Data & Automation Engineer

Join to apply for the Data & Automation Engineer role at The Family Institute at Northwestern University

REPORTS TO:

VP OF STRATEGIC INSIGHTS & ANALYTICS

LOCATION:

Chicago, IL

FLSA CLASSIFICATION: [EXEMPT]

THE ORGANIZATION

Through clinical services, education, and research, The Family Institute at Northwestern University is one of the nation’s leading relationship-based behavioral organizations committed to strengthening and healing children and adolescents, couples, families, and individuals. When you join The Family Institute, you are joining a team of over 230 collaborators comprised of clinicians, educators, researchers, therapists-in-training, partners, and administrators across three service sites.

We are a strong, independent organization focused on advancing the world of behavioral health.

Learn more about our culture.

THE ROLE

We are seeking a Data & Automation Engineer to join the Analytics team at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. This role designs and implements scalable data and workflow automation to support education programs, clinical services, and shared services (HR, finance, facilities, and IT). The ideal candidate will have deep experience in Power Platform (Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, Microsoft Lists), a strong understanding of data architecture, and a proven ability to translate organizational needs into actionable tools and insights in a HIPAA/FERPA-constrained environment.

This position will increase operational efficiency, enable data-driven, and reduce manual work across departments. The engineer will report to and partner closely with the VP of Strategic Insights & Analytics to prioritize projects and deliver solutions with enterprise-level impact.

• Design scalable, governed data architectures to support education, clinical, and shared services reporting.
• Build, optimize, and maintain Power BI semantic models and report suites; enforce consistent metric definitions via shared datasets and certification.
• Implement data quality checks (e.g., anomaly detection, completeness, referential integrity) and lineage & documentation (e.g., dataset descriptions, field definitions).

• Lead the automation of high-volume or manual workflows using Power Automate and Copilot agents to intelligently route tasks, summarize inputs, and recommend next steps based on historical patterns.
• Develop and maintain Power Apps, Microsoft Lists, and Microsoft Forms to streamline data collection and operational processes.
• Collaborate with HR, Finance, Facilities, and IT (shared services) to design cross-departmental automation pilots that increase efficiency and reduce redundancies.

• Establish solution lifecycle standards (design - build - deploy - maintain) to ensure automations and reports are sustainable, documented, and supportable.
• Apply security and compliance best practices — including data loss prevention (DLP), role-based access, and least-privilege principles — across Power BI, Power Platform apps, and related data sources; ensure compliance with HIPAA, FERPA, and TFI policies.
• Maintain clear documentation (data flows, dependencies, ownership) and handoff guides to reduce risk and enable continuity.

• Run a transparent intake and prioritization process (request app, SLAs, scoring) with the VP of Strategic Insights & Analytics to manage the project pipeline.
• Partner with Clinical Operations, Education, HR, Finance, Facilities, and IT to map processes and deliver sustainable, high-impact solutions.
• Contribute to data governance by defining metrics, ownership, and review cadences, and by promoting consistent definitions across departments.
• Develop training and adoption resources (quick-start guides, FAQs, Copilot assistants, office hours) to drive self-service and long-term solution success.
• Stay current with Power Platform, Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, and emerging AI capabilities; recommend approaches that incorporate Copilot agents to improve scalability, usability, and cost-efficiency.
• Create quick-start guides, embedded help, and short how-to videos; enable super-users/champions and host office hours.
• Perform other duties as assigned by manager for business necessity.

• Extensive experience with Power BI, including building, optimizing, and troubleshooting semantic models and reports.
• Proficiency in Power Automate, Power Apps, Microsoft Forms, and Microsoft Lists.
• Experience with ETL processes, integrating data from multiple sources, including cloud-hosted applications and APIs.
• Familiarity with SQL or other data querying languages.
• Proven ability to develop workflow automations and streamline operational processes, including leveraging AI and/or leveraging Copilot agents to enhance decision-making, reduce manual effort, and intelligently guide users through complex workflows.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to…