Data Engineer

Fourth; Macclesfield; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holidays 25+ with birthday off

Hybrid working

Laptop and equipment

Healthcare expense claims

Certifications support

Annual meet ups

Pension and life insurance

Cycle to work

On-demand pay

Job summary

Fourth is seeking a Data Engineer to design, build, and maintain data pipelines and models on an Azure-based cloud platform. You will collaborate with analytics engineers and business stakeholders to deliver data products for FP&A, Commercial, Product, and AI teams.

The role emphasizes AI-native, scalable data infrastructure, governance, testing, and cost optimization within a collaborative, hybrid environment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in data engineering or closely related role.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field.

Responsibilities

• Build, maintain, and optimise scalable ETL/ELT pipelines on Azure Data Cloud Platform.
• Develop and refine data models to support BI reporting and ML/AI use cases.
• Write efficient T-SQL and PySpark code following team standards.
• Contribute to data governance, testing, and CI/CD pipelines.

Skills

T-SQL

PySpark

Python

Azure

Git

CI/CD

English

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Azure Data Factory

Microsoft Fabric

SSMS

Azure Storage Explorer

Git

Job description

Our Story

In July 2019, Fourth joined forces with HotSchedules to become the global leader in end-to-end restaurant and hospitality management technology solutions. Together, the merged company now represents the world’s largest and only provider of end-to-end restaurant and hospitality management solutions for customers across the globe and of all sizes, from a single location or franchisee restaurant to a global restaurant or hotel chain. The combined company’s complete software-as-service (SaaS) solution suite including scheduling, time & attendance, applicant tracking, training, inventory management / procurement, HR / benefits and payroll services now serves customers in 120,000 locations worldwide and is supported by a dedicated, unified team across offices in the US, UK, Bulgaria, China, Australia, and UAE.

Interested in joining our smart, fun, and talented team?

Position Overview

As a Data Engineer on the Enterprise Data & Intelligence team, you will design, build, and maintain the data pipelines and models that underpin Fourth’s single source of truth. You will gather and translate business requirements into reliable, well-tested data solutions on our Azure-based cloud platform. You will collaborate closely with analytics engineers and business stakeholders to scope, prioritise, and deliver data products that serve FP&A, Commercial, Product, and AI teams. As Fourth moves towards an AI-native operating model, you will play a key role in building and maintaining the data infrastructure that enables AI-powered analytics and decision-making across the business.

Responsibilities:

Data Pipeline Development & Optimisation

• Build, maintain, and optimise scalable ETL/ELT pipelines (batch and near-real-time) on Azure Data Cloud Platform (e.g., Data Lake, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Factory).
• Develop and refine data models to support BI reporting, analytics, and ML/AI use cases.
• Write efficient, well-documented T-SQL and PySpark code following team coding standards.

Data Quality, Testing & Governance

• Implement automated testing, data validation, and monitoring (SLAs, alerts) to ensure pipeline reliability.
• Contribute to data governance practices, including lineage tracking, metadata management, and quality controls.
• Support CI/CD pipelines for data assets, ensuring version control and reproducibility.

Requirements Scoping & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Analytics Engineers to scope, refine, and prioritise data requirements from business stakeholders.
• Work with Analysts, BI Developers, Data Scientists, and business teams to translate requirements into production-ready data solutions.
• Provide input on data readiness for machine learning and analytics projects.

Platform Contribution & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to the evolution of the data platform, including tooling, standards, and documentation.
• Stay current with emerging data engineering patterns and technologies; propose improvements to team processes.
• Use AI as an integral part of the development workflow: code generation, data profiling, testing, documentation, and task management.
• Contribute to building a data platform that is AI-ready: well-documented, semantically clear, and structured for reliable consumption by AI tools and agents.
• Support performance tuning and cost optimisation across the data platform.

Key Skills And Competencies

• 3+ years in data engineering or a closely related role.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field.

Technical Skills:

• Strong T-SQL skills and working proficiency in PySpark or Python for data processing.
• Hands‑on experience with MS Azure Storage Explorer and SSMS.
• Hands‑on experience with cloud-based data engineering services and orchestration tools (e.g., Azure Data Factory, Microsoft Fabric).
• Practical experience building ETL/ELT pipelines and dimensional or analytical data models.
• Familiarity with CI/CD practices in data engineering, including version control (Git) and automated testing.
• Active use of AI productivity tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Cursor) as an integrated part of development, testing, documentation, and day‑to‑day engineering workflows.

Soft Skills:

• Ability to work collaboratively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Good documentation habits and a willingness to communicate technical concepts clearly.
• Proactive and timely communication on progress, blockers, and dependencies with stakeholders and team members.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset.
• Proactive, detail‑oriented, and comfortable working in an agile, fast-paced environment.
• Proficiency in English, both spoken and written.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with real-time or streaming data architectures.
• Experience with PowerShell, Apache Kafka, and/or KQL.
• Exposure to AI/ML workflows (feature engineering, data preparation for model training).
• Familiarity with Power BI or other BI/visualisation tools.
• Understanding of data security, privacy, and compliance considerations.

Benefits

• Holidays. We all need to rest so you get 25 basic holidays with the option to grow up to 30 with service + your birthday off + bank holidays!
• Flexible working! Use our flexible working hours and hybrid working environments to manage it.
• Wellness activities and a lot of pampering included. On top of that, you can add gym subscription discounts.
• Laptop and equipment.
• Healthcare expense claim tools!
• Like in life, at work we also want you to grow with certifications.
• Annual meet ups!
• Enhanced parenting scheme!
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan provided.
• Pension and life insurance? Several, for you to choose what looks convenient.
• On demand pay tools for you to be able to access salary even before the end of the month!

All personal data provided by you in your application will be processed by Fourth LTD solely for our recruitment purposes. More information on Fourth LTD's privacy policy for job candidates is available here and by applying you confirm that you have read it.

Fourth is an Equal Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without discrimination because of sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, age, national origin, military status, religion, or disability or any other legally protected status.