Lead Data Engineer — Data Mesh Architect (Remote 3 days/wk)

Vend; Helsinki; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Vend is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to bring our data strategy to life within a product organization. You will ensure data products are architecturally sound, documented, and highly usable for downstream consumers, not just technically present.

You will balance deep technical reviews with coaching product teams, driving data maturity across our four core verticals and collaborating with central platform teams to keep standards uniform.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in event-driven architecture, including Kafka designs, CDC, schema evolution, and both streaming and batch patterns.
• Experience navigating cloud data platforms (GCP/BigQuery or Snowflake) with data quality frameworks and observability tools.
• Natural educator and coach who enjoys scaling modern data practices across product teams.
• Thrives in federated data ownership models (Data Mesh) and guides cross-functional peers without direct authority.
• Strong English communication to translate technical choices into business value.

Responsibilities

• Ensure data products are architecturally sound and well documented.
• Coach product teams and align on data practices across verticals.
• Balance deep technical reviews with cross-functional collaboration.
• Own the lifecycle and evolution of data products, including versioning and deprecations.

Skills

Event-driven architecture

Kafka

GCP/BigQuery

Snowflake

Data Mesh

SQL/Observability

English communication

Tools

Kafka

GCP/BigQuery

Snowflake

Job description

Vend is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to bring our data strategy to life within a product organization. You will ensure data products are architecturally sound, documented, and highly usable for downstream consumers, not just technically present.

You will balance deep technical reviews with coaching product teams, driving data maturity across our four core verticals and collaborating with central platform teams to keep standards uniform.