Senior Data Engineer

McKesson’s Corporate; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

McKesson is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to own the ClarusONE data platform, delivering robust data pipelines using Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, and Databricks. You will set engineering standards, patterns, and governance while collaborating with Analytics, Data Insights, Software Engineering, and IT to scale the platform.

This hands-on role requires 7+ years of data/platform experience, strong SQL/Python skills, and a focus on data lineage and SOX-compliant practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree level or above is required.
• 7+ years of data/platform engineering experience, with senior/lead exposure.
• 4+ years building/maintaining CI/CD pipelines and governance.
• Advanced SQL and Python with hands-on data pipelines at scale.
• Experience with Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Databricks on a cloud platform (Azure preferred).
• Experience delivering data lineage and traceability in regulated environments (SOX, financial services, healthcare).

Responsibilities

• Own platform components and ensure quality and consistency.
• Define and evolve engineering best practices, patterns, and standards.
• Develop reusable patterns and frameworks across the data platform.
• Design and build robust, scalable data pipelines (Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, ADF, Python).
• Implement test-driven development, monitoring, logging, and observability.
• Support production issues and drive root-cause improvements.
• Maintain data lineage and governance across the lifecycle.
• Work with IT to meet governance and SOX requirements.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, and IaC (Azure).
• Collaborate with Analytics, Data Insights, Software Engineering, and IT/Infrastructure.
• Present technical work to stakeholders including Finance.

Skills

Advanced SQL

Python

CI/CD

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Snowflake

dbt

Airflow

Databricks

Azure

Job description

Role Overview The Senior Data Engineer is the technical owner of the ClarusONE data platform. This is a hands‑on engineering role with real ownership: alongside building and delivering data pipelines, you will raise the engineering standard of the platform — improving its reliability, scalability, security, and quality and help shape where it goes next. The platform has grown quickly, and this role is central to establishing the engineering patterns, frameworks, and best practices that will support it at scale. You will bring a technical lens to infrastructure, deployment practices, and architecture, and act as a trusted technical voice within the team. You will operate within the ClarusONE data governance framework, ensuring sensitive data is properly protected and that data can be traced end to end through its lifecycle. You will work closely with Analytics, Data Science, Software Engineering, and IT/Infrastructure to maintain an accurate, efficient, and compliant data environment — and will communicate confidently with stakeholders across the business, including Finance.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Ownership & Engineering Standards

• Take technical ownership of platform components, ensuring quality and consistency
• Establish, apply, and evolve engineering best practices, design patterns, and coding standards
• Define reusable patterns and frameworks across the data platform (including layered/medallion architecture approaches)
• Identify opportunities to improve performance, cost efficiency, scalability, and reliability
• Contribute to the target architecture and long‑term platform direction

Data Engineering & Delivery

• Design and build robust, scalable data pipelines (Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, ADF, Python)
• Apply strong practices in test‑driven development, monitoring, logging, and observability
• Own more complex technical solutions and problem‑solving
• Support production issues and drive root‑cause improvements rather than quick fixes

Data Governance, Traceability & Compliance

• Ensure data lineage and traceability across the data lifecycle, so any figure can be traced back to source
• Ensure sensitive data is appropriately protected within the ClarusONE data governance framework
• Work with IT teams to ensure solutions meet governance and compliance requirements (e.g. SOX)
• Understand and manage the implications of production changes within a controlled release process

Infrastructure & DevOps

• Contribute to and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for the platform (Azure, AKS) in collaboration with the Infrastructure team
• Work within and help mature CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, and governance processes
• Continuously improve how the team builds, tests, and deploys data pipelines

Innovation & Platform Evolution

• Bring forward ideas to improve the platform, tooling, and developer experience
• Evaluate emerging technologies and contribute to adoption decisions
• Support platform evolution, including re‑architecture and migration activities

Collaboration & Communication

• Support other Data Engineers by sharing best practices and technical approaches
• Collaborate closely with Analytics & Data Insights, Software Engineering, and IT/Infrastructure
• Present technical work and recommendations to a range of audiences, including company‑wide forums
• Build strong working relationships with business stakeholders, including Finance, and translate technical concepts into clear, practical terms (The above statements describe the general nature and level of work being performed in this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties.)

Minimum Requirement

• Degree or equivalent and typically requires 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Education Bachelor's degree level or above.
• Critical Skills 6+ years' experience in data engineering or platform engineering, including at least 2 years at senior or lead level
• 4+ years' experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, and associated governance processes
• Advanced SQL and Python, with hands‑on experience building data pipelines and transformations at scale
• Hands‑on experience with a modern cloud data stack, including Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, and Databricks, on a cloud platform (Azure preferred)
• Demonstrated experience delivering data lineage and traceability within a regulated environment (e.g. SOX, financial services, healthcare, or similar)
• Experience contributing to platform migrations, re‑architecture, or modernisation programmes
• Proven ability to present technical concepts to non‑technical and senior stakeholders, including Finance, and influence decisions through practical recommendations

Additional Knowledge & Skills

• Platform & Infrastructure Maintaining Infrastructure as Code for cloud‑based data platforms
• Exposure to containerised or distributed systems (AKS advantageous), including deployment, scaling, and operational considerations
• Orchestration & Version Control Operating Airflow at scale, including DAG reliability, scheduling, and failure handling
• Version control, branching strategies, and release processes
• Engineering Best Practice Test‑driven development and automated testing within CI/CD workflows
• Defining and enforcing standardised engineering patterns across a shared codebase
• Operational reliability, including monitoring, structured logging, alerting, and systematic failure recovery
• Desirable PySpark
• Experience supporting Airflow in a self‑managed environment
• Experience in a business building a data platform from the ground up

Working Arrangements

• This is a hybrid role based in the UK, with an expectation of two days per week onsite.
• Applicants must hold existing right to work in the UK; sponsorship is not available for this position.

McKesson is an impact-driven, Fortune 10 company that touches virtually every aspect of healthcare. We are known for delivering insights, products, and services that make quality care more accessible and affordable. Here, we focus on the health, happiness, and well‑being of you and those we serve – we care. What you do at McKesson matters. We foster a culture where you can grow, make an impact, and are empowered to bring new ideas. Together, we thrive as we shape the future of health for patients, our communities, and our people. If you want to be part of tomorrow’s health today, we want to hear from you.