Metadata Specialist

Position Summary

Metadata Specialist / Catalog Engineer will help the FAA make its data easy to find, understand, and trust. Will join a team that supports the FAA Chief Data Office's Enterprise Information and Data Integration Program.

Will run and improve the FAA Data Governance Center, the agency's enterprise data catalog. Work includes catalog workflows, automated metadata ingestion, data lineage, and access policy synchronization across the FAA's cloud data platform. Will work with data engineers, data stewards, and FAA staff across many lines of business.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide Tier 2/3 support for data catalog and metadata management requests, meeting defined response and resolution times.
• Design, test, and deploy custom governance workflows, promoting them through development, staging, and production.
• Build and maintain automated metadata ingestion, technical lineage, and API integrations with source systems.
• Catalog new and updated tables and columns with business and technical descriptions, owners, update schedules, and lineage.
• Restructure catalog communities and domains to match the organization, and remove orphaned or duplicate assets.
• Help synchronize role-based and attribute-based access policies across AWS databases, Starburst, and Palantir Foundry using Privacera and Apache Ranger APIs.
• Manage business glossaries, data registries, and reference data such as code lists and enumerations.
• Apply aviation data exchange standards, including AIXM, FIXM, WIXM, and NIEM.
• Support taxonomy and ontology development for designated business domains.
• Track metadata quality with dashboards and KPIs, and contribute to metadata quality reports.
• Write clear documentation, runbooks, and training materials, and help lead user training sessions.
• Support security requirements, including remediation of vulnerabilities on catalog components.
  

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information or Library Science, or a related field. Four additional years of relevant experience may substitute for the degree.
• 5 or more years of experience in metadata management, data governance, or data cataloging.
• 3 or more years of hands-on work with an enterprise data catalog, such as Collibra, Alation, Informatica, or Microsoft Purview.
• Experience building catalog workflows and automated metadata or lineage integrations.
• Working knowledge of SQL, REST APIs, and a scripting language such as Python or Groovy.
• Understanding of data modeling (conceptual, logical, and physical) and ETL/ELT concepts.
• Experience with AWS data services, such as S3, Glue, and Redshift.
• Strong writing skills and ability to explain technical topics to business users.
• Ability to meet FAA contractor suitability requirements and pass a background investigation.
  

Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

• Collibra certification, such as Collibra Ranger, Data Steward, or Workflow Engineer.
• Experience with Privacera or Apache Ranger access policies.
• Experience with Starburst/Trino, Palantir Foundry, or Snowflake.
• Knowledge of aviation data standards (AIXM, FIXM, WIXM) or NIEM.
• Experience building taxonomies, ontologies, or knowledge graphs.
• Familiarity with DAMA-DMBOK, and a DAMA CDMP certification.
• Prior support of federal civilian agencies, especially FAA or DOT.
• Familiarity with Agile delivery and tools such as Jira and Confluence.
  

Scope Infotech offers all employees the following benefits: 

• Health Insurance (medical, dental, vision)
• Retirement Savings Plans (401K)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick Leave, Holidays)
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
• Insurance (Life, Short/Long Term Disability, AD&D)
• Employee Referral Bonus

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to use hands or fingers, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.

Note

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) incumbent in this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the incumbents will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities.