Associate Director Data Engineering

AstraZeneca plc; España; On-site; EUR 65,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

AstraZeneca plc in Barcelona, Spain, is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to shape data products for Oncology R&D. This in-office role requires a minimum of three days on-site each week.

You will build data pipelines, collaborate with data scientists, ensure FAIR data practices, and drive reliability and governance across our data stack. Remote work is not available.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or Bioinformatics.
• 5+ years of relevant data engineering experience.
• Strong Python and data libraries (pandas, numpy/scipy, polars).
• Experience with structured and unstructured data sources (HDFS, SQL, noSQL).
• Experience across compute environments (HPC, cloud, Unix/Linux).
• Understanding of FAIR data principles and data governance.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain data pipelines and infrastructure for data products and analyses.
• Collaborate with data scientists and stakeholders to capture data needs and design scalable systems.
• Implement data ingestion, transformation, and storage in a FAIR and high-quality manner.
• Ensure reliability, scalability and performance of data systems and pipelines.
• Apply data governance policies to ensure data security, privacy and integrity.
• Collaborate with data team to build and maintain data products and services.
• Stay current with new technologies and best practices in data engineering.

Education

Master of Science in Computer Science

Master in Bioinformatics

Tools

Python

pandas

numpy/scipy

polars

HDFS

SQL

noSQL

Airflow

Prefect

AWS Glue

Dagster

EC2

CloudWatch

S3

Lambda

Unix/Linux

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.

#EAI

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.

Date Posted
23-oct-2026

Closing Date
29-oct-2026

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.