Hands-On Principal Data Engineer — Build Modern Data Platforms

Simple Machines; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Interesting, high-impact problems

Modern platforms (data engineering/AI)

Autonomy and growth

Job summary

Simple Machines is seeking a hands-on Principal Data Engineer to lead architecture and platform design across cloud-native data platforms. You will own end-to-end architecture, build real-time pipelines, and work directly with clients to shape data-driven solutions.

You will shape data mesh, data products, and data contracts, using Python, Spark, AWS/GCP, and modern tooling. Join a consultancy delivering high-impact data platforms and governance with security-by-design.

Qualifications

• > Hands-on principal engineering role responsible for technical direction, platform design and architectural decision-making.
• > Design and build greenfield data platforms, real-time pipelines, and data products for clients.
• > Work in small, high-calibre teams, close to problem and client.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture of modern, cloud-native data platforms.
• Design scalable data ecosystems using data mesh, data products, and data contracts.
• Build and optimise batch and real-time pipelines; work with Kafka, Flink, Kinesis, Pub/Sub.

Skills

Python

SQL

Spark

Databricks

Snowflake

AWS

GCP

Data modelling

Architecture

Tools

Terraform

Pulumi

GitHub Actions

ArgoCD

dbt

Great Expectations

Soda

Airflow

Job description

Simple Machines is seeking a hands-on Principal Data Engineer to lead architecture and platform design across cloud-native data platforms. You will own end-to-end architecture, build real-time pipelines, and work directly with clients to shape data-driven solutions.

You will shape data mesh, data products, and data contracts, using Python, Spark, AWS/GCP, and modern tooling. Join a consultancy delivering high-impact data platforms and governance with security-by-design.