Data Engineer
Stratolaunch · Mojave, CA
$83,000–$120,500from the description
Jul 13, 2026
Mojave, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A data engineering role focused on designing and maintaining data pipelines that move information across vehicle design, manufacturing, flight test, and business systems. The work involves integrating both commercial and custom tools, administering relational and non-relational databases, and supporting data architecture decisions. Candidates with an interest in ML operations or aerospace applications may take on additional responsibilities in those areas.
Mid level · Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 8 people in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (database architects). range 5–15
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $135,056 (middle half $100,717–$170,100). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role is titled 'Data Engineer' with no level modifier in the title, so advertised seniority is Unspecified. The Level I band (0–5 years) and the breadth of requirements support a Mid classification.
Mojave, CA is a small unincorporated community near Mojave Air & Spaceport. It falls within the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario CBSA (40140), though it sits near the edge of that metro; some may argue for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim CBSA (31080). The posting explicitly states the position is onsite in Mojave, CA.
The SOC classification is a genuine toss-up between 15-1243 (Database Architects — data pipeline design, ETL, data architecture) and 15-1252 (Software Developers — custom tooling, CI/CD, containerization, ML pipelines). The data architecture and ETL framing is the primary signal, but the software development depth is substantial.
The degree requirement accepts 'equivalent combination of education and experience,' so no minimum degree is hard-gated.
For the programming language requirement, the JD lists Python, Rust, C, and MATLAB as examples of acceptable languages ('one or more … e.g.'). Python is named first and most commonly used in data engineering; the others are captured as alternatives.
For containerization/orchestration, Docker and Dagster are listed as examples. Docker is the canonical container tool; Dagster is a data orchestration platform — they are not true substitutes, but the JD presents them together as illustrative examples of a single requirement. This is a minor ambiguity in the posting's phrasing.
CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab, Bamboo) are listed as examples under a required qualification; all three are captured as alternatives to the CI/CD requirement.
Data visualization/analytics familiarity, aerospace experience, MLOps (LLM/RAG hosting), ML training/inference pipelines, and cloud services (Azure/AWS) all appear under the 'Preferred' heading.
The posting mentions that clearance may be required for some positions for transparency, but does not gate this role on any specific clearance level.
Read the full posting
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