Principal Data Engineer

The-Very-Group; Liverpool; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible, hybrid working

£1000 flexible benefits allowance

30 days holiday + bank holidays

LinkedIn Learning access

Bonus potential

Up to 25% discount on Very.co.uk

Matched pension up to 6%

Job summary

The Very Group in the United Kingdom seeks a hands-on Principal Data Engineer to lead data enablement and guide the evolution of our data platform. You will partner with Engineering Managers, Product Managers and senior engineers to solve complex problems and raise engineering standards across initiatives.

You will stay hands-on, mentoring teams and influencing technology choices while driving performance, reliability and cost optimisation for data services used by millions of Very customers.

Qualifications

• Experience building and supporting production data solutions.
• Strong knowledge of AWS cloud services, including S3, EKS, Lambda, SNS, EventBridge, and IAM.
• Strong coding skills in Python and SQL; exposure to Java or Scala beneficial.
• Experience with data lakes, data warehouses, Lakehouse technologies, or enterprise data platforms.
• Experience working with version control, CI/CD, and modern engineering practices.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across multiple teams and initiatives.
• Design scalable, resilient, and secure data architectures.
• Build and evolve cloud-native data platforms and services.
• Lead the design and implementation of complex data engineering solutions.
• Drive improvements in performance, scalability, reliability, and cost optimisation.
• Set engineering standards through code reviews, reusable patterns, and best practices.
• Support engineers through coaching, mentoring, and technical leadership.
• Collaborate with Product, Platform, and Architecture teams to align technical direction with business priorities.
• Lead investigations into complex production issues and drive long-term improvements.
• Identify technical risks and opportunities, helping to shape the future roadmap of the platform.

Skills

AWS

Python

SQL

Java/Scala (beneficial)

Iceberg

Starburst

Teradata

HVR

Data architectures

CI/CD

Version control

Mentoring

Tools

Iceberg

Starburst

Teradata

HVR

Job description

Internal use only - Grade E

About us

We’re the team behind digital retailer Very.

Our purpose, helping families get more out of life, powers everything we do.

And we want our people to get more out of life too! If you’re high-performing, ambitious and make the most of every opportunity, we want to hear from you. In return, you’ll enjoy heaps of flexibility, great perks and benefits, and the freedom to be yourself, keep learning and take your career wherever you want it to go.

If you love making a difference, you’ll love making it sparkle for millions of Very customers.

About the Role

You’ll be one of the technical experts within the Data Enablement team, a hands-on Principal Data Engineer at the heart of our data transformation.

You’ll work across multiple initiatives, partnering with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, and other senior engineers to solve complex technical problems, improve our engineering practices, and guide the evolution of our platform.

You’ll remain hands-on, leading by example through architecture, design, coding, mentoring, and technical decision-making. You’ll have the opportunity to influence technology choices, define engineering standards, and build solutions that will shape the future of data at Very.

You’ll help drive the future of data engineering at Very by:

• Providing technical leadership across multiple teams and initiatives.
• Designing scalable, resilient, and secure data architectures.
• Building and evolving cloud-native data platforms and services.
• Leading the design and implementation of complex data engineering solutions.
• Driving improvements in performance, scalability, reliability, and cost optimisation.
• Setting engineering standards through code reviews, reusable patterns, and best practices.
• Supporting engineers through coaching, mentoring, and technical leadership.
• Collaborating with Product, Platform, and Architecture teams to align technical direction with business priorities.
• Leading investigations into complex production issues and driving long-term improvements.
• Identifying technical risks and opportunities, helping to shape the future roadmap of the platform.

About you

You’ll be an experienced engineer who enjoys solving difficult problems and helping others succeed.

You’ll likely bring:

• Experience building and supporting production data solutions.
• Strong knowledge of AWS cloud services, including technologies such as Amazon S3, EKS, Lambda, SNS, EventBridge, and IAM.
• Strong coding skills in Python and SQL, with exposure to Java or Scala being beneficial.
• Experience with technologies such as Iceberg, Starburst, Teradata, HVR, or similar enterprise data platforms would be beneficial.
• Experience working with data lakes, data warehouses, Lakehouse technologies, or enterprise data platforms.
• A solid understanding of modern data engineering concepts such as data ingestion, change data capture (CDC), data modelling, and analytics.
• Experience working with version control, CI/CD, and modern engineering practices.
• A collaborative mindset and a willingness to learn from others.
• A desire to continually improve both your own skills and the platform around you.

Some of our benefits

• Flexible, hybrid working model
• Inclusive culture and environment, check out our Glassdoor reviews

• £1000 flexible benefits allowance to suit your needs
• 30 days holiday + bank holidays
• LinkedIn Learning access
• Bonus potential (performance and business-related)
• Up to 25% discount on Very.co.uk

• Matched pension up to 6%
• More benefits can be found on our career site

You will be required to undertake a credit, CIFAS, Right to Work checks and if a specific requirement of your role a DBS (criminal records) check. Should your application progress we require you to let the team know if there is anything you need to disclose in relation to any of these checks prior to them being undertaken, including any unspent criminal convictions.

What happens next?

Our talent acquisition team will be in touch if you’re successful so keep an eye on your emails! We’ll arrange a short call to learn more about you, as well as answer any questions you have. If it feels like we’re a good match, we’ll share your CV with the hiring manager to review. Our interview process is tailored to each role and can be in-person or held remotely.

You can expect a two stage interview process for this position:

1st Stage - 30 Minutes Teams call - likely with our Data Engineering Manager, we will then share a Take Home Task.

2nd Stage - A one hour technical interview to discuss your take home test in more detail.

As an inclusive employer please do let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.

If you’re interested you can find out more about our interviews.

Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities

We’re building a culture of everyday inclusion, and welcome applications from anyone who believes they can do the job. We don’t discriminate based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

We want our recruitment process to be accessible to everyone. If you need reasonable adjustments to apply, interview, or perform a role, let us know via [e-mail]. We’ll be happy to support you.

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Committed Employer and have nine brilliant colleague networks - including DAWN (Disability Awareness at Very) and Think (Neurodiversity at Very) - that are helping us make Very an even more inclusive place to work.