*Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future*

Role Tile: Senior AWS Data Engineer

About the role

Design, build, and operate scalable, cloud‑native data platforms supporting batch and streaming use cases, with strong focus on governance, performance, and reliability.

Responsibilities

1. Programming

· Python: Strong hands-on experience with Python for data engineering tasks, including scripting, automation, and ETL logic development

· PySpark: Proficiency in writing and optimizing PySpark jobs for large-scale data transformations

· SQL: Advanced SQL skills for data querying, transformation logic, and stored procedure conversion from SQL Server

1. Big Data Processing Frameworks

· Apache Spark: Strong experience with Spark core concepts — RDDs, DataFrames, Datasets, partitioning, and performance tuning

· Data partitioning and optimization: Experience with data skew handling, broadcast joins, caching strategies, and Spark tuning

· AWS Services (Hands-On Experience Required)

1. AWS Glue ETL: Developing and deploying Glue jobs (Python Shell and Spark), job bookmarks, dynamic frames, and custom connectors

· AWS Glue Data Catalog: Managing databases, tables, crawlers, classifiers, and schema versioning

· AWS Lake Formation: Configuring data lake permissions, fine-grained access control, and data filtering

· AWS Step Functions: Designing and implementing state machines for ETL workflow orchestration, error handling, and retry logic

· AWS Lambda: Writing serverless functions for event-driven triggers, lightweight transformations, and pipeline utilities

· Amazon Aurora: Working with Aurora PostgreSQL compatible for relational data storage and query optimization

· Amazon DynamoDB: Designing and querying NoSQL tables

· Amazon S3: Proficiency in S3 data lake design — partitioning strategies, storage classes, lifecycle policies, and S3 event notifications

· AWS IAM: Understanding of roles, policies, and least-privilege access patterns relevant to data pipeline security

1. ETL Development & Migration

· Informatica PowerCenter (working knowledge): Ability to read and interpret Informatica workflows, sessions, mappings, and transformations to support conversion to AWS Glue

· ETL framework development: Experience building reusable, configurable ETL frameworks with logging, error handling, retry mechanisms, and metadata-driven execution

· Data pipeline design patterns: Familiarity with incremental loads, CDC (Change Data Capture), full loads, and SCD (Slowly Changing Dimensions)

· SQL Server (working knowledge): Ability to understand SQL Server schemas, stored procedures, and SSIS packages for migration analysis

5. Data Engineering Best Practices

· Data quality and validation: Implementing data quality checks, reconciliation logic, and exception handling within pipelines

· Metadata-driven frameworks: Building configurable pipelines driven by metadata stored in Aurora or DynamoDB

· Logging and observability: Integrating CloudWatch logging, custom metrics, and alerting into data pipelines

· Unit and integration testing: Writing test cases for ETL logic using frameworks such as pytest

· Version control: Proficiency with Git for source code management, branching strategies, and code reviews

What you need to have to be considered

· 8+ years in IT related role

· Strong hands on experience in AWS Cloud, SQL and Python

· Good experience with Kafka/Flink, AWS Glue and Airflow

Work model: On Site

At Cognizant, we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible, and we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is an onsite position requiring 5 days a week in a client or Cognizant office in Charlotte, NC.

The Cognizant community:
We are a high caliber team who appreciate and support one another. Our people uphold an energetic, collaborative and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive.

• Cognizant is a global community with more than 300,000 associates around the world.
• We don’t just dream of a better way – we make it happen.
• We take care of our people, clients, company, communities and climate by doing what’s right.
• We foster an innovative environment where you can build the career path that’s right for you.

About us:
Cognizant is one of the world's leading professional services companies, transforming clients' business, operating, and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build, and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant (a member of the NASDAQ-100 and one of Forbes World’s Best Employers 2025) is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com

Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Disclaimer:
Compensation information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.

Applicants may be required to attend interviews in person or by video conference. In addition, candidates may be required to present their current state or government issued ID during each interview.