Lead Data Engineer

About Iglu Why You'll Love Working Here

At Iglu.com, we're more than just a travel company — we’re the UK’s leading online cruise retailer, and we’re redefining what it means to book a cruise in the digital age.

Working at Iglu means:

• 💬 Flat structure, real impact – Your ideas matter. Everyone contributes, and you’ll see the results of your work fast.

• 🌴 Cruise perks & travel love – We’re in the business of adventure, and you’ll feel it.

• 🧠 Smart, supportive people – Join a talented, close-knit team that genuinely enjoys solving hard problems together.

• 🚀 Room to grow – We’re on a transformation journey, and there’s huge opportunity to shape the future with us.

• Training and development - Paid for training, conferences and certification e.g. AWS Certs.

We combine a passion for travel with a love for technology, delivering smart, seamless customer experiences and building platforms that handle the complexity of modern cruising — all while keeping things collaborative and fun.

⭐ Your Mission:

Are you passionate about unlocking the power of customer data? We're looking for a talented Lead Data Engineer to spearhead the design, development, and optimisation of our critical CRM and customer data transformation. You'll play a pivotal role in building the data foundations for advanced analytics, personalised customer experiences, and effective marketing activation. As a senior member of the team, you will lead data engineers and champion best practices within our data environment.

🎯 What You'll Do:

• Design & Build: Architect, build, test, and deploy robust, scalable, and reliable data pipelines, focusing on ingesting and transforming CRM and customer data from various sources.

• Lead & Innovate: Take technical ownership of customer data integration solutions within our data platform (AWS/ SQL Server). Drive improvements and implement best-in-class data engineering practices.

• Ensure Quality: Champion data quality and governance for customer datasets. Implement robust monitoring, validation checks, and data lineage processes.

• Collaborate: Work closely with a CRM team, data analysts and marketing teams to understand their data needs and deliver effective solutions.

• Enable Marketing Analytics: Design and provide the necessary data structures and transformations required by marketing teams to measure the efficacy of campaigns, particularly tracking customer engagement and conversion through integrated communication and data platforms.

• Mentor & Guide: Provide technical leadership to data engineers, fostering their growth and ensuring high standards in coding, testing, and documentation.

• Optimise: Continuously monitor and improve data pipeline performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency.

• Document: Create and maintain clear, comprehensive documentation for data models, pipeline architecture, and processes.

🔧 What You'll Be Responsible For:

• The end-to-end lifecycle of customer data pipelines, from ingestion to activation-ready datasets.

• The technical quality, scalability, and reliability of the customer data platform components you build and manage.

• Setting standards and promoting data engineering best practices within the customer data domain.

• Translating complex business requirements related to customer data into effective technical data solutions.

• Guiding and developing the technical skills of junior members of the data engineering team.

💡 What You'll Bring (Essential Skills & Experience):

• Proven Data Engineering Expertise: Demonstrable experience designing, building, and maintaining complex data pipelines in a production environment.

• Strong Technical Foundation: Expert-level SQL and proficiency in ETL principals. We currently use SQLSvr/ SSIS, but are on a transformation journey of our data platform (AWS)

• Cloud Proficiency: Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and its core data services (e.g., S3, Redshift, Lambda/Functions, Glue).

• Data Modelling: Deep understanding of ELT/ETL patterns, and data modelling techniques.

• CRM/Customer Data Focus: Experience working directly with data from CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Hubspot) and understanding customer data structures.

• Leadership Potential: Experience leading projects or mentoring junior engineers.

• Collaboration & Communication: Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to diverse audiences and collaborate effectively across teams.

✨ Bonus Points For:

• Familiarity with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Looker).

• Experience with specific orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, dbt).

• Experience working in Agile/Scrum development methodologies.

• Experience with Big Data Technologies & Frameworks

🚀 Join Us!

If you're ready to make a significant impact by leading the development of our customer data capabilities, apply today!