Jr Engineer, Data Platform

About the Role

Natural Habitat Adventures (Nat Hab) is seeking a Jr Engineer, Data Platform to join our Technology & Information Systems team in Boulder, Colorado. This is an entry-level engineering role focused on building, maintaining, and supporting the data platforms and integrations that power our business. This is a hands-on learning role where you will receive guidance from experienced engineers while progressively taking ownership of increasingly complex work.

Key Responsibilities

Data Engineering & Data Platform

• Build and maintain SQL transformations and dbt models.
• Develop and maintain Python scripts and data-processing workflows.
• Assist with building, testing, and monitoring ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Load and transform data from operational systems, APIs, and other sources.
• Apply established standards for data modeling, naming, keys, relationships, and data quality.
• Write automated tests and validation checks.
• Monitor scheduled data jobs and investigate pipeline failures.
• Troubleshoot discrepancies between source systems and data platform outputs.
• Document data models, pipelines, processes, and technical decisions.
• Work with senior engineers to improve the reliability, performance, and maintainability of the data platform.

Software & Application Development

• Write readable, maintainable, and tested code for well-defined features, fixes, and engineering tasks.
• Build and maintain integrations between applications and data systems, including REST APIs and other services.
• Use Git and established development practices for version control, code review, testing, and deployment.
• Troubleshoot application and integration issues using logs, debugging tools, documentation, and source code.
• Participate in the team's software development and CI/CD practices.

Data Analysis & Business Support

• Write SQL queries to investigate business questions and troubleshoot data issues.
• Validate data against source systems.
• Develop an understanding of the data that supports bookings, guests, trips, operations, finance, and other core business processes.
• Work with analysts and business stakeholders to understand data requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Support production data issues and escalate problems appropriately.

Production Support & Operations

• Monitor data pipelines, integrations, and applications for issues.
• Respond to assigned support requests and help resolve technical problems.
• Participate in an established production-support and after-hours rotation as required.
• Follow security, SOX, change-management, and company technology controls.
• Document incidents, root causes, and resolutions.
• Identify recurring issues and recommend opportunities for automation or process improvement.

Collaboration & Professional Development

• Participate in team planning, stand-ups, code reviews, retrospectives, and other engineering practices.
• Work closely with senior engineers, analysts, data architects, and business stakeholders.
• Communicate progress, questions, risks, and blockers clearly and proactively.
• Ask thoughtful questions and seek clarification.
• Incorporate feedback from code reviews and technical discussions.
• Take ownership of assigned work and follow through on commitments.
• Continuously develop technical skills and knowledge of the company's systems, data, and business processes.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Snowflake
• SQL
• dbt
• Python
• Cloud-based data services
• Git
• REST APIs

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, Information Analytics, Statistics or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 0–2 years of relevant experience, including internships, academic projects, personal projects, or early-career professional experience.
• Strong foundation in SQL, including joins, aggregations, filtering, and basic data modeling concepts.
• Basic proficiency in Python or another object-oriented programming language.
• Understanding of fundamental software development concepts.
• Familiarity with Git-based version control.
• Understanding of relational (OLTP) and dimensional (OLAP) databases.
• Basic understanding of ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Comfortable working in a command-line environment and learning new development tools.
• Ability to troubleshoot problems methodically.
• Experience or coursework with any of the following is a plus:
• Snowflake
• dbt
• Python or Java
• REST APIs and JSON
• Cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure
• CI/CD and automated testing
• Data visualization or business intelligence (BI) tools
• Data quality, data governance, or data modeling
• Web application development
• Infrastructure as code (IaC) or other modern development practices

Compensation

• Starting salary range: $60,000-75,000 per year.
• Eligible for a discretionary annual bonus with a target incentive of 5% of salary.

Location & Work Schedule

• Hybrid position based in Louisville, Colorado.
• Requires at least three days per week in-office attendance.
• Standard company hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM MT.
• Occasional Saturday hours may be required.
• Additional hours may be required as needed.