mission over the long term.

An ideal candidate has a minimum of eight years of software engineering experience , comfort with some or all of the tasks listed below, and the flexibility to start immediately.

Applicants must be able to devote at least 20 hours per week beginning no later than November 3rd, 2025 (and preferably even earlier). The engineers will work between 20-40 hours per week on substantive engineering projects such as:

• Architecting, building, and deploying large-scale, production-ready ETL frameworks from the ground up using Python — candidates must show a history of successfully handling pipelines that ingest a high volume of diverse and frequently changing data sources;

• Writing exceptionally clean, modular, and reusable code— candidates should have a portfolio or can speak to past projects that showcase the creation of scalable, maintainable, and extensible data processing components;

• Developing robust automated testing suites (unit, integration, and end-to-end) to ensure data integrity and pipeline reliability — candidates must be proficient in creating clear and comprehensive technical documentation for complex systems;

• Designing and implementing efficient and scalable data models — candidates must have solid, hands-on experience working with relational databases, specifically Postgres, including advanced SQL, query optimization, and performance tuning.
  

We welcome applicants with significantly more experience than the minimum listed (8 years), and importantly we are seeking applicants with strong commitment to our mission of preventing our democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government . We will pay an hourly rate of $120-$150 per hour, depending on experience.

At Protect Democracy, we believe that a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences strengthen our ability to analyze problems, craft solutions, and drive meaningful change. We are established for remote work in many states across the country, and while candidates based anywhere in the United States are welcome to apply , we may not be able to offer full-time employment in your current location. If you proceed in the process, we will discuss where you currently live and what is possible.

We will begin interviewing on October 27th, 2025 and proceed on a rolling basis — interested candidates should apply as soon as possible. To apply for this contract position, please complete the application linked below. You will be asked to upload your resume as a PDF and answer a few screening questions. Applications missing any of the required materials will be considered incomplete and not reviewed.

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