Spclst , Data Platform Engineering

Merck; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 3,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Merck is seeking a Data Platform Engineer based in Hyderabad to architect, improve, and automate a modern analytics platform. You will lead GitHub-based CI/CD for dbt Cloud projects and collaborate with Analytics and Data Engineers to standardize workflows, governance, and automation across the data stack.

The role focuses on building scalable architecture, automating deployments, and enabling efficient analytics delivery in a global healthcare biopharma context.

Qualifications

• Proficient in data engineering concepts and analytics engineering practices.
• Experience guiding analytics projects and platform modernization.
• Strong collaboration across data stakeholders and engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve a scalable analytics engineering platform centered on dbt Cloud and GitHub-driven CI/CD.
• Implement and maintain GitHub Actions workflows for data prep and deployment, including PR validation and environment promotion.
• Define conventions for dbt Cloud jobs and improve reliability of runs with state-aware strategies.
• Establish GitHub best practices for data development including branching, PR templates, and CODEOWNERS.
• Collaborate with analytics engineers and data engineers to drive architectural improvements and pipeline health.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

GitHub

dbt Cloud

GitHub Actions

CI/CD

Data Engineering

Job description

Job Description

Required Skills: Application Deployment, Application Deployment, Application Integrations, Architectural Review, Business Intelligence (BI), CI/CD, Cloud Architectures, Cloud Deployment, Database Administration, Data Engineering, Data Management, Data Modeling, Data Visualization, Deployment Management, Deployment Strategies, Design Applications, Environment Setup, GitHub, Information Management, Orchestration (Computing), Platform Design, Platform Engineering, Platform Management, Repository Management, Software Development {+ 2 more}

The Opportunity

• Based in Hyderabad, join a global healthcare biopharma company and be part of a 130- year legacy of success backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.
• Be part of an organisation driven by digital technology and data-backed approaches that support a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products.
• Drive innovation and execution excellence. Be a part of a team with passion for using data, analytics, and insights to drive decision-making, and which creates custom software, allowing us to tackle some of the world's greatest health threats.

Our Technology Centers focus on creating a space where teams can come together to deliver business solutions that save and improve lives. An integral part of our company's IT operating model, Tech Centers are globally distributed locations where each IT division has employees to enable our digital transformation journey and drive business outcomes.

These locations, in addition to the other sites, are essential to supporting our business and strategy.

A focused group of leaders in each Tech Center helps to ensure we can manage and improve each location, from investing in growth, success, and well-being of our people, to making sure colleagues from each IT division feel a sense of belonging to managing critical emergencies. And together, we must leverage the strength of our team to collaborate globally to optimize connections and share best practices across the Tech Centers.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Data Platform Engineer to architect, improve, and automate our data platform with a strong focus on modern Data CI/CD. This role will lead the design and implementation of GitHub-based workflows (GitHub Actions) for reliable development, testing, and deployment of analytics engineering assets‑especially dbt Cloud projects. Partner closely with Analytics Engineers and Data Engineers to standardize GitHub utilization, improve platform governance, and accelerate delivery through automation.

Responsibilities

• Platform Architecture & Automation Design and evolve the architecture for a scalable analytics engineering platform, centered on dbt Cloud and GitHub-driven CI/CD. Establish deployment patterns and environment strategies (dev/test/prod) for dbt projects, including dependency management and release controls. Build automation around platform operations (quality gates, approvals, notifications, versioning, documentation generation).
• Data CI/CD with GitHub & GitHub Actions Implement and maintain GitHub Actions workflows for data pipeline preparation and deployment, including: Pull request validation (dbt compile, dbt build/test, linting, docs checks) Merge-to-main deployment orchestration (dbt Cloud job triggers, environment promotion) Scheduled workflows (nightly validation runs, drift detection, metadata checks) Create reusable workflow templates and "golden path" pipelines for dbt repositories. Integrate CI/CD with code quality and security tooling (secret scanning, dependency alerts, branch protection alignment).
• dbt Cloud Architecture & Enablement Own/guide dbt Cloud project setup, job design, scheduling strategy, and environment configuration. Define conventions for dbt Cloud job separation (CI jobs vs deployment jobs), including job triggers from GitHub events. Improve performance and reliability of dbt runs (state-aware builds, selective execution patterns, artifact usage). Support authentication/authorization patterns across dbt Cloud, GitHub, and data warehouse.
• Standards, Governance & Best Practices Establish and enforce GitHub best practices for data development: branching strategy, PR templates, CODEOWNERS, semantic versioning/tagging standardized repository structure for dbt projects and shared packages Define release processes for data transformations (promotion, approvals, rollback approach). Improve developer experience through documentation, onboarding guides, and internal enablement.
• Collaboration & Continuous Improvement Partner with data stakeholders to identify pain points and deliver architectural improvements. Provide technical leadership on CI/CD patterns for analytics engineering and platform modernization. Monitor pipeline health and drive o