Principal Data Engineer

Via; Greater London, Leicester; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

£6,000 car allowance

Up to 25% discretionary bonus

Job summary

Via is partnering with a major UK consumer business looking for a Principal Data Engineer to provide technical and people leadership across its data engineering capability.

This senior role blends data architecture, engineering leadership and hands-on problem solving to shape a cloud-first data platform and deliver trusted, scalable data products.

Qualifications

• Experience as a senior or principal data engineer with leadership responsibilities.
• Ability to design and evolve modern cloud data platforms.
• Strong knowledge of Snowflake and cloud data services.
• Experience with Terraform and CI/CD practices.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and lead technically.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across the data engineering function.
• Shape the architecture and evolution of a modern cloud-first enterprise data platform.
• Design scalable, reliable and cost-effective data solutions.
• Lead technical solution design across complex data initiatives.
• Work with Snowflake, AWS and dbt; guide data pipelines and data products.
• Mentor and develop Lead Data Engineers; contribute to recruitment and capability building.

Skills

Data engineering leadership

Cloud architecture

Snowflake

AWS

Mentoring engineers

Stakeholder management

CI/CD concepts

Tools

Snowflake

AWS

dbt

Terraform

Python/Node

Job description

By clicking Apply, you'll be taken to the Via website to complete your application. This doesn't guarantee you'll be matched to this specific role - Via reviews every application (AI first, then a human checks the fit) and shortlists the right candidates. Your profile also stays active for other relevant roles on the platform, and stays anonymous until you match. It takes just a few minutes.

Salary: Up to £125,000 per year

Car allowance: £6,000 per year

Bonus: Up to 25% discretionary bonus

Location: London or Leicester

Working arrangement: Hybrid – 2 days per week in the office

Full-time | Permanent

About the opportunity

Via is partnering with a major UK consumer business looking for a Principal Data Engineer to provide technical and people leadership across its data engineering capability.

This is a senior role combining data architecture, engineering leadership, people development and hands‑on technical problem solving.

You'll act as a key technical authority for a modern cloud‑first data platform, helping shape its architecture while ensuring the business can deliver trusted, scalable and cost‑effective data products.

The environment includes Snowflake, AWS and dbt, and you'll work closely with Data Engineering, Product, Enterprise Architecture and Technology leadership.

What you'll be doing

• Provide technical leadership across the data engineering function
• Shape the architecture and evolution of a modern cloud‑first enterprise data platform
• Design scalable, reliable and cost‑effective data solutions
• Lead technical solution design across complex data initiatives
• Work extensively with Snowflake, AWS and dbt
• Guide the development of data pipelines and enterprise data products
• Establish strong data modelling and engineering standards
• Work across conceptual, logical and physical data modelling
• Ensure technical solutions align with wider data and technology strategy
• Identify and address technical debt across core data platforms
• Monitor cloud and platform consumption and identify opportunities to optimise costs
• Own technical risks and issues across projects and programmes
• Support the resolution of service and production issues across the data ecosystem
• Provide estimates and technical input into engineering and product planning
• Mentor and develop Lead Data Engineers
• Support the development of the wider Data Engineering team
• Contribute to recruitment, onboarding, performance and career development
• Work closely with Product, Architecture and Technology teams
• Evaluate emerging technologies and introduce relevant engineering practices

What we're looking for

• Significant experience in senior or principal-level data engineering
• Strong technical leadership experience
• Extensive experience designing and developing modern cloud data platforms
• Strong Snowflake experience, or significant experience with comparable modern cloud data platforms
• Strong AWS experience
• Experience with services such as S3, Lambda, SQS, Kinesis or Firehose
• Programming experience with Python, Node or another relevant language
• Strong understanding of dimensional modelling
• Experience designing scalable data pipelines and data products
• Infrastructure-as-code experience, ideally Terraform
• Good understanding of CI/CD and modern engineering practices
• Experience with GitHub, GitLab or similar development tooling
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture and platform design
• Experience managing technical risk and making complex engineering decisions
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
• Experience coaching and mentoring technical colleagues
• Experience developing senior engineers and engineering capability

Useful additional experience

• Power BI or ThoughtSpot
• Automated testing and data quality practices
• Cloud consumption and cost optimisation
• Technical recruitment and talent development

You don't need experience with every individual technology listed. We're particularly interested in experienced Data Engineering leaders who combine strong cloud architecture and modern data stack knowledge with the ability to develop engineers and influence technical strategy.

Why apply?

• Salary up to £125,000
• £6,000 annual car allowance
• Up to 25% discretionary bonus
• Hybrid working with 2 days per week in London or Leicester
• Pension
• Annual leave
• Principal-level technical ownership and influence
• Work with Snowflake, AWS and dbt at enterprise scale
• Shape the future architecture of a major cloud data platform
• Significant technical leadership responsibility
• Opportunity to develop and mentor experienced Data Engineers
• Strong learning and development opportunities

With the £6,000 car allowance and maximum discretionary bonus, the total potential annual cash package can exceed £160,000, alongside the ShareSave scheme and wider benefits