Principal Data Engineer

SKY; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free Sky TV or NOW package

Pension package with up to 9% employer

Private healthcare with mental health

Aviva Digital GP and dental insurance

Discounts on Sky products

Sharesave and Tech schemes

Sky VIP rewards

Job summary

Sky is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead data engineering initiatives, shaping cloud-native data platforms and architecture. You will partner with Solution Architects, advance engineering maturity, and set standards across multiple squads.

You will drive design of scalable data models, CI/CD pipelines, and AI-ready capabilities, while aligning with Sky’s data strategy and business goals. Hybrid work, Osterley campus, and global impact.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in cloud data engineering, distributed processing, and enterprise-scale data architecture.
• Excellent GCP/Python and/or Node JS knowledge, and CI/CD experience (Jenkins).
• Master-level SQL proficiency with BigQuery, performance tuning, and peer code reviews.
• Design scalable data models and semantic layers aligned to business meaning; data profiling and anomaly detection.

Responsibilities

• Act as technical lead for engineers in an agile environment; uplift capability and engineering maturity.
• Define and guide technical architecture for complex data products and platforms; bridge Data Engineering and Data Architecture.
• Establish engineering standards, patterns, and best practices across squads.

Skills

Cloud data engineering

Distributed processing

GCP

Python/NodeJS

CI/CD

Jenkins

SQL

BigQuery

Data modelling

Data profiling

Anomaly detection

Statistical reasoning

Stakeholder collaboration

Data quality

Data governance

Security handling

Communication skills

Job description

Job Description

We don’t just believe in better. We make it happen. Better content. Better products. And better careers.

Working in Tech, Product or Data at Sky is about building the next and the new. From broadband to broadcast, streaming to mobile, Sky Stream to Sky Glass, we never stand still. We optimise and innovate. We turn big ideas into the products, content and services millions of people love. And we do it all right here at Sky.

Team overview

Our vision is to enable Sky’s growth ambitions though Data and AI: deepening customer relationships, optimising commercial performance, and enhancing operational efficiency.

Principal Engineers

Principal Engineers operate within defined domains and provide leadership to our Solution Architects. With deep technical expertise, they act as Technical Leads, shaping future‑ready frameworks that support our strategic objectives. They set, evolve, and uphold engineering standards across the team, continually raising the bar for quality, innovation, and delivery.

As a senior role, Principal Engineers play a critical part in connecting Data Engineering with wider Technology and Architecture functions. They work collaboratively across teams to ensure alignment, consistency, and shared direction, enabling us to deliver our data strategy effectively and at scale.

What you’ll do

• Technical Mentorship: Act as the technical lead for all engineers working cross-functionally in an agile environment; act as a top-notch coder and expert in the domain, capable of deep diving into details of components and features, uplifting capability and shaping engineering maturity across the Domain.
• Architecture Partnership: Define and guide the technical architecture for complex, high impact data products and platforms. Manage Solution Architects and act as the natural bridge between Data Engineering and Data Architecture as well as colleagues in wider Technology.
• Standards Setting: Establish engineering and architectural patterns, coding standards, and best practices adopted across multiple squads.
• Design & Innovation: Translate sophisticated business and technical requirements into scalable, cloud native data solutions. Able to create and build frameworks to support CI/CD pipelines and future capability; drive adoption of new tools, technologies, and engineering approaches that support a cloud-agnostic, AI-ready future platform.
• Assurance & Excellence: Embed rigorous validation, profiling, reconciliation, and automated testing into all engineering work; lead monitoring, observability, and performance optimisation to ensure resilient, reliable data products.
• Strategic Influence: Partner with architects, product leaders, and senior stakeholders to shape roadmaps and platform direction. Work collaboratively with your Principal Engineer peers to ensure consistent and joined-up approaches to our biggest priorities and challenges. Communicating in both deeply technical and plain and simple terms.

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria

• Technical Mastery: Deep expertise in cloud data engineering, distributed processing, and enterprise-scale data architecture. Excellent GCP/Python and/or Node JS 8+ knowledge, and CI/CD experience (ideally with Jenkins).
• Advanced SQL: Master-level proficiency in SQL (ideally BigQuery), with strong optimisation and performance‑tuning skills. Experience following coding standards and performing peer code reviews.
• Data Modelling & Insight: Strong capability in designing intuitive, scalable data models and semantic layers aligned to business meaning; skilled in advanced data profiling, anomaly detection, and statistical reasoning to ensure data integrity.
• Collaboration: Able to influence senior stakeholders, simplify complex concepts, and build strong cross‑functional relationships.
• Technical Leadership: Expert in data quality frameworks, governance standards, and secure handling of sensitive data; connects engineering choices to long‑term platform strategy, organisational goals, and future scalability.
• Understanding: Uses deep business context within the specific Domain to shape proactive, value‑driven engineering decisions; also equipped with first‑class communication skills, able to grasp very complex data principles and processes, and decipher them in order to walk non‑experts through them and gain support.

Benefits and perks

• Free Sky TV or NOW package, including Sky Sports and Sky Cinema
• Pension packagewith up to 9% employer contribution
• Private healthcarewith mental health support
• Aviva Digital GP and dental insurance
• Discounts on Sky products, including Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband, Sky Glass and Sky Protect
• Sharesave and Tech schemes
• A range of Sky VIP rewards and experiences

How you’ll work

We've adopted a hybrid working approach to give more flexibility on where and how we work. The hybrid working expectations for this role are 2 days in the office per week.

Your office base

Osterley

Our Sky Group HQ. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology and workspaces, there’s plenty of space to see your big ideas come to life. Here you’ll find 13 subsidised restaurants and cafes. You can re‑energise at our gym, catch the latest films at our cinema, get your car washed and even get pampered at our beauty salon.

Our Osterley Campus is just a 10‑minute walk from Syon Lane train station, or you can get one of our free shuttle buses from Osterley, Gunnersbury and Ealing Broadway stations. Plus, there’s free onsite parking available for cars, motorbikes and bicycles.

Who we are

We’re Sky, a leading media and entertainment company who connect millions with entertainment, sports, news and arts through innovative products and services. Working with us means you’ll be bringing the joy of a better experience to more people, every day. All so we can do better and deliver better for our customers, colleagues and society.

We’re an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We're a Disability Confident Accredited Employer, and welcome and encourage applications from all candidates.We will look to ensure a fair and consistent experience for all and will make reasonable adjustments to support you where appropriate. Please flag any adjustments you need as early as you can.

Just so you know: if your application is successful, we’ll ask you to complete a criminal record check. And depending on the role you have applied for and the nature of any convictions you may have, we might have to withdraw the offer.

To be eligible for this role you are required to have the appropriate right to work in the UK. Please be aware Sky does not offer sponsorship for this position.