Senior Data Platform Architect

Kingfisher; England; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Competitive benefits package

Job summary

Kingfisher in the United Kingdom is hiring a Principal Data Engineer, a senior individual contributor and trusted technical authority across Group Technology. You will shape the design and evolution of our data platforms, lead complex cross-team initiatives and raise engineering standards across squads and domains.

This hands-on leadership role connects deep technical expertise with business outcomes, influencing architecture, platform roadmaps and investment decisions while enabling engineers

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in distributed data processing, cloud-native systems and modern data architecture.
• Proven experience delivering large-scale data platforms and production-grade pipelines.
• Strong Python and SQL skills, with hands-on experience in Spark, PySpark or Scala.
• Experience with dbt for data modelling and transformation.
• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms such as GCP, Azure or AWS, and services including Databricks, BigQuery or Azure Data Factory.
• Strong understanding of DevOps and DataOps practices and tools, including CI/CD, Git, Terraform, Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with data quality tools and testing frameworks such as Great Expectations.
• Deep understanding of batch, streaming and event-driven architecture patterns.
• Experience designing resilient, scalable and observable systems and optimising platforms for performance and cost.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the data platform and data engineering strategy in line with Group Technology objectives.
• Lead architecture decisions and establish scalable standards and design patterns across data pipelines, storage and processing.
• Partner with Architecture and Product teams to shape long-term platform roadmaps and capabilities.
• Design and deliver production-ready data platforms and pipelines that are scalable, resilient and cost-efficient.
• Champion modern engineering practices including CI/CD, automated testing, DevOps, observability and platform automation.
• Strengthen data quality, governance and security while promoting reusable data products and shared platform capabilities.
• Provide technical leadership across squads and influence senior stakeholders across Engineering, Product, Architecture and Technology.
• Lead business-critical initiatives spanning multiple teams, systems and geographies.
• Coach and mentor engineers, support hiring and onboarding, and help build a strong Data Engineering community.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and introduce tools and approaches that deliver measurable value.
• Drive continuous improvement while balancing quality, speed, cost and risk.

Skills

Distributed data

Cloud-native systems

Data architecture

Python

SQL

Spark

PySpark

Scala

dbt

Databricks

BigQuery

Azure Data Factory

GCP

AWS

DevOps

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

Great Expectations

Tools

Databricks

BigQuery

Azure Data Factory

Git

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

Great Expectations

Job description

Kingfisher in the United Kingdom is hiring a Principal Data Engineer, a senior individual contributor and trusted technical authority across Group Technology. You will shape the design and evolution of our data platforms, lead complex cross-team initiatives and raise engineering standards across squads and domains.

This hands-on leadership role connects deep technical expertise with business outcomes, influencing architecture, platform roadmaps and investment decisions while enabling engineers