Test Engineering Manager - Distributed Systems

Skyscanner; London (KY); On-site; USD 122,000 - 176,000; Full time

Job summary

Skyscanner is seeking a Data Engineering Manager to lead a high-performing squad within Core Data in London/Edinburgh (Hybrid). You will guide data platform strategy, delivery, and quality, building scalable, trustworthy data products powering experiments and real-time travel experiences.

You will shape strategy, raise the bar for engineering excellence, and partner with product, analytics and data science to deliver impactful, scalable data solutions.

Qualifications

• Leader with experience growing data engineering teams in product-led environments.
• Strong capability in modern data stacks and architectures.
• Comfort with cloud platforms and distributed systems.
• Ability to drive high-quality data platforms end-to-end.
• Collaborative across product, analytics and data science teams.
• Bias for experimentation and learning in a fast-paced setting.

Responsibilities

• Lead a data engineering squad in London, hiring and coaching engineers.
• Drive delivery cadence, unblock challenges and ensure quality.
• Promote best practices in testing, observability, CI/CD, and performance.
• Shape AI-ready data foundations for ML/AI use cases.
• Collaborate across teams to translate fuzzy problems into clear solutions.

Skills

Leadership

Data engineering

Cloud & distributed systems

Collaboration

Tools

Databricks

Spark

Airflow

SQL

Python

Job description

Data Engineering Manager

Location: London or Edinburgh (Hybrid)

About Skyscanner

Everyone loves travelling, but planning is not without its challenges. That's why we've spent 20 years building tools that turn travel-planning chaos into a breeze. Today, around 100 million travellers count on us every month to skip the whole “47 browser tabs open” phase and find flights, cars, and hotels quickly and easily.

Joining Skyscanner means becoming part of a global brand that's striving to become the planet's go-to travel hack accessible for all.

Our vision? To be the world's number one travel ally. Ambitious? Yes, but that's what got us here.

About the Role

This isn’t just another engineering management role — it’s your chance to shape the data backbone of an AI-first travel company. You’ll lead a high-performing squad within Core Data, building reliable, scalable, and trusted data products that power everything from experiments to real-time traveller experiences.

Think of it as part leadership, part technical strategy, part “let’s make data actually useful at scale.” You’ll help set the pace, raise the bar, and make sure our data platforms are ready not just for today, but for where AI is taking us next.

What You'll Be Doing

• Leading a high-impact squad: Hire, coach, and grow a team of talented data engineers in London, helping them do their best work and enjoy doing it.

• Creating a safe, curious environment: Foster a culture where experimentation is encouraged, failure is a lesson, and learning never stops.

• Owning delivery and quality: Prioritise work, unblock challenges, and ensure high standards across everything shipped.

• Driving engineering excellence: Champion best practices for testing, observability, CI/CD, and performance optimisation.

• Building AI-ready foundations: Shape data platforms that support ML and AI use cases — from reproducibility to responsible data practices.

• Shaping strategy and standards: Influence how data engineering is done at Skyscanner, evolving standards, tooling, and ways of working.

• Collaborating across teams: Partner with product, analytics, and data science to turn fuzzy problems into clear, impactful solutions.

About You

• Experienced leader: Led and grown data engineering teams in product-led environments; able to bring out the best in people.

• Technically strong: Comfortable with modern data stacks like Databricks, Spark, Airflow, SQL, and Python — able to go deep when needed.

• Cloud-savvy: Understands distributed systems and cloud platforms, and how to make them work efficiently at scale.

• Quality-driven: Cares about doing things well — from clean code to reliable pipelines to solid operational practices.

• Collaborative by nature: Works brilliantly across disciplines, aligning teams around shared goals.

• Comfortable with ambiguity: Doesn’t need everything defined to get started, brings clarity where there isn’t any.

• Future-focused: Excited about AI, data innovation, and how better foundations unlock faster, smarter product development.

What It's Like Here

Skyscanner is made up of brilliant humans from every corner of the world. We believe travel makes the world better—and that the same is true of our diverse teams. We're proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to building an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and products that are accessible to all.

We are committed to ensuring our application and recruitment processes are inclusive and accessible for everyone. If you require any reasonable adjustments or accommodations for interviews, or wish to apply under the Disability Confident scheme, please let your recruiter know. If you’d like more information on any of our policies, such as hybrid working or Parental Leave policies (including a minimum of 24 weeks birth parent/maternity leave globally), our recruitment team can provide more information.