Data Engineer (Contractor)

About Benson Hill
Benson Hill empowers innovators to develop more healthy, tasty and sustainable food by unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with breeding techniques and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. This platform allows for cost-effective and more efficient ways for companies to analyze and make improvements in plant genetics. Benson Hill brings a unique and holistic approach to our product and platform development, as we span a broader workflow involving trait and seed development, genome editing, and breeding all the way to creating better ingredients and varieties that tap a strong consumer demand for more flavorful and nutritious fruits and vegetables. More information can be found online at www.bensonhill.com. Follow us on Twitter at @BensonHillInc.

Our Purpose and Core Values

Our Core Values are a set of common principles we share that are fundamental to our company’s identity.

• Be Bold!  We redefine boundaries by providing new solutions to difficult problems. Together we are driven to transform the future and will not allow the fear of failure to prevent us from innovating. We voice our opinions, embrace change, and challenge each other to think creatively.
• Be Inspired! We redefine boundaries by providing new solutions to difficult problems. Together we are driven to transform the future and will not allow the fear of failure to prevent us from innovating. We voice our opinions, embrace change, and challenge each other to think creatively.
• Be Real! We understand who we are, what we want to achieve, and what it takes to get there. We hold each other accountable through timely, candid, and well-intentioned feedback. Together we engage in honest communication and healthy debate that leads to success through true alignment.

Department Overview

Benson Hill is looking for a passionate and proven contract Data Engineer to be part of our Product & Platform Acceleration team. This role will be responsible for leading data engineering projects. The contractor Data Engineer, will work collaboratively with the Technology teams for translating business needs into the development of data and analytical work products to support Benson Hill R&D activities.

Position Summary

The successful candidate has prior data engineering experience with exposure to multiple programming languages and technical platforms. Build and maintain data platforms based on the requirements provided and with direction or guidance from more senior members of the team. Generate code adhering to standards as defined by the software team, document action items for development, participate in effective code reviews, and actively participating in team meetings. Follow standard and effective software development methodologies.        

You Will:

(Essential Duties and Responsibilities)

Benson Hill requires a dedicated and experienced contract Data Engineer with exposure to geospatial domains to enable applications and data pipelines in that space.

• Design, build, and maintain efficient, reusable, and reliable Python code
• Work with users to understand end-user requirements, formulate use cases, and translate them into pragmatic and effective technical designs
• Enable creative scalable engineering solutions for data gathering and integration for structured and unstructured data sets
• Continuously improve and maintain code quality through writing unit tests, automation, and code reviews
• Contribute ideas to help improve our technology, coding standards and products

 You Have:

(Competencies and Qualifications)

Education

• S. in life science, data science, computer science, or other technical field

Experience

• 3+ years’ work experience building and deploying software
• 3+ years’ experience in Python
• 3+ years’ experience building ETL pipelines using SQL & relational databases
• Solid OOP and software design knowledge – can write software that’s extensible, reusable, and meets desired architectural objectives
• Experience with AWS cloud platform or other cloud platforms
• Familiarity with Linux / Unix environments
• Experience building data pipelines to serve structured & unstructured data for BI & Analytics applications

 Additional Skills

• Self-motivated to learn new knowledge and techniques
• Strong customer focus
• Collaborative
• Ability to focus and work independently with little direction

 Preference Given to Applicants with the Following

• Experience with GIT, Docker, Web services, geospatial data
• Experience with DevOps, MLOps, & Cloud Security best practices