Backend Data Engineer (APIs & ETL)
HTC is seeking an experienced Backend Data Engineer to design, build, and support backend services, data pipelines, and database architectures powering the Public Health Data Portal. This role is central to developing RESTful APIs, ETL workflows, multi-store data models, and secure backend operations that support both public-facing and administrative applications. You'll collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to deliver a scalable, maintainable, and auditable data foundation for a high-impact public health platform.
Required Qualifications
- 6+ years of backend development experience with RESTful APIs and service-layer architectures.
- Strong experience with PHP 8.x (ideally 8.4) and frameworks such as CodeIgniter 4, Laravel, or Symfony.
- Deep expertise with SQL Server (2019/2022), T-SQL, stored procedures, indexing, and performance tuning.
- Hands-on experience building ETL pipelines, batch processes, and data transformation workflows.
- Experience implementing data quality controls, validation logic, deduplication, and referential integrity.
- Experience with synchronization, audit logging, and error-handling patterns in backend/data workflows.
- Strong understanding of structured data, metadata, and extensible data model design.
- Experience writing unit tests with PHPUnit and integrating into CI/CD pipelines.
- Excellent documentation, communication, and technical handoff skills.
Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Have)
- Experience with AWS RDS, Lambda, S3, or other cloud-native services.
- Familiarity with Redis caching strategies.
- Experience supporting public-sector or public-health data systems.
- Knowledge of data governance, security, and compliance best practices.
Key Responsibilities
Backend API & Service Development
- Design and develop RESTful API services for data retrieval, metadata management, content management, authentication, audit logging, export generation, and data synchronization.
- Implement authentication filters, rate limiting, request logging, and standardized JSON response patterns.
- Build reusable backend service components using CodeIgniter 4 framework conventions.
- Integrate backend services with Redis, AWS Secrets Manager, and SQL Server 2022 on AWS RDS.
Data Engineering & ETL
- Architect and build ETL pipelines to ingest, transform, and load data from SQL Server staging sources into analytical and operational data stores.
- Implement batch processing for data standardization, deduplication, cleansing, and aggregation across indicators and geographies.
- Support data synchronization across Dev 12 Test 12 Prod environments.
- Deliver documented ETL tools, workflows, and transformation logic for client handoff.
Database & Data Model Design
- Design extensible SQL Server 2022 schemas that support future datasets without requiring application changes.
- Optimize relational structures for performance, scalability, and maintainability.
- Implement multi-store analytical patterns, including pre-aggregated data layers.
- Produce data dictionaries, schema documentation, and technical specifications.
Data Quality, Reliability & Operational Support
- Implement validation checks including schema validation, completeness, referential integrity, and deduplication.
- Build rollback and recovery mechanisms with structured error logging.
- Integrate with AWS CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and Change Log Service for audit tracking.
- Ensure secure, reliable, and auditable backend and data operations.
Collaboration & Technical Delivery
- Work closely with frontend, architecture, QA, DevOps, and project teams.
- Contribute to API design, performance optimization, and delivery planning.
- Produce technical handover documentation and support knowledge transfer.
- Write unit tests using PHPUnit and support CI/CD-integrated testing.
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