Senior Data Engineer

Zoopla; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Two remote days per week

Gym on-site in London

Pension 7.5% by company

Group Income Protection

Job summary

Zoopla is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to build the next stage of its data platform in a hybrid UK setup. You’ll own end-to-end data engineering projects, design standard ingestion/export patterns, and ensure governance, cost, and security across pipelines.

You’ll collaborate with platform engineers, analytics teams, and data science, leveraging Databricks, Unity Catalog, and dbt. Strong Python/SQL and AWS IaC experience are essential.

Qualifications

• Production data pipelines experience across teams and customers.
• Strong Python and SQL proficiency.
• Deep experience with a modern lakehouse, ideally Databricks and Unity Catalog, and with dbt.
• Comfortable on AWS and with infrastructure as code (Terraform).
• Strong grounding in ingestion and integration patterns: managed connectors, CDC, event-driven and streaming ingestion, and exports to external systems.
• Track record of simplifying: replacing one-off pipelines with a small number of patterns.
• Experience using AI tools in engineering work with safety and governance in mind.
• Practical data governance: access control, data quality and personal data handling.
• Ability to explain technical concepts in plain English.

Responsibilities

• Owning Data Engineering projects end to end, from technical direction to business impact.
• Designing and building our standard ingestion and export patterns, and migrating existing pipelines onto them.
• Building governance into every pipeline: access, personal data, lineage and cost.
• Using AI to make patterns faster to apply and bring Data Engineering into our software factory.
• Reviewing code, mentoring other engineers, and sharing knowledge.
• Maintaining production health and reliability.

Skills

Data pipelines

Python

SQL

Databricks

Unity Catalog

dbt

AWS

Terraform

Data governance

Plain English communication

Tools

Terraform

dbt

AWS

Databricks

Job description

Who We Are

Zoopla is one of the UK’s most instantly recognisable property brands. In fact, we’re known and loved by over 91% of the nation (and we’re working hard on the other 9%). Our mission is to help the nation make better home decisions - by connecting everyone to their home and giving them personalised insights to help with moving, managing or financing. Over 50 million people visit Zoopla every month to access exclusive data and information on every UK property, search over 500,000 homes for sale and rent, find the best agents and secure the latest mortgage deals.

We’re a growing, dynamic team that embraces innovation and isn’t afraid to push the boundaries. We’re only just starting our journey to redefine the digital property landscape, with much more to explore and achieve. Join us, and transform the way the nation makes home decisions.

About the Role

We're looking for a Senior Data Engineer to build the next stage of our data platform.

The Data team exists to turn Zoopla's data into value: better decisions for the business, better products for our consumers and customers, and direct revenue where the data itself is the product. Data Engineering is the foundation all of that runs on.

Databricks on AWS is our single foundation, with dbt for modelling, Fivetran for SaaS sources and AWS services for internal sources. Our ingestion and export patterns grew one at a time over several years. We want a small number of patterns that are clear, owned and easy to run, and we want the engineer who designs them to build them.

You'll report to our Data Engineering Manager and work closely with our platform engineers, so that our technical systems align and we can make ambitious choices together.

What You'll Do

• Owning Data Engineering projects end to end, from technical direction to business impact.
• Designing and building our standard ingestion and export patterns, and moving existing pipelines onto them.
• Building governance into every pipeline: access, personal data, lineage and cost.
• Using AI to make the patterns faster to apply, and helping bring Data Engineering into our software factory.
• Reviewing code, mentoring other engineers, and sharing knowledge.
• Taking your share of keeping production healthy.

How We Work

Data Engineering sits in the Data team alongside Analytics Engineering, Analytics and Data Science, and works side by side with Platform Engineering and Platform Product.

We're AI forward, maybe it doesn't get everything right now, but what's to say it won't tomorrow.

Requirements

About You (Key Attributes)

• Substantial experience building and running production data pipelines that other teams and customers depend on.
• Strong Python and SQL.
• Deep experience with a modern lakehouse, ideally Databricks and Unity Catalog, and with dbt.
• Comfortable on AWS and with infrastructure as code (Terraform).
• Strong grounding in ingestion and integration patterns: managed connectors, change data capture, event-driven and streaming ingestion, and exports to external systems and customers. You know the trade-offs.
• A track record of simplifying: replacing one-off pipelines with a small number of patterns, without breaking things on the way.
• Experience using AI tools in engineering work, with a clear view on where they help, and how to keep them safe.
• Practical data governance: access control, data quality and personal data handling, applied so teams can move faster.
• You can explain technical things in plain English, and you push back when the ask doesn't match the problem.

Nice to Have

• Fivetran, RudderStack or similar ingestion and reverse ETL tools.
• Databricks Lakeflow, Auto Loader or Delta Sharing.
• Exposure to Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers or similar agent tooling.
• Experience in property, marketplaces or other data-rich consumer businesses.

Where you’ll be

At Zoopla, we embrace hybrid working but emphasise the importance of also spending time together. You’ll have the opportunity to work remotely (at home) for two days per week with Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays as all-Zoopla days in the office together.

Our home in Tower Bridge is a buzzing hub for collaborative and individual working, with areas to socialise and exercise - within easy reach of London Bridge, Tower Hill and Bermondsey stations. On our doorstep there are plenty of great food spots including a new indoor street food market and landscaped areas to sit by the riverside.

Benefits

• Our hybrid setup means you’ll join us in the Tower Bridge office 3 days each week
• 25 days annual leave + additional leave benefits Including extra days for length of service, plus other leave perks
• Cycle to work and electric car schemes
• Free Calm App membership
• Enhanced Parental leave
• Fertility Treatment Financial Support
• Group Income Protection and private medical insurance
• Gym on-site in London
• 7.5% pension contribution by the company
• Discretionary annual bonus up to 10% of base salary