Arena Careers

Position Summary

Position Description

America Votes is looking for a full-time Data Engineer for the 2026 cycle. This person will build and maintain the pipelines, models, and infrastructure that power data work across the progressive movement. This hybrid role sits at the intersection of data engineering and analytics engineering: you will write Python to move data in and out of our warehouse, write SQL and dbt models to transform it into something usable, and collaborate closely with other engineers, national analysts, and state data staff who depend on the tools you build.

The ideal candidate has worked in progressive political data and has taken on data engineering type projects in past roles (even if they didn’t come with a data engineer title). You should have solid fundamentals: strong SQL, comfort with Python, and familiarity with modern data stack and cloud database environments. The 2026 cycle moves fast, and we’re looking for someone who can hit the ground running, ask the right questions, and isn’t afraid to dive into messy projects.

This is a 2026 cycle hire role that reports to the National Director of Engineering and Product and is contracted to end Dec 31, 2026.

Responsibilities

• SQL and dbt development: Write and maintain SQL and dbt models that transform data in our warehouse, adding new models, refactoring existing code, writing tests, and improving documentation.
• Pipeline Engineering: Make additions to GCP pipelines that load data into our BigQuery warehouse and send data out of BigQuery to other platforms.
• Supporting Staff: Collaborate with national and state data staff to build tables, pipelines, and tools that help our team do their jobs more effectively.
• Internal Leadership: Contribute to data strategy conversations, including the adoption of new tools, shared data standards, and engineering best practices.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Must Haves

• Strong SQL skills: comfortable writing queries and scripts to clean, transform, and analyze data. Committed to writing clean, readable, well-documented code.
• Experience working in a cloud data warehouse (BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake) or other cloud infrastructure.
• Working experience with Python or a similar object-oriented language, especially for data transformation, scripting, or working with APIs.
• Experience using Git and other command line tools.
• Previous experience working on a political campaign or similar environment, especially in a data role, or other settings that required ramping up and delivering under time pressure.
• A self-starter mindset: able to onboard quickly, ask the right questions, and jump into ambiguous problems without waiting for a perfect spec.
• A service-oriented approach to data work that prioritizes collaboration, supporting staff and partners, and building products that center and advance racial equity.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a professional approach to communicating with team members, partners, and vendors.

Nice to Haves

• Experience using dbt to transform data, including using dbt Cloud.
• Experience working with APIs to move data between systems.
• Experience with the suite of GCP tooling – we mainly use Cloud Build Jobs, Workflows, and Virtual Machines.
• Understanding of unit testing, CI/CD, containerization, and other software engineering best practices.
• Familiarity with voter file or voter contact data from tools like NGP/VAN.