Senior Data Engineer

Burson Cohn & Wolfe; Greater London; On-site; GBP 61,000 - 101,000; Full time

Job summary

Burson Cohn & Wolfe in London seeks a senior data platform engineer to design, build, and operate production data pipelines and AI-enabled enrichment workflows. You will lead technical design, collaborate with Product Owners in an Agile Jira environment, and deliver scalable data services across Azure Data Lake and relational databases.

The role emphasizes reliability, cost control, and mentoring junior engineers.

Qualifications

• Substantial experience designing, building, and operating production data platforms and ETL pipelines.
• Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL, incl. Pandas and REST APIs.
• Hands-on with Azure services (Data Factory, SQL, ADLS) and DevOps tooling (Git, CI/CD).
• Proven SRE experience: reliability, logging/monitoring, performance optimization.
• Mentor engineers; drive code reviews, standards, and docs.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical design and delivery of data pipelines and platform components for media monitoring and communications data sources.
• Collaborate with Product Owners in Agile Jira environment to translate requirements into scalable solutions.
• Build and maintain Python services, SQL transformation layers, star schemas, and API integrations across databases and Azure Data Lake.
• Optimize pipeline performance, reliability, and AI token costs; establish monitoring, alerting, and runbooks.
• Enhance configuration layers (NocoDB workflows) to streamline setup and reduce engineering intervention.
• Operationalize AI enrichment frameworks (classification, summarization, sentiment, topics, LLMs) with governance and cost controls.
• Deliver custom data engineering solutions for client needs; integrate internal/API datasets into reporting workflows.
• Mentor junior engineers through code reviews and knowledge sharing; address technical debt.

Skills

Data platform design

Python

SQL

Agile execution

Mentoring juniors

REST API integrations

LLM enrichment workflows

AI frameworks

Pandas

Performance optimization

Tools

Azure Data Factory

Azure SQL

ADLS

Azure DevOps

Git

CI/CD

Jira

Power BI

DAX

Terraform

Terragrunt

NocoDB

Airtable

Job description

Salary: £61,000 - 101,000 per year

Requirements:

• Substantial experience designing, building, and operating production data platforms, star-schema data models, and complex ELT/ETL pipelines.
• Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL, including object-oriented design, Pandas, query optimization, and REST API integrations.
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure services, including Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL, and ADLS, as well as Azure DevOps, Git, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.
• Proven experience in system reliability engineering, production troubleshooting, logging and monitoring, and performance optimization.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers and improving team capabilities through code reviews, technical standards, and documentation.
• Agile execution expertise using Jira and partnering with Product Owners to assess technical trade-offs and competing roadmap priorities.
• Familiarity with AI and integration frameworks, including LLM enrichment workflows, semi-structured formats such as Parquet, NoSQL, and provider-hosted or MCP-enabled integrations.
• Exposure to complementary technologies such as NocoDB or Airtable, Terraform or Terragrunt, Power BI or DAX, or communications measurement data.

Responsibilities:

• Lead technical design, architectural standards, and delivery of business-critical data pipelines, services, and platform components for media monitoring and communications data sources.
• Partner with Product Owners in an Agile Jira environment to assess feasibility, evaluate trade-offs, and translate product requirements into scalable, maintainable solutions.
• Build and maintain Python services, SQL transformation layers, star-schema data models, and API integrations across relational databases and Azure Data Lake.
• Optimize pipeline performance, reliability, compute efficiency, and AI token costs; establish monitoring, logging, alerting, and incident-response practices.
• Enhance Founts analyst-facing configuration layer, including Boolean searches, API ingestion rules, and NocoDB workflows, to streamline setup and reduce routine engineering intervention.
• Operationalize AI-enabled enrichment frameworks for classification, summarization, sentiment, topic detection, LLMs, and MCP-enabled integrations, with quality assurance, governance, and cost controls.
• Deliver custom data engineering solutions for specialized client needs, integrating internal, API-driven, and third-party research datasets into scalable reporting workflows.
• Mentor junior engineers through code reviews, pairing, architectural guidance, and knowledge-sharing; refactor technical debt and maintain operational runbooks.

Technologies:

• AI
• Airtable
• API
• Azure
• CI/CD
• DAX
• DevOps
• ETL
• Git
• JIRA
• LLM
• MCP
• NoSQL
• Power BI
• Python
• REST
• SQL
• Terraform
• pandas
• Cloud
• Business Intelligence
• Support
• Marketing
• UX UI Design

More:

We are Burson, part of WPP and a global communications leader helping clients build reputation as a competitive advantage. Our Intelligence & Insights practice develops data infrastructure, pipelines, and AI-enabled workflows for communications measurement and impact reporting. Based in London, this senior individual-contributor role leads the technical development of Fount, our communications intelligence platform, and reports to JT Joseph. It provides technical leadership and mentoring without formal people-management responsibility, working closely with product leadership in a structured Agile team. We offer professional development, mentorship, an inclusive and collaborative culture, and benefits designed to reward and retain talent. Our hybrid approach brings teams into the office around four days a week; accommodations or flexibility can be discussed during interviews. We welcome talented people of all backgrounds and identities.

last updated 40 week of 2026