Senior Data Engineer

Jobtailor; Northam; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor is seeking a senior data engineer to design, build and scale data pipelines, ETL processes and data models. You will drive architectural decisions, ensure high data quality and collaborate with cross‑functional teams to deliver data platforms for analytics and products.

The role focuses on Snowflake/BigQuery/Redshift within an AWS environment, with emphasis on performance, observability and mentoring other engineers. Strong communication and leadership are essential.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience building production data pipelines and data models.
• Advanced SQL and database design skills.
• Strong Python for data engineering.
• Experience with cloud data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift).
• Familiarity with CI/CD, testing and data quality.
• Mentoring or leading other engineers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain data pipelines, ETL processes and data models
• Make and document architectural and data-modelling decisions
• Integrate and transform diverse data sources into a reliable, unified data platform
• Design and implement database schemas for large volumes of structured and unstructured data
• Build scalable and maintainable data solutions supporting analytics, reporting, operational processes and data-driven products
• Champion engineering standards across SQL, Python, testing, documentation and code review
• Review designs and code produced by other engineers
• Identify and address technical debt and improve the data platform
• Optimise data solutions using partitioning, indexing and caching
• Develop and maintain data quality processes
• Improve reliability, observability and performance of data solutions
• Collaborate with product managers, developers, data colleagues and business stakeholders to define requirements
• Diagnose and resolve performance and production issues
• Coach and mentor engineers
• Keep up to date with data engineering developments and evaluate new technologies
• Participate in the team’s out-of-hours support rota where required

Skills

Data engineering

SQL

Python

Data warehousing

Data modelling

ETL

CI/CD

Observability

Mentoring

Communication

Tools

Snowflake

BigQuery

Redshift

AWS

Glue

MySQL

SQL Server

Dbt

Fivetran

JSON

Job description

• Design, build and maintain data pipelines, ETL processes and data models


• Make and document architectural and data-modelling decisions


• Integrate and transform diverse data sources into a reliable, unified data platform


• Design and implement database schemas for large volumes of structured and unstructured data


• Build scalable and maintainable data solutions supporting analytics, reporting, operational processes and data-driven products


• Champion engineering standards across SQL, Python, testing, documentation and code review


• Review designs and code produced by other engineers


• Identify and address technical debt and improve the data platform


• Optimise data solutions using partitioning, indexing and caching


• Develop and maintain data quality processes


• Improve reliability, observability and performance of data solutions


• Collaborate with product managers, developers, data colleagues and business stakeholders to define requirements


• Diagnose and resolve performance and production issues


• Coach and mentor engineers


• Keep up to date with data engineering developments and evaluate new technologies


• Participate in the team’s out-of-hours support rota where required

Requirements

• Strong commercial data engineering experience, ideally in a senior or lead capacity


• Significant experience delivering production data engineering solutions


• Advanced SQL and an excellent understanding of databases


• Strong Python skills for data engineering


• Strong understanding of data warehousing and dimensional/data modelling


• Experience designing and operating production data pipelines


• Experience with a modern cloud data warehouse such as Snowflake, BigQuery or Redshift


• Experience with automated testing, version control and CI/CD


• Strong understanding of data quality, reliability and observability


• Experience diagnosing performance and production issues


• Ability to make, document and communicate technical design decisions


• Experience mentoring or supporting other engineers


• Excellent written and verbal communication skills


• Desirable: Experience with Snowflake, dbt or Fivetran


• Desirable: Experience working with AWS / Glue


• Desirable: Experience with MySQL or SQL Server


• Desirable: Experience with Salesforce


• Desirable: Familiarity with JSON and data integration formats

Core Competencies

Demonstrates expertise in designing and maintaining data pipelines, ETL processes, and data models, with a strong focus on SQL and Python for data engineering. Proven ability to optimize data solutions for performance and reliability while collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• Data Engineering Experience


• Advanced SQL Skills


• Strong Python Skills


• Cloud Data Warehouse Experience


• Data Quality and Reliability

Hard Skills

• Data Pipeline Design


• ETL Processes


• Data Modelling


• Database Schema Design


• Automated Testing


• Version Control


• CI/CD


• Performance Diagnosis


• Data Quality Processes


• Technical Documentation

Soft Skills

• Excellent Communication Skills


• Mentoring and Coaching

Industry Keywords

• Data Warehousing


• Dimensional Modelling


• Data Integration


• Observability


• Technical Debt

Tools & Technologies

• Snowflake


• BigQuery


• Redshift


• AWS


• Glue


• MySQL


• SQL Server


• Dbt


• Fivetran


• JSON