At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build data pipelines for reporting and analytics at Channel 4.
- Company: Join Channel 4, a leading media organisation with a focus on audience insights.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible working, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on innovation and best practices.
- Why this job: Make an impact by ensuring data quality and supporting creative decision-making.
- Qualifications: 2+ years in data engineering, strong SQL skills, and cloud platform experience.
The predicted salary is between 40000 - 50000 £ per year.
Organisation: Channel 4
Locations: Leeds / Manchester
Application Deadline: 10 days remaining
Reports to: Data Enablement Manager
Grade: P1
DEPARTMENT DESCRIPTION
Audience Insight are trusted thought-leaders bringing expert strategy, policy, market & audience insight – challenging and advising the business to drive delivery of Channel 4’s strategy and remit. The purpose of the new centralised Audience Insights (Subfunction) is to be independent thought leaders at the heart of Channel 4’s creative and commercial decision-making, bringing a single source of truth and big picture perspective, challenging and advising the business to ensure profitable business growth through the use of data.
Within the new centralised operating Insights model, each C‑Suite Leader and their Senior Leaders have a dedicated Insight Business Partner (BP) who prioritizes and agrees their Insight requirements, aligned to the strategic C4 pillars. BP Analysts directly source available analysis and where additional, bespoke research or specialised analysis is required, the BP will commission this from the relevant Specialist Lead, managing jointly the presentation back of recommendations to the C‑Suite Leader.
JOB PURPOSE
Working within the Reporting & Data Enablement team, the Data Engineer designs, builds and operates the reliable data pipelines and curated datasets that underpin Channel 4’s reporting and analytics. The role acquires, transforms and validates data from multiple internal and partner sources, ensuring quality, lineage and security so that analysts, report developers and leaders can rely on a single source of truth. The post holder embeds engineering best practice, aligns to governance standards and collaborates with Technology to deliver scalable, cost‑efficient and production‑ready data products.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Design, build and maintain ingestion and transformation pipelines to create model‑ready, governed datasets for reporting and analysis.
- Implement data quality checks and monitoring/alerting for refresh health and SLA adherence.
- Develop reusable transformation patterns and shared components to improve consistency and speed.
- Work with semantic-layer and report developers to separate modelling from presentation and to uphold consistent KPI definitions.
- Follow Dev → Test → Prod workflows using deployment pipelines and version control; publish clear change logs and release notes.
- Optimise pipelines for performance, reliability and cost.
- Document lineage, data dictionaries, refresh cadence, ownership and support routes; ensure discoverability via the catalogue.
- Apply data governance and security and ensure alignment with organisational policies.
- Collaborate with Technology Data Engineering to ensure platform readiness, access, standards alignment and smooth incident/change handling.
- Contribute to enablement by sharing patterns, writing how‑to guides and supporting show‑and‑tell sessions with analysts and report developers.
KEY RELATIONSHIPS & STAKEHOLDERS
- Reporting & Data Enablement leadership and Reporting Manager
- Semantic‑layer developers and Report Developers
- Technology BI and Data Engineering teams
- Data Governance / Security
- Insight Business Partners and sponsored stakeholder groups
ESSENTIAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
- Proven experience in data engineering or analytics engineering (c. 2+ years) delivering reliable, governed datasets for BI and analytics.
- Strong SQL and practical experience with a cloud data platform and orchestration tooling.
- Hands‑on with ELT/ETL patterns, incremental loads, performance tuning and data quality testing.
- Working knowledge of Power BI data model requirements and how pipeline design impacts report performance.
- Evidence of documentation, version control and release/change discipline.
- Clear communication and collaboration with Technology and Insight teams; ability to translate requirements into technical designs.
DESIRABLE
- Experience with Python/Spark for transformations, familiarity with dbt or equivalent templating frameworks.
- Exposure to telemetry/monitoring and automation.
- Media/product/streaming industry context helpful but not essential.
Data Engineer in Leeds employer: Channel 4
Channel 4 is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment in Leeds or Manchester where creativity and data-driven insights converge. With a strong emphasis on employee growth, the company fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation, providing opportunities for professional development and engagement with cutting-edge data technologies. Employees benefit from a supportive atmosphere that values diverse perspectives and encourages meaningful contributions to the organisation's strategic goals.
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We think this is how you could land Data Engineer in Leeds
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We think you need these skills to ace Data Engineer in Leeds
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Projects:In the world of data science, your projects can speak volumes about your skills. Make sure to showcase a few key projects in your CV or portfolio, especially those that highlight your ability to work with data sets, build models, or use relevant tools like Python, R, or SQL. Don’t forget to include links to any GitHub repositories if applicable!
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Craft a Tailored Cover Letter:For a full-time role at Channel 4, your cover letter should reflect your passion for data science and your excitement about the specific projects or values of the company. Dive into why you’re a good fit, how your skills align with their needs, and any unique perspectives you can bring to the team.
Stand Out with Relevant Courses and Certifications:Although experience talks, relevant courses or certifications can be your ticket to impressing hiring managers at Channel 4. Mention any standout courses you've completed that equipped you with essential skills, such as machine learning certifications or data visualisation courses. This shows your commitment to continuously developing your skills in the field!
How to prepare for a job interview at Channel 4
✨Brush Up on Your Statistics
For a data science role, we need to seriously sharpen our statistics skills. Get ready to tackle technical questions on probability distributions, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis. These are often the bread and butter of data science interviews, so don't just skim over them!
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Prepare a killer portfolio showcasing your data science projects. We should include details about the datasets used, the tools and techniques applied, and the impact of your findings. If we can walk them through a particularly challenging project or a cool visualisation that had real-world implications, it’ll really make us stand out!
✨Get Comfortable with Python and R
Most data science positions require us to be proficient in programming languages like Python and R. We should practice common libraries like pandas, NumPy, and scikit-learn, and be ready for live coding exercises or algorithm questions. Showing off our coding chops can really impress the interviewers at Channel 4!
✨Prepare for Case Studies
Expect to encounter real-world case studies during the interview. We might be asked how we’d approach a data problem or analyse a dataset to extract insights. It's essential to think out loud and demonstrate our problem-solving process so that the interviewer can see our logical thinking in action.
