Principal Data Engineer - Ranking & Visibility (all genders)

Zalando; Berlin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days holiday

40% off fashion/beauty

Family support

Pension scheme

Employee shares

Wellbeing support

Training platform

Volunteering days

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Zalando seeks a Principal Data Engineer to lead data architecture, modeling, and engineering that power analytics, modeling, and data-driven products. You will transform complex upstream datasets into clean data layers used by scientists and analysts, bridging raw data streams to production execution.

You will collaborate with scientists, analysts, data engineers, product managers, and upstream stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or related field.
• 6+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Led design of pipelines or data platforms used by several teams.

Responsibilities

• Identify relevant tracking events and perform data modeling to build high-quality, standardized data products.
• Partner with Applied Scientists to productionize model prototypes into robust pipelines.
• Lead data modeling strategy across production datasets and model pipelines for long-term performance and maintainability.
• Design, build, and optimize pipelines with strict data quality, monitoring, and health standards.
• Mentor team members and drive large-scale data architecture initiatives across teams.

Skills

PySpark

Python

SQL

Data modeling

Data architecture

Mentoring

CI/CD

AWS

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science / Data Engineering / Software Engineering or related field

Tools

Airflow

Spark

Flink

CI/CD

AWS

Job description

THE ROLE & THE TEAM

As a Principal Data Engineer in our team, you will serve as the data architecture, data modeling, and engineering backbone that powers our analytics, statistical modeling, and data-driven products. You will transform complex, high-volume upstream datasets, including event tracking, into clean data layers utilized directly by Applied Scientists and Analysts. Your work will bridge the gap between raw data streams and production execution, translating complex upstream event signals into high-impact modeling inputs. Unlike a traditional data engineering role focused solely on infrastructure, this position carries an equally important mandate in data modeling and collaborative model productionization. You will work side-by-side with Applied Scientists to operationalize prototype models, ranging from classical statistical frameworks to machine learning, ensuring critical structural and architectural data choices are made to run them reliably at scale. You will collaborate closely with Applied Scientists, Analysts, Data Engineers, Product Managers, and upstream engineering stakeholders across the organization.

WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)

Identify relevant tracking events across complex streams, making intentional data modeling choices to build high-quality, standardized, and well-documented data products for downstream scientists and analysts. Partner directly with Applied Scientists to transform model prototypes (statistical or ML) into robust, maintainable, and low-latency production pipelines. Lead data modeling strategy across production datasets and model pipelines, making critical structural and schema decisions to ensure long-term performance, correctness, and maintainability. Design, build, and optimize pipelines, establishing rigorous standards for data quality, testability, monitoring, and pipeline health. Set engineering standards, mentor team members, and drive large-scale data architecture initiatives across multidisciplinary teams.

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF

You have a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or equivalent practical experience in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related quantitative field with 6+ years of relevant industry experience. You have led the design of pipelines or data platforms that several teams use, and can show measurable gains in reliability or cost. You have proven experience operationalizing prototype models developed by Applied Scientists into production execution environments. Strong Pyspark, Python and SQL skills, including maintainable code, software design principles, unit testing, debugging, and code reviews. Proven experience building and operating data pipelines, covering batch processing and real-time or streaming workloads, using technologies such as Apache Airflow, Apache Spark, and Apache Flink or equivalent frameworks. Strong understanding of databases, data modeling, distributed processing, and query and storage performance optimization. Experience operating production data pipelines, including monitoring, alerting, incident management, root cause analysis, and reliability and cost optimization. Hands-on CI/CD and cloud infrastructure, ideally AWS. Experience with statistical data modeling

OUR OFFER

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect.

• 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days)
• 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners
• Family support, including counselling and dedicated services for parents and carers
• Company pension scheme
• Employee shares programme
• Health and wellbeing options, including Wellhub Mental health support and coaching
• Development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review
• 2 paid volunteering days a year
• Relocation assistance (subject to prior agreement)

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading European technology platform for fashion and lifestyle – one that thrives on diversity and is truly inclusive by design. We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds. We actively seek to reduce bias in our hiring and employment processes, focusing on your qualifications, skills, and contributions. To support this, we kindly ask that you refrain from including personal details such as your photo, age, or marital status in your CV, ensuring a fair and equitable evaluation based solely on your abilities and potential. We are committed to providing an exceptional and accessible candidate experience for everyone. If you require any accommodations to support you throughout the hiring process, please let us know – we are here to assist you. Discover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion It’s the perfect time to join Zalando on our journey, from being a pioneer in the world of e-commerce, to the Starting Point for Fashion in Europe. We connect customers, brands, and partners across 25 markets. Help us drive digital and sustainable solutions for fashion, logistics, advertising and research, bringing head-to-toe fashion to 50 million active customers through a team of diverse skill-sets, cultural backgrounds, and interests. Our values do.More - our sustainability strategy Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/insidezalando