Data Engineer – Databricks Specialist in Basingstoke

Location: Basingstoke (hybrid working 3 office days per week)

Employment Type: Permanent, full time

Are you passionate about data and eager to make a significant impact? The AA is a well-loved brand with a range of driver services much wider than most people realise. We have an enviable set of data assets from breakdown, service, repair, insurance, telematics, digital interactions, car dealers and driving school! If that’s not enough, we’re focused on making Data our new Superpower as one of only 4 strategic priorities for the Group. Our growing team is modernising our data infrastructure to a cutting-edge cloud platform and enabling machine learning and GenAI. Join us at an exciting time and be part of a team that is driving meaningful change for our customers, colleagues and shareholders.

This role is for an experienced Databricks Data Engineer. You will be working day-to-day designing, building and operating production-grade Databricks Lakehouse solutions, including structured streaming pipelines, Unity Catalog governance, and Spark-based data engineering at scale. This is not a role for someone who has “touched” Databricks occasionally or supported it at the edges. We are looking for someone who has built, owned and evolved Databricks solutions, and who can confidently articulate design decisions, trade-offs, and best practice.

What will I be doing?

• Designing, building and operating production-grade Databricks Lakehouse solutions, including structured streaming pipelines using Python and PySpark
• Owning and evolving Unity Catalog–based governance, ensuring secure, discoverable and well-managed data assets
• Developing and maintaining event-driven data pipelines, integrating closely with backend engineering teams
• Implementing and supporting CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps to enable reliable, automated Databricks deployments
• Creating high-quality, analytics-ready datasets that deliver actionable business insight at scale
• Proactively improving performance, reliability, automation and observability across the Databricks data platform

What do I need?

We are intentionally setting a high bar for Databricks experience. You should be able to demonstrate deep, hands-on capability, not just theoretical knowledge.

• Significant, hands-on experience with Azure Databricks in a production environment
• Proven experience building Spark / Databricks pipelines using Python and PySpark
• Strong experience with structured streaming and event-driven architectures
• Practical experience implementing and operating Unity Catalog
• Solid understanding of Lakehouse design principles, including dimensional and analytical modelling
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, ideally using Azure DevOps
• Confidence working with large-scale data, performance tuning, and troubleshooting complex pipelines

What we mean by “Databricks experience”

• You have designed and built Databricks pipelines end-to-end
• Made architectural decisions within Databricks environments
• Worked with Spark internals, optimisation techniques and cluster configuration
• Operated Databricks solutions in live, business-critical contexts

If your Databricks exposure has been limited to minor contributions, proof-of-concepts, or occasional usage alongside other tools, this role is unlikely to be the right fit.

We’re always looking to recognise and reward our employees for the work they do. As a valued member of The AA team, you’ll have access to a range of benefits including: 25 days annual leave plus