Data Engineer, Penn Wharton Budget Model

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn’s distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America’s Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Data Engineer, Penn Wharton Budget Model

Job Profile Title

Application Developer Senior

Job Description Summary

Wharton School Overview
Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With campuses in both Philadelphia and San Francisco, Wharton has over 850 staff, a faculty population of more than 235 renowned professors, and 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 13,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs. More than 104,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. Wharton is home to a dynamic community of staff, bringing a wide range of skills, experiences, and perspectives. To learn more, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) is a non-partisan, research-based initiative that provides analysis to policymakers to assess the effects of policy on budgetary outcomes (government revenues and costs) and various economic variables. PWBM’s work is widely cited and has been influential in many key recent policy discussions, including tax reform, budget reconciliation, immigration, Social Security, health care, infrastructure, pre-K education, paid family leave, universal income, and the federal debt. The PWBM team consists of roughly 30 Ph.D. economists, policy analysts, research analysts, software engineers, and developers.

PWBM has a unique model – even relative to other scoring entities – that relies on a workflow between data processing, microsimulation (which utilizes large-scale Monte Carlo simulations), dozens of policy modules (including several tax calculators), and a large-scale stochastic macroeconomic overlapping generations (OLG) lifecycle model. An extensive code base, mostly in Python, underlies this workflow, and the model utilizes cutting-edge economic modeling, data science, machine learning, and cloud computing to project policy impacts. The models are frequently updated to reflect the latest economics and empirical research, and many of them require (large) datasets to calibrate them. PWBM is currently building a model automation pipeline to automate the forecasting process.

The Data Engineer will be a member of the software engineering team and work closely with PWBM domain experts – economists, policy analysts, and research analysts – responsible for building and calibrating models using large, publicly and privately available datasets. The Data Engineer will design, build, and maintain the data infrastructure with the software engineering team; establish best practices for data ingestion and storage; and coach domain experts to write maintainable extract-transform-load (ETL) code. The Data Engineer will also contribute their expertise and insights to the model automation project to help make the automation pipeline robust to data changes.

*Position contingent upon funding.

Job Description

Job Responsibilities

• The data engineer will work with the software engineering team to design, build, and maintain data infrastructure that houses data obtained from external sources and PWBM model output and enables PWBM and external collaborators easy access to information that is versioned, accurate, and consistent.
• Establish best practices for data ingestion, storage, and retrieval. Work with PWBM domain experts to implement best practices in extract-transform-load (ETL) code, including producing readable, modular, and testable code.
• Help the Director of Engineering and Data and domain experts plan future infrastructure development.
• Mentor junior engineers, research analysts, and graduate students.
• Perform additional duties as assigned

Qualifications

Required Skills/Experience:

• A bachelor's degree in a relevant field, such as computer science, software engineering, statistics, mathematics, or engineering; and 3-5 years of experience; or equivalent.
• More than 2 years of post-degree experience as a data engineer in a team setting, and familiarity with current cloud data storage options, data modeling, data extraction (e.g., web scraping or using web APIs), automation (e.g., pipelining), and alerting/monitoring with process insights in mind.
• Demonstrated ability to write readable, modular, and testable code.
• Experience with modern software engineering best practices (e.g. automated testing, pair programming, and continuous integration).
• Solid ability to understand mathematical and statistical models.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to collaborate successfully with teammates who have diverse technical backgrounds. The data engineer will work with individuals across a range of technical experience levels, so the candidate should be able to distill their thoughts into non-technical terms.
• Experience working with LLM-based coding tools.
• Experience with data frame packages/libraries in any programming language.
• Solid ability to identify requirements from discussions with domain experts and parse them into smaller stories/tasks.

Preferred Skills:

• Knowledge of Python and pandas.
• Experience working with survey data or other microdata.
• Familiarity with major economic and demographic data sources (e.g. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Bureau of Economic Analysis).
• Experience working with data scientists or economists.
• Formal training in economics, public policy, or in quantitative disciplines such as statistics, engineering, and mathematics.

Additional Information

Staff positions at the Penn Wharton Budget Model are funded by external gifts and grants. This position is contingent upon both the continued availability of funding sources and the ongoing need for the role. It is an initial two-year term position, with potential renewal at the discretion of the faculty director. The position may be discontinued if funding sources are no longer available, if suitable replacement funding sources are not identified, or if the need for the position ceases to exist.

Job Location - City, State

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School

Wharton School

Pay Range

$83,500.00 - $130,000.00 Annual Rate

Salary offers are made based on the candidate’s qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, and in alignment with salary ranges based on external market data for the job’s level. Internal organization and peer data at Penn are also considered.

Equal Opportunity Statement 

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Special Requirements 
Background checks may be required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.

University Benefits

• Health, Life, and Flexible Spending Accounts: Penn offers comprehensive medical, prescription, behavioral health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits to protect you and your family’s health and welfare. You can also use flexible spending accounts to pay for eligible health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars.

• Tuition: Take advantage of Penn's exceptional tuition benefits. You, your spouse, and your dependent children can get tuition assistance here at Penn. Your dependent children are also eligible for tuition assistance at other institutions.

• Retirement: Penn offers generous retirement plans to help you save for your future. Penn’s Basic, Matching, and Supplemental retirement plans allow you to save for retirement on a pre-tax or Roth basis. Choose from a wide variety of investment options through TIAA and Vanguard.

• Time Away from Work: Penn provides you with a substantial amount of time away from work during the course of the year. This allows you to relax, take vacations, attend to personal affairs, recover from illness or injury, spend time with family—whatever your personal needs may be.

• Long-Term Care Insurance: In partnership with Genworth Financial, Penn offers faculty and staff (and your eligible family members) long-term care insurance to help you cover some of the costs of long-term care services received at home, in the community or in a nursing facility. If you apply when you’re newly hired, you won’t have to provide proof of good health or be subject to underwriting requirements. Eligible family members must always provide proof of good health and are subject to underwriting.

• Wellness and Work-life Resources: Penn is committed to supporting our faculty and staff as they balance the competing demands of work and personal life. That’s why we offer a wide variety of programs and resources to help you care for your health, your family, and your work-life balance.

• Professional and Personal Development: Penn provides an array of resources to help you advance yourself personally and professionally.

• University Resources: As a member of the Penn community, you have access to a wide range of University resources as well as cultural and recreational activities. Take advantage of the University’s libraries and athletic facilities, or visit our arboretum and art galleries. There’s always something going on at Penn, whether it’s a new exhibit at the Penn Museum, the latest music or theater presentation at the Annenberg Center, or the Penn Relays at Franklin Field to name just a few examples. As a member of the Penn community, you’re right in the middle of the excitement—and you and your family can enjoy many of these activities for free.

• Discounts and Special Services: From arts and entertainment to transportation and mortgages, you'll find great deals for University faculty and staff. Not only do Penn arts and cultural centers and museums offer free and discounted admission and memberships to faculty and staff. You can also enjoy substantial savings on other goods and services such as new cars from Ford and General Motors, cellular phone service plans, movie tickets, and admission to theme parks.

• Flexible Work Hours: Flexible work options offer creative approaches for completing work while promoting balance between work and personal commitments. These approaches involve use of non-traditional work hours, locations, and/or job structures.

• Penn Home Ownership Services: Penn offers a forgivable loan for eligible employees interested in buying a home or currently residing in West Philadelphia, which can be used for closing costs or home improvements.

• Adoption Assistance: Penn will reimburse eligible employees on qualified expenses in connection with the legal adoption of an eligible child, such as travel or court fees, for up to two adoptions in your household.

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To learn more, please visit: https://www.hr.upenn.edu/PennHR/benefits-pay