Senior Data Engineer

ABOUT THE JOB

The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Senior Data Engineer in the Technology Department of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month. 

The ACLU Technology Department is a broad umbrella covering both the ACLU’s Analytics and its Product & Engineering teams, two robust and innovative divisions that power the work of the ACLU. The department provides trusted, dependable, and impactful analytics, engineering, as well as product management and product design expertise for the ACLU. In partnership with experts across the ACLU, the technology team delivers best-in-class solutions, services, and innovation that advance the ACLU mission and organizational priorities. The tech team strives to ensure the ACLU leads by example in the ethical use of technology by ensuring privacy and security standards are maintained, directional insights are used to inform programming and business strategy, best-in-class products are designed to get the ACLU message out into the world and grow the ACLU supporter base, as well as to help steward high standards for algorithmic fairness, accountability, and transparency.  

The Product & Engineering division includes engineers, product managers, product designers, and project operations experts who build and maintain engaging digital products and secure technical systems that accelerate the ACLU’s mission as our nationwide guardian of rights and liberties. 

This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).

WHAT YOU'LL DO 

Reporting to the Director of Data Engineering, the Senior Data Engineer will join the Data Pod, which leads the ACLU’s operational data engineering efforts. In this role, you will build and maintain data products and integrations between our operational data warehouse and broader technology ecosystem. Your work will ensure that the ACLU and its affiliates can execute fundraising, advocacy, and engagement strategies while prioritizing data privacy and security. 

The ideal candidate is a senior-level software or data engineer with significant experience building large-scale, high-volume data products and storage solutions that address complex data and compliance requirements. 

YOUR DAY TO DAY

• Design, build, test, deploy, and maintain multi-source, multi-destination data pipelines and products 
• Work primarily within Dagster, dbt, and the AWS ecosystem, with a strong understanding of the data models, APIs, and operational constraints of our systems and integrations 
• Play a key role in the design and implementation of a centralized communications consent management system with a focus on privacy compliance, performance, and extensibility 
• Support the migration of our primary fundraising CRM, with a focus on data integrations between Blackbaud CRM and the broader technology ecosystem 
• Collaborate closely with engineers and product management to refine technical requirements and translate business objectives into scalable data solutions  
• Participate actively in technical design discussions, balancing pragmatism, maintainability, reliability, and delivery timelines  
• Proactively identify and mitigate reliability and performance issues; independently investigate, troubleshoot, and resolve complex bugs and operational challenges 
• Contribute to agile team processes, including sprint planning, ticket refinement, code reviews, testing, documentation, and release support  
• Mentor engineers and contribute to the growth of the team’s technical expertise through collaboration, technical guidance, and knowledge sharing 
• Help foster a culture of continuous learning, thoughtful iteration, and engineering excellence 

FUTURE ACLU'ERS WILL 

• Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
• Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion, and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
• Be committed to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and conflicts

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• Significant professional experience operating with a high degree of technical ownership and autonomy in a collaborative engineering environment, including improving engineering practices, standards, or team processes  
• Significant experience working with Python and AWS to build and maintain data products and services  
• Experience implementing automated data validation and quality assurance practices within product data pipelines 
• Experience integrating data of varying formats, quality, and volume within cloud data warehouse platforms (e.g., Redshift, Snowflake) 
• Experience orchestrating data pipelines using modern workflow frameworks (e.g., Dagster, Airflow) 
• Experience developing and maintaining data transformation workflows using modern tooling (e.g., dbt, pandas) 
• Experience deploying and managing applications and services in a cloud environment (e.g., AWS, Azure) using infrastructure-as-code tooling (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation) 
• Experience working with both event-driven and batch-processing architectures 
• Strong understanding of software and data engineering best practices, including observability, testing, maintainability, and operational reliability 
• Strong communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills 

Preferred

• Experience working with Blackbaud CRM or other fundraising CRMs within a nonprofit environment
• Experience integrating CRM, marketing, advocacy, or digital engagement platforms in complex organizational environments 
• Experience managing AWS infrastructure or administering AWS environments 
• Experience building or supporting systems related to legal, regulatory, or privacy compliance requirements  
• Experience working with identity resolution, entity matching, or constituent data management systems 

COMPENSATION

WHY THE ACLU

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

We know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and know that what we offer is essential not just to their work, but to their overall well-being. 

At the ACLU, we offer a broad range of benefits, which include:

• Time away to focus on the things that matter with a generous paid time-off policy
• Focus on your well-being with comprehensive healthcare benefits (including medical, dental and vision coverage, parental leave, gender affirming care & fertility treatment)
• Plan for your retirement with 401(k) plan and employer match
• We support employee growth and development through annual professional development funds, internal professional development programs and workshops

OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCESSIBILITY, EQUITY, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change.  We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression, anti-ableism, and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.    

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email benefits.hrdept@aclu.org. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.

The Department of Education has determined that employment in this position at the ACLU does not qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.