Associate Director Data Engineering

AstraZeneca plc; Barcelona; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

AstraZeneca plc in Barcelona is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to shape data products for the Oncology R&D organisation. This in-office role requires on-site work a minimum of three days per week; remote or travel flexibility is not available.

You will build and maintain data infrastructure and pipelines for extraction, transformation, and loading, collaborating with data scientists to meet the data needs of the organization.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or Bioinformatics.
• 5 years of relevant experience in data engineering or related field.
• Strong Python proficiency with data libraries (pandas, numpy/scipy, polars).
• Experience with diverse data sources (HDFS, SQL, NoSQL).
• Familiarity with HPC/cloud/unix-linux compute environments.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain data infrastructure and pipelines for data products and analyses.
• Collaborate with data scientists to design data systems meeting needs.
• Implement data ingestion, transformation, and storage in a FAIR, high-quality way.
• Ensure reliability, scalability, and performance of data systems.
• Implement data governance to secure privacy and integrity of data.
• Collaborate with data team to deliver data products and services.
• Stay updated on new data engineering technologies and best practices.

Skills

Python

Pandas

NumPy/ SciPy

Polars

Education

Master's degree in CS/Engineering/Bioinformatics

Tools

HDFS

SQL

NoSQL

Airflow

Prefect

Dagster

AWS Glue

Job description

This is an in-office role based in Barcelona, ES, with a requirement to work a minimum of three days per week on‑site. Remote or travel flexibility is not available.

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Data Engineer to join our dynamic team. You will significantly impact the role of data engineering on the delivery of Data Products to the Oncology R&D organisation. Ensuring we are continuously advancing our data stack as well as our automation and observability capabilities will be central to your work.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Building and maintaining the infrastructure and pipelines for extracting, transforming, and loading data for use in data products and analyses.
• Working with data scientists and other stakeholders to understand the data needs and requirements of the organization and designing data systems and pipelines to meet these needs.
• Implementing data ingestion, transformation, and storage systems in a FAIR and high-quality way
• Ensuring the reliability, scalability, and performance of data systems and pipelines.
• Implementing data governance policies and procedures to ensure the security, privacy, and integrity of data.
• Collaborating with other members of the data team to build and maintain data products and services.
• Staying up-to-date with new technologies and best practices in the field of data engineering

Essential Requirements

• Computer Science, Engineering, or Bioinformatics background (Master level) with 5 years of relevant experience
• Deep knowledge of Python and vast experience with Python data and scientific libraries like pandas, numpy/scipy, polars, etc
• An ability to interact with various data sources, both structured and unstructured (e.g. HDFS, SQL, noSQL)
• Experience working across multiple scientific compute environments to create data workflows and pipelines (e.g. HPC, cloud, Unix/Linux systems)
• Understanding of the FAIR data principles and how they apply to the delivery of integrated X-Omics solutions
• Deep understanding of typical data quality issues, cleaning and masking techniques

Desirable Skills

• Experience working with metadata models, controlled vocabularies and ontologies
• Experience with deploying data pipelines using orchestration services: Airflow/Prefect/AWS Glue/Dagster/etc.
• Experience using AWS services: S3/EBS, EC2, CloudWatch, SNS and Lambda.
• Understanding of software development, testing and quality processes, experience with testing frameworks and documentation
• Expertise with biological/health data, especially NGS and other ‘omic technologies.
• Ability to understand, map, integrate, and document complex data relationship and business rules.

#EAI

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.