At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the design and delivery of innovative data pipelines and AI integrations.
- Company: Join Burson, a global leader in communications and reputation management.
- Benefits: Enjoy professional development, mentorship, and a vibrant, inclusive culture.
- Other info: Hybrid working model with opportunities for career growth and skill enhancement.
- Why this job: Make an impact with cutting-edge technology in a dynamic, collaborative environment.
- Qualifications: Experience in data engineering, Python, SQL, and cloud platforms required.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
Burson, part of WPP, is the global communications leader built to create value for clients through reputation. With highly specialized teams, industry-leading technologies and breakthrough creative, we help brands and businesses redefine reputation as a competitive advantage so they can lead today and into the future.
WPP (LSE/NYSE: WPP) is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company - powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth.
Burson’s Intelligence & Insights capability builds the data infrastructure, pipelines and AI-enabled workflows that power communications measurement and impact reporting at scale. Reporting directly to JT Joseph within the Intelligence & Insights practice and based in London, UK (Hybrid working policy), this role is central to leading the technical development of Fount, Burson’s flagship communications intelligence platform.
In this role, you will be responsible for translating product vision and technical specifications into robust, scalable data engineering and business intelligence solutions. Working closely with product leadership, you will contribute technical insights and architectural recommendations that help shape the platform's future evolution. You will operate within a structured Agile team managed in Jira, where product vision, priorities and roadmaps are set by Product Owners, while your core focus is executing this vision to the highest engineering standards.
You will serve as the lead engineer responsible for building, maintaining and enhancing Fount, Burson’s custom data pipeline and database layer for communications reporting. Fount enables analysts to configure client monitoring subscriptions, Boolean searches, data ingestion and AI enrichment through an analyst-facing configuration layer. You will directly mentor a junior engineer while providing technical peer support and alignment across the wider engineering team.
- What you'll do:
- Lead the technical design, architectural standards, and delivery of business-critical data pipelines, services, and platform components across media monitoring and communications data sources.
- Partner closely with Product Owners in an Agile Jira environment to assess technical feasibility, evaluate trade-offs, and translate product requirements into maintainable, scalable technical solutions.
- Build and maintain production-ready Python services, SQL transformation layers, star-schema data models, and API integrations across relational databases and cloud storage (Azure Data Lake).
- Optimise pipeline performance, system reliability, compute efficiency, and AI token costs, while establishing robust monitoring, logging, alerting, and incident-response practices.
- Enhance Fount’s analyst-facing configuration layer (Boolean searches, API ingestion rules, NocoDB workflows) to streamline analyst setup and reduce routine engineering intervention.
- Operationalise AI-enabled enrichment frameworks (classification, summarisation, sentiment, topic detection, LLMs, MCP-enabled integrations) with strict quality assurance, governance, and cost controls.
- Deliver custom data engineering solutions for specialized client requirements, integrating internal, API-driven, and third-party research datasets into scalable reporting workflows.
Qualifications:
- Substantial experience designing, building, and operating production data platforms, star-schema data models, and complex ELT/ETL pipelines.
- Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL, including clean object-oriented design, Pandas, query optimization, and REST API integrations.
- Hands-on experience within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem (Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL, ADLS), Azure DevOps, Git, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.
- Proven track record in system reliability engineering, production troubleshooting, logging/monitoring, and performance optimization.
- Agile execution expertise using Jira, partnering closely with Product Owners to evaluate technical trade-offs and manage competing roadmap priorities.
- Familiarity with modern AI & integration frameworks, including LLM enrichment workflows, semi-structured formats.
- Exposure to complementary technologies, such as low-code UI tools (NocoDB/Airtable), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Terragrunt), Power BI/DAX, or communications measurement data.
You belong at Burson: Our vision is for Burson to be the leading ‘academy company’ for creative communications professionals and emerging leaders. We provide a dynamic environment where ambitious colleagues come to elevate their skills, expand their networks, and ultimately, produce the best solutions for today’s leading brands. Our commitment to your growth is reflected in our robust benefits and people programs, which include professional development opportunities, mentorship programs with industry leaders, a vibrant and inclusive company culture fostering collaboration and innovation and packages designed to reward and retain top talent.
Your unique point of view—your talent—is what makes you a #BursonPerson, and it’s how we deliver exceptional results for our clients, together. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.
Senior Data Engineer - AI & Data employer: Burson Cohn & Wolfe
At Burson, part of WPP, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that fosters a vibrant and inclusive culture where creativity and collaboration thrive. Our London-based team is dedicated to professional growth, offering robust development opportunities, mentorship from industry leaders, and a dynamic work environment that encourages innovation. With a commitment to employee well-being and a hybrid working model, we ensure our team members can balance their professional and personal lives while contributing to meaningful projects for leading global brands.
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