About Careertakes

👉 Important disclosure: Careertakes is a third-party recruiting platform supporting this hiring process. If selected, you will be employed directly by our client, IT services and technology staffing.

Applicants for this role may also receive access to additional matched opportunities through the Careertakes platform.

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Role overview

Careertakes is partnering with a Confidential Client to find entry-level engineers and software programmers for full-time roles in Blacksburg, VA. This position is ideal for early-career candidates (recent grads, career-switchers, or those returning after a gap) who want hands-on experience in software development, data engineering, or machine learning with employer-facing placement support and skills coaching.

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What You’ll Do

• Build and maintain code for data pipelines, model prototypes, or web applications using Python, Java, or full‑stack tooling
• Support data cleaning, exploratory analysis, and basic feature engineering for ML experiments
• Contribute to unit tests, code reviews, and documentation to keep projects production-ready
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, data, QA) to translate business problems into technical tasks
• Demonstrate results through small project deliverables, dashboards, or a code/portfolio sample recruiters can review

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Who we’re looking for

• Early-career candidates: recent CS/Engineering/Math/Statistics grads, career changers, or candidates with limited hands-on experience
• People motivated to build a practical portfolio (projects, dashboards, sample code) and to demonstrate measurable outcomes
• Candidates who can explain technical work clearly for hiring managers (e.g., “walk me through this chart” and live SQL queries)
• Team players who are coachable and eager to learn modern stacks and best practices

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Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Statistics, or equivalent practical experience
• Familiarity with at least one programming language: Python or Java
• Basic SQL skills and comfort interrogating data for insights
• Willingness to build a visible portfolio (projects, notebooks, dashboards, GitHub)
• Strong problem-solving, clear communication, and willingness to learn on the job

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Preferred / Nice-to-have

• Experience or coursework in machine learning fundamentals (supervised learning, evaluation metrics)
• Exposure to full‑stack or DevOps concepts (APIs, basic cloud usage, deployment pipelines)
• Any project or internship work in data analysis, data engineering, or software development
• Familiarity with BI tools or visualization libraries (Tableau, Power BI, matplotlib, etc.)

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Compensation & location

• Location: Blacksburg, VA (on-site / local — candidates must be willing to work in/near Blacksburg)
• Estimated compensation (from source): $131,123 per year (estimated). Actual salary will depend on role, experience, and client requirements.
• Employment type: Full‑time

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Recruiting & next steps — what to expect

Careertakes is a third‑party recruiter managing candidate introductions for this Confidential Client. Typical steps we recommend to succeed in this process:

• Prepare a short portfolio (1–3 projects) that highlights tools used, the problem solved, and measurable impact
• Be ready to demonstrate SQL basics and walk through a chart or code sample in interviews
• Upload a current resume; our team may help align your resume to employer expectations and share your profile with the Confidential Client if you match requirements
• If your profile advances, expect human review and client interviews — AI tools may be used to assist screening, but hiring decisions are made by people

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Why candidates choose this process

Careertakes and our Confidential Client focus on closing the gap between academic learning and employer expectations. Candidates who engage with the recommended prep (portfolio + concrete outcomes) typically get stronger interview traction than those who rely on single-click applications.

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Equal Opportunity & Hiring Transparency

Careertakes and our client are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind.
To support a fair and efficient hiring process, AI tools may be used to assist with application review or resume screening. These tools do not replace human decision-making. Final hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions about how your data is used, please contact us directly.