Data Curation Lead

Position Title: Data Curation Lead

Location: National Capital Region

Category: Contingent

Schedule (FT/PT): FT

Travel Required: NA

Shift: Day

Remote Type: Hybrid

Clearance required: Active Secret Clearance required

Division: Aviation

Salary: $160,000-$210,000

***THIS POSITION IS CONTINGENT UPON CONTRACT AWARD***

Who is ACT1 Federal? ACT1 Federal LLC is a 100% employee-owned company. We’ve served the Department of Defense (DoD) for nearly thirty years. Our core missions include weapon systems engineering, logistics, space domain expertise, global defense and security, business and financial management for security assistance and major defense articles, as well as military training and arctic security. Join us!

Description: Perform data curation, metadata tagging, and data quality preparation activities on CSDR submission data in support of the CSDR data ingestion environment maintained by the Government. The objective is to ensure that CSDR submissions — the Cost Data Report (Flexfile and 1921 series), the Quantity Data Report, the Technical Data Report, the SRDR, and the M&R, and the CBDR — are properly tagged, normalized, and quality-checked as they move from the submission state into the downstream cost estimating analytical environment. This task is performed as recurring data stewardship in support of the CSDR mission and is not pipeline development.

Responsibilities:

• Review CSDR submissions for data quality issues including missing values, internal inconsistencies, mis-aligned WBS elements, inflation/escalation treatment, and other issues that would impede downstream analytical use.
• Apply normalization treatments as directed by the AFCAA technical lead, including WBS alignment to the CADE Standard WBS, Cost Element Structure (CES) standardization, and inflation/price-escalation adjustments.
• Document each cleansing and normalization action taken on each submission such that the original-submitted data and the curated data remain distinguishable and traceable.
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• Apply metadata tags to CSDR submissions consistent with the AFCAA-approved metadata schema, including programmatic identifiers (program, contract, contractor, contract line item, reporting period, submission type, ACAT level, commodity area, and other approved tags).
• Where new tags are required to support emerging cost estimating analytical needs, the contractor shall recommend additions or modifications to the metadata schema to the AFCAA technical lead for Government concurrence prior to implementation. The contractor shall not unilaterally modify the approved schema.
• Apply technical parameter tagging to Technical Data Report submissions to support discoverability and traceability of form, fit, and function parameters across the program portfolio.
• Perform focused curation of Quantity Data Report submissions, including standardization of quantity-time phasing representations, reconciliation of quantity reporting against contract and program quantities, and tagging of quantity data to support downstream cost-per-unit and learning-curve analysis.
• Perform focused curation of Technical Data Report submissions, including extraction and structured tagging of form, fit, and function parameters; mapping to the approved CSDR Plan technical parameter list; and identification of parameter gaps relative to the cost estimating community's known analytical needs.
• Provide recommendations to the AFCAA technical lead on improvements to the Quantity Data Report and Technical Data Report planning templates and tagging conventions based on patterns observed during curation.
• Perform upstream data preparation activities required for CSDR submissions to be ingested by Government-maintained data infrastructure. These activities are limited to data preparation, tagging, normalization, and quality-check actions performed on the CSDR submission data itself. Configuration, modification, or development of Government data infrastructure is not in scope for this PWS.
• Coordinate with Government data engineers on data format, tagging, and quality issues that affect downstream ingestion.
• Maintain documentation of curation rules, tagging conventions applied, normalization procedures, and data quality findings sufficient for Government personnel to understand, audit, and reproduce the curation work performed.
• Deliver curation and tagging documentation

Key Skills and Experience:

• Data Curation and Stewardship: Demonstrated experience curating large, structured datasets, including data quality assessment, normalization, and traceable documentation of curation actions.
• Metadata and Tagging: Demonstrated experience designing and applying metadata schemas and programmatic tags to structured data, with familiarity with cost-data tagging conventions (program identifier, contract identifier, WBS, CES, ACAT level, commodity).
• CSDR Submission Familiarity: Working familiarity with the CSDR submission set, including the Cost Data Report (FlexFile and 1921-series), the Quantity Data Report, the Technical Data Report, the SRDR, and the M&R.
• Programming and Data Manipulation: Proficiency in Python and SQL, with practical experience using data-manipulation libraries (Pandas, NumPy, or equivalent) for cleansing and transformation of structured data.
• Data Pipeline Familiarity: Familiarity with data pipeline concepts (ETL/ELT, staging, quality checks) sufficient to support upstream data preparation work. The Key Personnel is not expected to design or develop Government pipelines under this PWS but shall coordinate effectively with the Government pipeline owners.
• Tools Proficiency: Working knowledge of CADE, DACIMS, cPet, PPM, and CSDR-SR submission systems; working familiarity with DAF Data Fabric platforms including VAULT and Envision.
• Documentation and Communication: Strong written documentation skills; ability to communicate data curation findings and tagging recommendations clearly to both cost analyst and data engineering audiences.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Must have at least ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in data engineering, data curation, or data science with substantial experience working with DoW cost data, CSDR submissions, or comparable structured technical/financial reporting data.
• CSDR experience is mandatory.
• Expertise shall include a strong understanding of CSDR policy, planning, validation, compliance, and the CADE application.
• Active Secret Clearance required.

Benefits:

• Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance
• ACT1 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
• Company Paid Life and AD&D Insurance
• Company Paid Short-Term Disability
• Voluntary Long-Term Disability
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• 401K with employer match
• Paid Time Off
• Paid Holidays
• Parental Leave
• Military Leave
• Education, Training & Professional Development
• Voluntary Accidental Injury/Critical Illness/Hospital Care
• Voluntary Pet Insurance, Legal Resources, and Identity Protection

 Our people-first culture prioritizes the benefits of flexibility and collaboration, whether that happens in person or remotely.

• If this position is listed as remote or hybrid, you’ll periodically work from a ACT1 Federal or client site facility.

• If this position is listed as onsite, you’ll work with colleagues and clients in person, as needed for the specific role.

 All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.