Principal Data Engineering Manager

Reward; England; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech firm in the UK is searching for an experienced Principal Data Engineering Manager to lead their data engineering function. In this strategic role, you will focus on technical leadership, team development, and execution of enterprise-scale data initiatives. Candidates should have extensive experience in data engineering, cloud technologies, and a solid background in AWS services. The position offers a hybrid working model, competitive benefits, and a chance to drive impactful data solutions.

Benefits

25 days annual leave + bank holidays

Flexible working options

Pension plan with up to 6% matched contribution

Private healthcare - Bupa

Generous family friendly cover

Employee share scheme

Income protection

Critical illness cover

Life insurance cover

Dental and optical cover

Volunteering program

Team socials and company events

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in data engineering and cloud technologies.
• 5+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Proven track record of delivering complex data projects at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of Data Engineers, fostering collaboration and innovation.
• Drive delivery excellence for data projects within scope and on time.
• Oversee the design and implementation of data platforms and frameworks.

Skills

Data engineering

Cloud technologies

AWS services (EC2, Glue, Lambda, S3, Redshift)

Python

Data governance

Data management

Data quality

Data lineage frameworks

Modern data frameworks (Spark, Airflow, DBT)

Terraform

Relational databases (MSSQL)

Job description

About Reward

Founded in 2001, Reward is an industry leader transforming the world of customer engagement and commerce media. Operating in 15 countries across Europe, Middle East and Asia, Reward’s cloud-based API platform integrates content, advertising, and commerce to deliver exceptional experiences for consumers resulting in increased customer engagement, retention, and overall satisfaction.

Reward’s Loyalty-tech platform is behind many award‑winning bank loyalty programmes seen today from brands such as Visa, NatWest Group, Barclays, and First Abu Dhabi Bank to name a few. Reward also works with the world’s largest retailers such as McDonald’s, eBay, Deliveroo and Amazon.

Their leading commerce media platform fuses purchase insights with loyalty‑tech, offering an unparalleled edge in digital advertising and performance marketing for retailers. Leveraging rich data and insights, the Reward platform provides a comprehensive view of consumer behaviour, empowering retailers to target marketing messages more effectively, resulting in independently verified sales uplift and long‑term customer lifetime value.

Beyond bridging the gap between content and commerce, Reward is a purpose driven business. Their mission is to make everyday spending more rewarding. During the last 5 years, Reward has proudly given back more than $1billion in cashback rewards to consumers world‑wide.

Most recently, Reward’s rapid growth was recognised in The Independent’s E2ETech100 list of fastest growing tech scale‑ups in the UK. Reward, in conjunction with partners NatWest Group, was also awarded the Industry Achievement Award 2023 at the prestigious Card and Payments Awards.

Role Summary

We are seeking an experienced Principal Data Engineering Manager to lead our Data Engineering function and drive delivery excellence across complex, enterprise‑scale data initiatives. This strategic role blends technical leadership, people management, and delivery oversight to ensure the development of high‑quality, scalable, and compliant data solutions. You will build and mentor a high‑performing team, guide technical direction, and ensure alignment between data engineering capabilities and business objectives.

Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Data Engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Provide coaching, training, and performance management to grow technical and professional capabilities within the team.

Delivery & Execution

• Drive delivery excellence, ensuring projects are completed on time, within scope, and to the highest quality standards.
• Manage resource allocation, prioritisation, and risk mitigation across multiple concurrent projects.
• Produce clear and concise documentation and reporting for leadership and key stakeholders.

Technical Ownership

• Oversee the design and implementation of data platforms, pipelines, and frameworks that support enterprise analytics, reporting, and operational needs.
• Champion best practices in cloud based data engineering, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and compliance.
• Implement and enforce data governance, data lineage, data quality, and data management frameworks across the organisation.

Stakeholder Management

• Partner with senior business and technology stakeholders to translate business requirements into actionable technical roadmaps.
• Collaborate cross functionally to ensure data engineering solutions meet strategic and operational goals.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in data engineering and cloud technologies.
• 5+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Strong expertise with AWS services such as EC2, Glue, Lambda, S3, and Redshift.
• Proficiency in Python for data engineering and automation tasks.
• Proven track record of delivering complex data projects at scale.
• Expertise in data governance, data management, data quality, and data lineage frameworks.
• Hands on experience with modern data frameworks (e.g., Spark, Airflow, DBT).
• Experience with Terraform and infrastructure as code practices.
• Strong understanding of relational database concepts, including MSSQL.

The Benefits

• Annual Leave : 25 days + bank holidays
• Ability to buy and sell holiday days as well as the ability to bank days (tenure dependant)
• Flexible working options : we are operating a hybrid working model with 3 days a week from the office
• Pension : Hargreaves Lansdown – up to 6% matched contribution
• Employee share scheme
• Generous family friendly cover
• Private healthcare - Bupa
• Income protection
• Critical illness cover
• Life insurance cover
• Dental cover
• Optical cover
• Yulife app for access to employee wellbeing and discounts
• Perks at Work, cashback / discount shopping site
• Employee referral scheme
• Salary sacrifice program which includes cycle to work scheme, electric car scheme and season ticket loans
• Volunteering program
• Company events i.e. Christmas party, all-company event and other social / hosted events during the year (we have an active social committee!)
• Team socials