Operations Research / Systems Analyst (ORSA) - Data Engineering and Analytics (5406)
Summary
Designs and maintains data pipelines to unify security and vetting datasets for a federal agency, enabling predictive analytics and optimization using SQL, Python/R, and ETL tools.
The Operations Research (OR) Analyst - Data Engineering & Analytics Focus provides advanced data integration, architecture, and analytics capabilities to enable quantitative analysis across a Federal Agency's personnel vetting, industrial security, and counterintelligence operations. This position is responsible for transforming disparate, complex data sources into unified analytical datasets that enable the Federal Agency to transition from reactive reporting toward proactive, mathematically grounded forecasting and optimization.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Data Integration & Architecture
- Design and implement data architectures that integrate information from multiple disparate source systems supporting personnel vetting, industrial security, and counterintelligence missions
- Build and maintain ETL pipelines that extract, transform, and load data from heterogeneous sources including relational databases, flat files, APIs, and legacy systems
- Develop entity resolution approaches to link person, company, and facility records across systems that lack common unique identifiers
- Create reusable data integration frameworks that accommodate changes in source system schemas and evolving business rules
Data Quality & Validation
- Develop data quality frameworks that assess completeness, accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of source data
- Implement data validation processes that identify and handle missing data, duplicates, temporal inconsistencies, and conflicting information
- Document data provenance, transformations, quality metrics, and known limitations to ensure analytical reproducibility
- Collaborate with system owners and data stewards to resolve data quality issues at the source
Analytics & Visualization
- Apply statistical analysis and exploratory data analysis to understand operational patterns and trends within integrated datasets
- Develop interactive dashboards and visualization products that communicate complex data insights to technical and non-technical audiences
- Translate data findings into objective, data-driven insights that support strategic and operational decision-making
- Create data marts and analysis-ready datasets optimized for specific use cases (process modeling, risk assessment, resource optimization)
Collaboration & Support
- Partner with modeling/simulation and optimization specialists to define analytical dataset requirements
- Support advanced analytics by providing clean, well-documented, empirically grounded datasets
- Participate in cross-functional team activities to maintain technical standards and share knowledge
- Adapt analytical approaches to work within data availability constraints while maintaining analytical rigor
Required Skills/Experience
- 8+ years of progressive, hands-on operations research or data analytics experience, including demonstrated application of statistical analysis, data integration, and quantitative methods to real-world operational problems
- 3–5 years of that experience supporting DoD or Intelligence Community mission areas such as personnel vetting, industrial security (NISP), counterintelligence, or insider threat
- Expert-level proficiency in SQL and relational database design, including complex queries, joins, subqueries, and performance optimization
- Demonstrated, hands-on proficiency in an analytical programming language (Python or R), including libraries for data manipulation (pandas, dplyr), analysis, and visualization
- Proven experience building ETL pipelines and data integration workflows across multiple disparate data sources
- Experience with data architecture for analytics (data warehousing, dimensional modeling, data lakes)
- Experience assessing and improving data quality in complex, multi-source operational environments
- Ability to translate technical data challenges into clear communication for non-technical stakeholders
- Experience working with data in secure (classified) government environments
- Secret clearance required (active or ability to obtain)
Desired Skills/Experience
- Advanced degree in Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related quantitative discipline
- Familiarity with NISP, clearance adjudication processes, and/or insider threat/counterintelligence analytic frameworks
- Experience with entity resolution, record linkage, and master data management techniques
- Familiarity with both legacy government systems and modern cloud-based data architectures
- Experience with version control and collaborative development (Git/GitHub)
- Knowledge of data governance frameworks, metadata management, and data cataloging
- Experience with big data technologies (Spark, distributed computing)
- Familiarity with NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Neo4j, graph databases)
- Data visualization tools (Tableau, Power BI, Plotly, D3.js)
- Experience with data orchestration tools (Airflow, Prefect, Luigi)
- API development and integration experience (REST, SOAP)
- Knowledge of queueing theory, statistical modeling, or optimization methods to better support analytical consumers
The SMX salary determination process takes into account a number of factors, including but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories, relevant prior work experience, specific skills, education and certifications. At SMX, one of our Core Values is to Invest in Our People so we offer a competitive mix of compensation, learning & development opportunities, and benefits. Some key components of our robust benefits include health insurance, paid leave, and retirement.
At SMX®, we are a team of technical and domain experts dedicated to enabling your mission. From priority national security initiatives for the DoD to highly assured and compliant solutions for healthcare, we understand that digital transformation is key to your future success.
We share your vision for the future and strive to accelerate your impact on the world. We bring both cutting edge technology and an expansive view of what’s possible to every engagement. Our delivery model and unique approaches harness our deep technical and domain knowledge, providing forward-looking insights and practical solutions to power secure mission acceleration.
SMX is an Equal Opportunity employer including disabilities and veterans.
Selected applicant may be subject to a background investigation and/or education verification.
SMX does not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization or immigration related support for this position (i.e. H1B, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, J-1, TN, E-2, E-3, L-1 and O-1, or any EADs or other forms of work authorization that require immigration support from an employer).