Senior Data Test Engineer

Hippo Digital; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading digital services partner in Manchester is seeking a Senior Data Test Engineer. The role involves working with multi-disciplinary teams to build user-centered digital solutions and requires strong SQL expertise and experience in testing ETL processes. The position offers a competitive salary and a range of attractive benefits including a contributory pension scheme and flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Contributory pension scheme

25 days holiday plus UK public holidays

Perkbox access for discounts

Volunteer days

Cycle-to-work scheme

Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme

Qualifications

• Must be able to read, write, and debug complex SQL queries.
• Capable of interpreting user requirements and validating logic in ETL.
• Ability to think like a data consumer for user expectations.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate to define clear, testable requirements.
• Write comprehensive test plans and execute SQL queries.
• Identify data issues and investigate root causes.

Skills

SQL expertise

Business logic understanding

Experience testing ETL processes

Strong communication skills

Tools

Snowflake

Athena

DBT

Python

Job description

Overview

Hippo is recruiting Senior Data Test Engineers to join our Hippo Herd. Senior Data Test Engineers work in multi-disciplinary teams that build, support & maintain User-Centred digital solutions that offer real value and work for everyone. Hippo’s Senior Data Test Engineers design and implement quality check procedures for our products and services. You will be responsible for analysing features, designing test parameters, creating customised quality checks and writing up final procedures. You’ll also use your experience and expertise to enable our clients to continue to iterate and improve their products and services. You will support in driving the team's technical deliverables, maintain client relationships and be passionate about developing and upskilling others. Please note, we are looking for candidates who are looking for growth at this level (Senior), therefore the advertised salary band is the lower end of our full banding for this level of position, allowing for progression in the role.

Your Role in a Nutshell

• Collaborate early in the development lifecycle to define clear, testable requirements, especially around data transformations and end-user expectations.
• Write comprehensive test plans, including reconciliation, edge case, and business logic validations.
• Independently create and execute SQL queries to validate data pipelines, transformations, and outputs.
• Participate in Three Amigos, ticket refinements, and sprint planning to ensure QA considerations are represented from the start.
• Identify data issues and investigate the root causes by understanding the flow and transformation of data across systems.
• Proactively challenge assumptions and work closely with engineers, analysts, and product managers to clarify scope and intent.
• Document test cases and results clearly, ensuring bugs are actionable and reproducible.

About the Candidate

Must-Have Skills

• SQL expertise – able to read, write, and debug complex queries; comfortable working in Snowflake, Athena, or equivalent.

• Business logic understanding – capable of interpreting user requirements and validating whether logic has been correctly applied in ETL.
• Experience testing ETL processes and understanding data transformation flows from source to report.
• Ability to think like a data consumer – what will users want from this data and how should it behave
• Strong communication skills – able to clearly explain quality concerns, raise red flags, and contribute to a shared understanding of “done.”

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Familiarity with DBT or similar tools (understanding where they fit in the ETL process).
• Awareness of data quality frameworks and concepts like null checks, uniqueness, and referential integrity.
• Exposure to Python (basic familiarity helpful on some platforms like Databricks).
• Understanding of event-driven data flows or having worked on data-centric projects.

About The Company

As well as a competitive salary which we’re transparent about from the outset, you can also expect a range of benefits:

• Contributory pension scheme (Hippo 6% with employee contributions of 2%)
• 25 days holiday plus UK public holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle-to-work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of:
  • private health cover
  • private dental cover
  • additional company pension contributions
  • additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days)
  • wellbeing contribution
  • charity contributions
  • tree planting

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive.

We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hi, we’re Hippo

At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We do this by combining data-informed evidence, human-centred design and software engineering. We\'re a digital services partner who is genuinely invested in helping our clients thrive as modern organisations. Our delivery methodology is truly agile, from concept to reality, supporting innovation and continuous improvement to achieve your desired outcomes.

We firmly believe that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. We take a human-centred approach to everything we do because we understand that complex problems require a service design approach. This means understanding how users behave and ensuring our solutions work for them in the real world.

Hippo locations

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We\'re on the lookout for top talent nationwide but you need to be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices which will be your contracted office location. Given the dynamic nature of a consulting business, you may be required to work on-site at a Hippo office or at an in/out of town client location for a number of days per week (client dependent) and therefore candidates will need to be open/flexible to travel. Plus, we offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8k (please ask for terms and conditions) to help make your move a smooth one.