Principal Data Engineer — Hybrid Data Platform Leader

Very Group; Liverpool; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible hybrid working model

Inclusive culture and environment

£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%

Career site for more benefits

Job summary

Very Group in the United Kingdom is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to be a key technical voice within our Data Science and Engineering team, shaping the future of our data platforms and engineering practices while remaining hands-on.

You'll collaborate with Architects, Engineering leaders and cross‑functional squads to build scalable, observable data solutions, driving innovation and engineering excellence across the organisation.

Qualifications

• Experienced Data Engineer with leadership and mentoring skills.
• Strong track record building data platforms at scale.
• Ability to influence across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Hands‑on with data engineering tools and modern development practices.

Responsibilities

• Shape the technical direction of our data platforms and define the roadmap for growth.
• Solve complex engineering challenges to improve scale, reliability and performance.
• Act as a trusted technical leader across multiple squads and guide architectural decisions.
• Coach and mentor engineers to grow their skills and careers.
• Create automated, observable data solutions to enable faster and safer delivery.

Skills

Data platform design

Leadership

Mentoring

System design

Tools

Apache Spark

Kafka

Airflow

Job description

Very Group in the United Kingdom is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to be a key technical voice within our Data Science and Engineering team, shaping the future of our data platforms and engineering practices while remaining hands-on.

You'll collaborate with Architects, Engineering leaders and cross‑functional squads to build scalable, observable data solutions, driving innovation and engineering excellence across the organisation.