Principal Engineer, Data Platforms

Just Eat Takeaway.com; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading online delivery platform is looking for a Principal Engineer to guide their Data Platforms strategy. In this role, you will shape the technical vision, ensuring scalable and reliable data systems. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in data engineering, proficiency in cloud-native environments, and skills in Python or Scala. This position offers a hybrid working model with opportunities to mentor engineers and influence technical standards, fostering an environment of growth and support.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in leading data engineering projects.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Strong adaptability in fast-paced environments.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision and roadmap for the Data Platform.
• Design the reference architecture for data infrastructure.
• Mentor Senior and Staff Engineers to raise technical standards.

Skills

Software and data engineering experience

Modern data stack proficiency

Cloud-native services for data platforms

Expert proficiency in Python, Scala, or Go

Strong communication and influence skills

Tools

Snowflake

BigQuery

Terraform

Airflow

Job description

Principal Engineer, Data Platforms

Ready for a challenge?

Then Just Eat Takeaway.com might be the place for you. We're a leading global online delivery platform, and our vision is to empower everyday convenience. Whether it's a Friday-night feast, a post-gym poke bowl, or grabbing some groceries, our tech platform connects tens of millions of customers with hundreds of thousands of restaurant, grocery and convenience partners across the globe.

About this role

We are seeking a highly accomplished and visionary Principal Engineer to join our Data Platforms leadership team. You will serve as the top technical authority, reporting directly to the Director of Engineering, and closely pairing with the Head of Engineering. This role defines the technical strategy and architecture that enables our organisation of 50+ engineers to build and operate robust, scalable, and high-performance data systems. We value your ability to lead on strategy, deliver technical excellence, and care for the continuous growth of our engineering team.

Location: Hybrid - 3 days a week from our London or Amsterdam office & 2 days working from home Reporting to: Director of Engineering

These are some of the key components to the position:

• Define the long‑term technical vision and roadmap for our modern Data Platform, Mobius (including Data Warehousing, Data Lake, Streaming, and Governance tooling).
• Design and govern the reference architecture for core data infrastructure, ensuring optimal scalability, reliability, and security.
• Act as a hands‑on contributor, tackling the most complex technical challenges and providing code‑level guidance for critical components.
• Establish and enforce technical standards for code quality, observability, and Infrastructure‑as‑Code (IaC) across all data platform teams.
• Act as a technical mentor and coach for Senior and Staff Engineers, raising the technical bar across the organisation.
• Focus on platform engineering principles to improve the developer experience, velocity, and efficiency of all data engineering teams.
• Lead the evaluation, prototyping, and adoption of new data technologies, balancing industry best practices with business needs.

What will you bring to the team?

• Extensive experience in software and data engineering, with provable experience operating at a Principal, Staff, or equivalent level.
• Deep proficiency across the modern data stack (Snowflake, BigQuery, Delta Lake, Iceberg, Kafka, Flink).
• Proven track record designing scalable, self‑service data platforms using cloud‑native services (AWS/GCP) and infrastructure automation (Terraform, Ansible).
• Expert proficiency in Python, Scala, or Go, and extensive experience with data transformation frameworks (Airflow, dbt).
• Exceptional ability to synthesise complex requirements into simple, elegant, and maintainable architectural designs.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence and align engineering, product, and executive stakeholders.
• Results‑driven mindset with the ability to execute quickly, adapt to change, and thrive in high‑growth, fast‑paced environments.

Desired Skills

• Experience in a rapidly scaling organisation focused on building distributed systems.
• Familiarity with data governance, lineage, and observability tools (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, Open Telemetry).
• Strong understanding of Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and how data platforms support the full ML lifecycle.

At JET, this is on the menu:

Our teams forge connections internally and work with some of the best‑known brands on the planet, giving us truly international impact in a dynamic environment. Fun, fast‑paced and supportive, the JET culture is about movement, growth and about celebrating every aspect of our JETers.

Inclusion, Diversity & Belonging

No matter who you are, what you look like, who you love, or where you are from, you can find your place at Just Eat Takeaway.com. We're committed to creating an inclusive culture, encouraging diversity of people and thinking, in which all employees feel they truly belong and can bring their most colourful selves to work every day.

What else is cooking?

Want to know more about our JETers, culture or company? Have a look at our career site where you can find people's stories, blogs, podcasts and more JET morsels.

Are you ready to take your seat? Apply now!

#LI-ER1