Clinical Data Engineer

Clinical data engineering roles in healthcare are central to converting raw patient information into actionable insights that support clinical research, regulatory compliance, and care delivery improvements. This opportunity could involve designing and maintaining robust data pipelines that ensure data quality, accessibility, and HIPAA compliance across complex healthcare systems.

Please note the content of this advert does not represent a live vacancy.

About the opportunity

This is an opportunity to register your interest in future Clinical Data Engineer positions where you could support the infrastructure that transforms clinical data into reliable, compliant datasets for research and operational use. Roles of this type may involve working within healthcare organizations or clinical research environments in Chicago, Illinois, where data pipelines directly impact patient outcomes and regulatory standing.

Typical role overview

• Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Type: Contract · Full-time
• Rate: $560 - $800 per day
• Domain: Clinical data engineering · healthcare data infrastructure

What you would do

Typical responsibilities could include:

• Designing, building and maintaining data pipelines that ingest, transform and validate clinical datasets from multiple healthcare systems
• Ensuring data quality and integrity through automated validation, testing and monitoring frameworks
• Implementing HIPAA-compliant data storage, access controls and audit logging across clinical databases
• Collaborating with clinical research teams, data analysts and IT stakeholders to understand data requirements and deliver scalable solutions
• Documenting data lineage, transformation logic and pipeline architecture for regulatory and operational transparency
• Troubleshooting data pipeline failures and optimizing performance for large-scale clinical datasets
• Supporting the integration of clinical data with analytics platforms and reporting tools

What you could bring

Most roles of this type require the following:

Must-have

• 5-10 years of experience in data engineering, clinical data management or healthcare data infrastructure
• Proficiency in SQL and experience designing relational and non-relational data models
• Strong background in building and maintaining data pipelines using ETL/ELT tools or programming languages such as Python or Java
• Working knowledge of HIPAA compliance requirements and healthcare data security standards
• Experience with data quality frameworks, validation logic and data governance practices
• Familiarity with healthcare systems, EHR data structures or clinical research data formats
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Life Sciences, Data Science or related field
• Authorization to work in the United States

Nice-to-have

• HIPAA Compliance Certification or Clinical Research Coordinator (ACRP) certification
• Experience with cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, BigQuery or Azure Data Lake
• Knowledge of statistical analysis concepts and clinical trial data standards
• Experience with data visualization tools and building analytics dashboards
• Exposure to healthcare regulations such as FDA 21 CFR Part 11 or 21 CFR Part 2

What roles of this type could offer

Most roles of this type offer the following, dependent on the industry and seniority of the role:

• Opportunity to work on data infrastructure that directly supports clinical research and patient care improvements
• Exposure to complex healthcare data challenges and the chance to build scalable, compliant solutions
• Collaboration with clinical, research and analytics teams across a regulated industry
• Potential for contract-to-permanent conversion, where applicable
• Professional development in healthcare data engineering, cloud technologies and data governance practices
• Flexibility and the ability to work on impactful projects within the clinical data space

About Specialist Staffing Group

Specialist Staffing Group partners with healthcare, research and life sciences organizations to connect talented data professionals with roles that matter. We understand the critical importance of data quality, compliance and infrastructure in healthcare, and we work to match experienced engineers with opportunities where their expertise can directly support clinical delivery and research innovation.

How to register interest

If you are interested in being added to our database to be considered for future opportunities, registering is quick and easy. No cover letter required. We will be in touch when we are instructed on these roles to discuss the next step in your career.

Please note that the content of this advert does not represent a live vacancy or any guarantee of future vacancies, and by responding to this advert you agree to us adding your details to our database for future opportunities.