Analytics Engineer

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

Analytics Engineer

Job Profile Title

Application Developer Senior

Job Description Summary

Position Summary
The Analytics Engineer is a technical architect within Advancement Prospect Analytics (APA), turning complex institutional data into actionable intelligence for fundraising and alumni relations. The role bridges raw data infrastructure and frontline fundraising strategy by designing, building, and maintaining data products on a modern cloud stack.

The incumbent utilizes Snowflake for data warehousing and Salesforce NPSP for relationship management, engineering integrations that empower 18 schools and central DAR staff to identify and engage Penn's most impactful prospects. The role works across the full analytics workflow: Git for version control and peer review, Asana or JIRA for project tracking, and Qlik Cloud, Snowflake, and Posit Connect for deploying dashboards and predictive models that support the University's fundraising campaigns.

This position reports directly to the Senior Director of Advancement Analytics in Development and Alumni Relations.

Job Description

Job Responsibilities

• Systems Architecture & Data Engineering
  • Design, build, and troubleshoot system-to-system integrations and automated data pipelines between Snowflake, Salesforce, and external sources—including REST API–based connections, secure authentication (short-lived tokens, key-pair/OAuth), and daily ETL processes with error logging.
  • Develop and optimize complex SQL queries, views, and middleware to ensure data integrity and high performance across the advancement ecosystem.
  • Design dimensional data models and transformation layers that turn raw data into strategic fundraising tools and actionable insights.
• Development Workflow & Governance
  • Establish and maintain best practices for code management in Git, including branching strategies, pull requests, and documentation-as-code.
  • Ensure all analytical scripts (SQL, R, Python) are versioned, audited, and recoverable.
  • Implement CI/CD principles for analytics to enable reliable, tested, automated deployment of data models.
• Project Management & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Track project milestones, manage backlogs, and communicate project health.
  • Coordinate requirements gathering for strategic initiatives, translating business needs into technical specifications and transparent timelines.
  • Advise DAR users on the planning, selection, and implementation of data solutions to address specific business requirements.
• Advanced Analytics & AI
  • Deploy and maintain visualization tools and statistical environments across Qlik Cloud, Snowflake, and Posit Connect.
  • Leverage Snowflake Cortex AI for data engineering and AI-driven analytics tasks.
  • Monitor application health and provide technical support to users across Penn's schools and centers.

Note: This role requires substantive, hands-on Snowflake experience. Applicants should be prepared to speak in specific detail about Snowflake projects they have built (e.g., pipelines, data models, warehouse/RBAC configuration) and may be asked to complete a brief technical screening in Snowflake SQL as part of the interview process. Applicants should also be prepared to discuss integrations they have built involving Snowflake connectivity, authentication, and troubleshooting.

**Please provide a resume and cover letter in order to be considered for this role. Please upload all documents in the “Resume/CV” section of the application prior to submitting.**

Qualifications Required Education & Experience

• • Bachelor's degree and 3–5 years of experience in data engineering, systems analysis, or a related technical field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  • Minimum 3 years of recent, hands-on, production experience with Snowflake, including warehouse sizing/cost management, RBAC, Streams & Tasks/Dynamic Tables, MERGE-based incremental loading, and stage-based ingestion of semi-structured data (JSON/Parquet/CSV). General SQL experience on other platforms alone does not meet this requirement.
  • Advanced SQL fluency — complex CTEs, window functions, MERGE, and CTAS — and experience designing dimensional/star-schema data models through reusable, production-grade views.
  • Python for data engineering: Proficiency in Python for consuming REST APIs, handling authentication and secrets, parsing and transforming structured/semi-structured data (e.g., JSON), and connecting to Snowflake programmatically (e.g., via the Snowflake Connector for Python or SQLAlchemy).
  • Integration & connectivity engineering: Demonstrated experience building and maintaining production system-to-system integrations, including developing brokering middleware or services to connect systems that cannot integrate natively, and independently diagnosing failures across the stack—including network-layer issues such as IP allowlisting, network policies, and changing provider IP ranges.
  • Proven experience with Git version control workflows.

Preferred Qualifications

• • SnowPro Certification: SnowPro Core Certification (or higher) strongly preferred. Candidates without a current certification should be prepared to demonstrate equivalent hands-on Snowflake expertise.
  • Salesforce NPSP: Experience with Salesforce NPSP (Non-Profit Success Pack) and architecting its schemas within a Snowflake environment.
  • Project Tooling: Experience managing complex task dependencies in Asana or JIRA.
  • Stored Procedures: Experience writing stored procedures (SQL, and/or JavaScript or Python) and UDFs for procedural data transformation logic.
  • Data Sharing & Marketplace: Experience consuming Snowflake Marketplace data products and configuring inbound/outbound Secure Data Shares.
  • AI & NLP: Experience using LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source equivalents) for AI-driven text processing and analytics; familiarity with Snowflake Cortex AI functions and/or agent-building a plus.
  • Statistical Programming: Proficiency in R or Python for data mining, statistical inference, and predictive modeling.
  • Domain Knowledge: Understanding of the Higher Education "Advancement" lifecycle — Prospect Pipeline management, Annual Giving, and Major Gifts — along with gift accounting concepts (e.g., hard vs. soft credit, recognition types,

Job Location - City, State

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School

Development and Alumni Relations

Pay Range

$84,961.00 - $100,000.00 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