Technical Solutions Engineer

Responsibilities

Implementation and Delivery

• Directly build and ship the technical work each institution’s onboarding requires – writing and modifying code, pipelines, and configuration to connect their systems to ours.
• Configure, validate, and troubleshoot data mappings, schema alignment, and data flows specific to each institution’s environment.
• Anticipate integration risks and unblock issues independently before they stall a deployment.
• Build reusable technical assets: reference architectures, integration playbooks, mapping templates so that each institution onboards faster than the last.

Technical Partner Engagement

• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for participating higher education institutions, partnering closely with the account/success manager on each relationship
• Lead technical discovery: understand each institution’s data landscape and translate it into integration and governance requirements and a recommended solution design, while being aware of the internal technical and product roadmap and constraints
• Run solution design and architecture conversations with institutional IT, data, and IR teams, scoping integrations, defining data flows, and setting realistic technical expectations
• Produce integration specs, and technical implementation plans tailored to each institution’s environment, governance needs, and constraints
• Translate our platform’s capabilities and roadmap accurately back to institutions, and translate institutional technical feedback into clear requirements for internal Technology and Product teams.

Cross-Functional Alignment

• Partner with Engineering and Product to confirm proposed integration solutions are feasible and align with platform direction.
• Surface recurring technical patterns and gaps across institutions to inform product priorities.
• Maintain a clear, shared view of each engagement’s technical status, open issues, and dependencies.

Skillset

Required

• Deep alignment with DataKind’s mission and values, and demonstrated commitment to educational equity and data-driven social impact
• 5+ years in hands-on technical implementation, or solutions architecture, including direct client- or partner-facing delivery.
• Must have personally written and shipped production code, data pipelines, and system integrations, not just directed others.
• Able to independently configure and troubleshoot data mappings, schema alignment, and data flows; proficient in SQL and a scripting language, Python preferred.
• Comfortable running technical discovery directly with institutional IT/data teams and unblocking issues without routing to Engineering.

Preferred

• Experience in higher education, either as a client-side technical stakeholder or at a data integration vendor serving higher ed
• Understanding of data privacy, security, and accessibility requirements in education contexts.
• Background as a software engineer, data scientist, or similar technical role.