The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

As part of the IT Enterprise Data Solutions (EDS) department, the Data Infrastructure team’s mission is to lead on data technology and utilization, enabling informed decision-making, knowledge management, and strategic insights across the Foundation. We are committed to providing a robust, secure, and scalable data platform that enables data-driven initiatives and cultivates collaboration. Working with our business operations and Foundation strategy program partners, the team supports the management of on-premises and cloud data infrastructure, data security and access controls, and the EDS technology stack and roadmaps.

Note: We are looking for a data platform engineer who specializes in data security.

Your Role

You will help build a Zero-Trust Enterprise Data Platform (EDP) with a focus on building multi-layered security at the platform and data level (in transit and storage level). The role will integrate EDP with existing or new metadata management and data governance platforms, develop automation for exchange of metadata in our data ecosystem and create standard governance processes. You will define and develop data sharing capabilities with internal and external users. You will grow and optimize our data security practices working with InfoSec, data privacy and legal teams. As an authority on cloud data infrastructure and data security, you enjoy innovating and building core capabilities from the ground up. You will work with a team consisting of business partners, business and data analysts, solution architects, data architects, data and infrastructure engineers, quality engineers and other technical roles in an Agile delivery environment.

What You'll Do

• Lead the setup and configuration of cloud-based infrastructure, primarily focusing on Azure. Design and implement scalable, efficient solutions that align with the foundation’s governed cloud strategy. 

• Develop data security controls for the data lifecycle including data lakes, data warehouse, data marts and databases. Ensure data is stored securely, efficiently, and is easily accessible for analytics, data sharing and reporting.

• Build data classification solution to classify sensitive data during the ingestion process , automate export/import metadata to and from the Data Governance platform.

• Continuously monitor and optimize the performance of data infrastructure components. Identify bottlenecks and implement improvements to improve system efficiency.

• Implement data security standard processes to safeguard sensitive data. Ensure compliance with foundation information security policies, data privacy regulations and policies, such as GDPR or HIPAA.

• Collaborate with data architects, business systems analysts, and customers to understand their infrastructure and data security requirements and provide vital support

• Automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration using Infrastructure as Code ( IaC ) tools like Terraform, enabling reproducibility and scalability.

• Data platform architecture, system design, and platform engineering of Azure cloud infrastructure, ADLS Gen2, ADF, Event Hub, Kafka, Databricks, SQL Server and Snowflake.

• Develop and build solutions at the platform and data level for protecting sensitive data using techniques such as network security, access control, RBAC, policies, anonymization, data minimization, data masking and/or encryption.

• Build and maintain comprehensive documentation for data security and data governance process.

• Implement robust monitoring and alerting to proactively audit sensitive data usage.

• Participate in problem and Incident triage, investigate, and resolve infrastructure-related issues promptly.

• Work on planning and forecasting to ensure that infrastructure resources are appropriately allocated to meet current and future data processing needs.

• Stay up-to-date with emerging cloud technologies, standard processes, and industry trends to ensure the data infrastructure remains innovative and driven.

• Participate in agile development practices, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, and design reviews. 

• Evaluate new tools, technologies and platforms through rapid POC’s .

Your Experience

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• 5+ years of experience in data infrastructure or related roles, with a focus on designing and maintaining data infrastructure.

• 5+ years of experience in C#, .Net , Python, Azure Function, and Terraform.

• Experience in using and developing frameworks to secure sensitive data is required .

• Demonstrable experience and knowledge with the architecture, design and settings of Azure cloud data services.

• Experience with automated infrastructure provisioning, using industry standard tools such as Terraform.

• Experience in cloud governance practices via Azure Policy, Azure Arc, and monitoring/logging services.

• CISSP and/or CIPP certification is preferred.

• Experience with Data Governance platforms such as Collibra or Alation is highly desirable.

• Deep understanding of data security practices, access controls, encryption, and compliance.

• Experience in implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) solutions for data pipelines and databases, ensuring automated testing, deployment, and monitoring processes. Experience with Azure Kubernetes, GitHub, Harness / Drone CI , or Azure DevOPS required .

• Data Observability experience with one or more of New Relic, Azure Monitor, Datadog or Dynatrace desired

• Demonstrable ability to quickly respond to incidents by assessing the situation, lead incident triage, solve issues, and providing immediate short-term solutions. Capable of formulating and implementing medium and long-term strategies to prevent similar incidents in the future.

• Experience with Agile, Scrum, and Jira required .

• Experience supporting and working with multi-functional teams in a dynamic environment.

• Excellent leadership, communication, and collaboration skills.

• A dedication to diversity, equality, and inclusion, confirmed through past experiences or initiatives.

  Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

The salary range for this role is $137,500 to $206,200 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences where our offices are located, in Seattle, Washington D.C., and Boston (Cambridge). The range for this role in these locations is $149,800 to $224,600 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission and new hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/) works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.