BI Data Engineer

Job Title – Business Intelligence (BI) Data Engineer

Department – Information Technology

Reports to – Director IT Infrastructure & Ops

Location – Houston, TX (In-Person)

Job Summary

The Business Intelligence (BI) Data Engineer will be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the data infrastructure, pipelines, and analytics solutions that drive data-informed decision making across the organization. This role bridges data engineering and business intelligence, ensuring data is clean, reliable, and transformed into meaningful insights through platforms like Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, SQL Server, and Snowflake. This role requires the ability to solve complex data challenges, experience across cloud and on-premises platforms, and the ability to turn raw data into trusted, actionable intelligence for business stakeholders.

Key Areas of Responsibility

- Data Engineering & Pipelines

- Design and implement relational and dimensional databases, including schema design, indexing strategies, and performance tuning

- Develop, maintain, and optimize ETL/ELT pipelines using Apache Airflow or Azure Data Factory (Fabric Data Factory)

- Design scalable data models and pipelines for SQL Server and Snowflake

- Deliver reporting and analytics solutions using Microsoft BI, including Fabric and Power BI

- Ensure high availability, reliability, and performance of data processes

- Business Intelligence & Analytics

- Build, maintain, and optimize dashboards and reports in Power BI and Fabric

- Translate complex data sets into clear visualizations and metrics for business stakeholders

- Partner with teams to identify KPIs and deliver actionable insights

- Data Governance & Quality

- Implement and monitor data validation, error handling, and performance tuning strategies

- Contribute to best practices in data security, compliance, and governance

- Collaboration & Strategy

- Work closely with data scientists, analysts, and business units to support cross-functional analytics initiatives

- Participate in architectural discussions to improve scalability and efficiency of data solutions

- Core Database Administration (DBA) Skills

- Backup, Recovery & High Availability

- Design and implement backup and restore strategies (full, differential, transaction log backups)

- Knowledge of disaster recovery planning and RPO/RTO requirements

- Experience with high availability solutions:

- SQL Server: Always On Availability Groups, Failover Clustering

- Snowflake: Time Travel, Fail-safe

- Ability to test and document recovery processes

- Performance Monitoring & Tuning

- Diagnose slow queries, deadlocks, and bottlenecks

- Use tools like SQL Profiler, Extended Events, DMVs, Query Store, or Performance Monitor

- Tune indexes, statistics, and query plans

- Optimize ETL job performance and concurrency

- Security & Compliance

- Implement role-based access control (RBAC), encryption at rest/in transit, and auditing

- Understand GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, or other compliance frameworks

- Manage user provisioning, privilege management, and data masking

- Maintenance & Automation

- Set up and monitor database maintenance plans (index rebuilds, integrity checks)

- Automate housekeeping tasks via SQL Agent, PowerShell, or Fabric pipelines

- Capacity Planning & Storage Management

- Forecast storage growth and manage file groups/partitions

- Understand I/O characteristics and underlying hardware/cloud configurations

- Advanced/Strategic DBA Skills

- Capacity and scalability planning for BI workloads

- Data lifecycle management and archiving strategies

- Collaboration with data architects to align database design with business goals

- Documentation and governance of data assets and metadata

- Cloud DBA/Modern Data Platform Skills (for hybrid or cloud environments)

- Snowflake Administration: Roles, warehouses, resource monitors, credit usage optimization

- Azure SQL/Synapse/Fabric Data Warehouse administration

- Familiarity with IAM, networking, and cost control in cloud data platforms

- Experience with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools for database provisioning (e.g., Terraform, ARM templates)

- Support and uphold HS&E policies and procedures of NCS and the customer

- Align individual goals with NCS corporate goals, while adhering to the NCS Promise

- Participate in your Personal Development for Success (PDS)

- Other duties, relevant to the position, shall be assigned as required

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent experience

- 3+ years of experience in BI development, data engineering, or similar roles

- Strong proficiency in SQL Server (database design, query optimization, stored procedures, performance tuning)

- Hands-on experience with Snowflake (warehousing, schema design, data sharing, performance optimization)

- Practical knowledge of Apache Airflow or Azure Data Factory (Fabric Data Factory) for orchestration and workflow management

- Proficiency with the Microsoft BI stack, including Fabric and Power BI

- Track record of building and maintaining well-designed databases, complex data pipelines, and reporting solutions

- Strong analytical skills and ability to explain technical concepts clearly to business audiences

- Experience with Python or other scripting languages for data manipulation

- Knowledge of CI/CD practices for data pipeline deployment

- Exposure to data governance frameworks and compliance standards

- Familiarity with APIs and data integration tools

- Understanding of AI-powered BI tools, including how to prepare and connect datasets for Microsoft Copilot in Power BI/Fabric

- Awareness of how to design data models for AI-driven analytics and natural language queries

Additional Information

- FLSA Status: Exempt

- Employment Classification: Full-time, Regular

- Work schedule: 5 days on, 2 days off; Monday to Friday 8:00am – 5:00pm, on-call 24/7 for support

- Travel: 15-20% domestic travel required; some international travel may be required

- Target Discretionary Bonus: Eligible

- Special Equipment: Laptop

- Criminal background check required for all positions

- Safety sensitive positions will require additional pre-employment testing

Core Competencies

- Teamwork/Collaboration – Able to work cooperatively with other individuals

- Service Focus – Builds & maintains customer satisfaction and provides excellent service to internal & external customers

- Decision Making – Able to make decisions and solve problems of varied levels of complexity using logical, systematic, and sequential approach

- Ethics & Integrity – Trustworthiness and ethical behavior with consideration for impact & consequence when making decisions/taking action

- Problem Solving – Ability to approach a problem by using a logical, systematic, sequential approach

- Continuous Improvement – Ongoing improvement of products, services, or processes through incremental & breakthrough improvements

- Accountability – Obligation or willingness to be answerable for an outcome