Principal Data Engineer

Internal use only – Grade E

About us.

We are The Very Group and we’re here to help families get more out of life. We know that our customers work hard for their families and have a lot to balance in their busy lives. That’s why we combine amazing brands and products with flexible payment options on Very.co.uk to help them say yes to the things they love. We’re just as passionate about helping our people get more out of life too; building careers with real growth, a sense of purpose, belonging and wellbeing.

About the role

This Principal Data Engineer role will work exclusively within our AdTech business unit whilst ensuring alignment to best practices, standards, and policies. The strategic direction is led by the Data Performance Unit but with collaboration and input from this role. 

This role will work within the AdTech squad focusing on their priorities that will enable a consistent, efficient, and effective use of the Data Lake, Enterprise Data Warehouse, and marketing tools. Any experience with automating process and embedding re-useable patterns is interesting.  

As our AdTech Principal Data Engineer you will oversee the impact assessments, discovery, technical design, delivery, and release into production, and this is often working cross functionally and collaboratively.  This includes technically managing AdTech priorities across various technologies and collaborate with architecture, product owners and delivery lead to ensure timely, efficient solution creation/maintenance. The AdTech Principal Data Engineer will interact with the core Data Engineering team, and collaborate and align with agreed solutions, policies, and delivery mechanisms.  

In this space we run daily stand ups, and we would like you to be at the forefront of these and help lead any resolutions to development or support challenges, consulting with Architects, Product Owners, and Delivery Managers for prioritisation. 

To be successful in this role you will need to build and maintain strong business relationships with Third Party vendors ensuring The Very Group are utilising technology in the most cost effective and performant way as well as ensure the development of new solutions do not breach any regulatory legislation such as GDPR. It is incredibly important to us that the team ensure customer data is always protected. . 

About the Team

We’re creating a brand-new AdTech (Advertising Technologies) squad encompassing the digital tools, software and platforms TVG use to manage, deliver, target and analyse digital marketing activity. This squad will be central to The Very Group’s evolution in digital marketing.

This hybrid, cross-functional team will consist of software and data engineers, data specialists, and analysts, collaborating to deliver an ambitious and innovative roadmap. Operating at the intersection of software, data, privacy, and digital marketing, the team will develop solutions that drive real business impact. The squad is accountable for key capabilities such as:

• The collection and management of user consent through cookie management
• Data integrations with our trusted 3rd parties that provide the TVG Marketing team with quality, rich data to feed campaign execution and measurement
• First Party Data Activation – leveraging our data asset to improve the customer experience and drive customer engagement
• Oversight of digital data management and tagging across diverse platforms
• Orchestration of services Integration and orchestration of services across AWS, Google Cloud, Celebrus and OneTrust

Key Responsibilities

• Analysis, design, architecting and development of AdTech data solutions for deployments to the Data Lake and Data Warehouse. 

• Actively engaging with our Data Performance Unit on strategic direction, technology, and delivery excellence. 

• Peer / code review for other team members. 

• Taking a lead on nominated AdTech projects. 

• Performing demos of generated software solutions to the squad and the wider business. 

• Mentor team members. 

• Leading by example, both in the development approach and in the delivery / interaction with stakeholders. 

• Collaborate with the squad, other data engineers and the wider business to deliver the most effective solution. 

• Continually keep abreast of emerging technology and trends. 

• Provides out of hours support for applications to ensure the shop stays open and fully functional. 

Essential knowledge and skills

• Proficient in Python or Scala 
• Familiarity in Java 
• Experience in a Marketing technical stack and 3rd party tools 
• Broad experience of working within AWS; including infrastructure (VPC, EC2, Security groups, S3 etc) to AWS data platforms (Redshift, RDS, Glue etc).  
• Working Knowledge of infrastructure automation with Terraform. 
• Working knowledge of test tools and frameworks such as Junit, Mockito, ScalaTest, pytest. 
• Working knowledge of build tools– Maven, Gradle, SBT or equivalent. 
• Understanding of source control management and associated tools such as Git/Bitbucket. 
• Experience in the use of CI /CD tools such as Jenkins or an understanding of their role. 
• Experience with Apache Spark or Hadoop. 
• Experience in building data pipelines. 
• Experience of designing warehouses, ETL pipelines and data modelling. 
• Good knowledge in designing, building, using, and maintaining REST APIs. 
• Good SQL skills with any mainstream database – Teradata, Oracle, MySQL, Postgres. 
• Proficient Linux skills. 
• Agile exposure with Scrum using tools such as Jira and Confluence. 
• Strong analytical, technical, organizational and communication skills. 
• Flexible in learning and being exposed to innovative technologies. 
• A Team player with experience of line management and strong soft skills. 
  

Benefits

• Inclusive culture and environment, check out our Glassdoor reviews
• £1000 flexible benefits allowance to suit your needs
• 30 days holiday + bank holidays
• Udemy learning access
• Bonus potential (performance and business-related)
• Up to 25% discount on Very.co.uk

• Matched pension up to 6%
• More benefits can be found on our career site

How to apply

Please note that the talent acquisition team are managing this vacancy directly, and if successful in securing this role, you will be required to undertake a credit, CIFAS, Right to Work checks and if a specific requirement of your role a DBS (criminal records) check. Should your application progress we require you to let the team know if there is anything you need to disclose in relation to any of these checks prior to them being undertaken, including any unspent criminal convictions.  

What happens next?

Our talent acquisition team will be in touch if you’re successful so keep an eye on your emails! We’ll arrange a short call to learn more about you, as well as answer any questions you have. If it feels like we’re a good match, we’ll share your CV with the hiring manager to review. Our interview process is tailored to each role and can be in-person or held remotely.

You can expect a two stage interview process after meeting the TA team,

First stage – A one-hour face to face or remote interview with the team.

Second Stage - Final Interview with a Senior Stakeholder within the Team (this stage will possibly include a task)

As an inclusive employer please do let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.

If you'd like to know more about our interviews, you can find out here.

Equal opportunities

We’re an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.