At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build data pipelines to power AI-driven personalisation for millions of travellers.
- Company: Join Holiday Extras, a Sunday Times Best Place to Work 2025, focused on inclusivity and innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy 25 days annual leave, gym discounts, private medical insurance, and a profit share bonus.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in a dynamic team while working with cutting-edge technology.
- Qualifications: Advanced SQL, dbt experience, and strong data pipeline design skills required.
- Other info: Flexible work options available to support your work-life balance.
The predicted salary is between 58490 - 73112 ÂŁ per year.
Salary ÂŁ58,490 - ÂŁ73,112 DOE + Benefits + Bonus
Location: Office based Newingreen, Kent
We care deeply about inclusive working practices and diverse teams. If you’d prefer to work part‑time or as a job‑share, we’ll facilitate this wherever we can – whether to help you meet other commitments or to help you strike a great work‑life balance.
At Holiday Extras, we’re creating a workplace where everyone can thrive, build their careers and reach their limitless potential. As a Sunday Times Best Place to Work 2025, we’re proud to offer a world of benefits designed to enhance your lifestyle and well‑being. By joining our team, you’ll feel supported and rewarded every day.
We’re looking for a Senior Data Engineer to strengthen the backbone of our data platform and ensure our data is trusted, scalable, and ready for innovation. This is a hands‑on role where you’ll design pipelines, model data, and act as a subject‑matter expert in a growing and highly motivated team. We are hungry to be at the forefront of innovation. Whether it’s new technology, tools, or techniques, we’re always exploring ways to surprise and delight our customers. We’re going all in on AI and personalisation and data is the foundation that makes it possible. From smarter recommendations to automated insights, we are investing across our business to make AI a core part of how we deliver for our customers. That’s where you come in.
The Role
- Build robust, reusable dbt models and pipelines that power reporting, experimentation and AI‑driven personalisation for millions of travellers.
- Improve observability and reliability across the platform (GCP Monitoring/Logging, alerting, SLOs).
- Strengthen governance and quality standards, ensuring our data assets are trusted and production‑ready.
- Collaborate with BI, Finance, Marketing and Engineering to align modelling and semantics to real business decisions.
- Share knowledge and mentor peers, setting high standards for production readiness and documentation.
- Orchestrate workflows with Airflow to build custom ingestion pipelines.
- Provision and manage infrastructure with Terraform, ensuring consistency, reproducibility, and scalability.
- Automate CI/CD pipelines, enabling flexible, reliable, and repeatable deployments.
Requirements
What you can bring to our team:
- Advanced SQL and hands‑on dbt experience; modular, well‑documented models with consistent business logic.
- Deep experience with BigQuery, including performance optimisation, cost management, and secure, performant dataset design.
- Strong experience designing and maintaining scalable data pipelines (batch and/or near real‑time), including ingestion, transformation, and production support.
- Experience orchestrating workflows with Airflow/Cloud Composer, including DAG design and observability.
- Proven track record designing layered/medallion architectures and implementing data quality frameworks (e.g. dbt tests, Great Expectations).
- Strong technical judgement, balancing innovation with pragmatism.
- Raises the bar for quality and reliability, mentors others through clear feedback and example, and contributes to a culture of shared ownership and continuous improvement.
- An eagerness to learn and share, whether that’s pursuing Google certifications, engaging in industry meetups, sharing the latest AI blogs, or simply bringing an innovative mindset to the team.
We know there’s no one‑size‑fits‑all. You may bring strengths in:
- Infrastructure & Platform Resilience: Airflow/Cloud Composer, Pub/Sub; Terraform (IaC); CI/CD; recovery patterns.
- AI & Data Readiness: versioned, trustworthy datasets and pipelines that enable AI/personalisation (batch or near‑real‑time).
- Security & Compliance: Data security best practices, including access controls, encryption, and compliance with GDPR/CCPA.
Everyone’s career path is individual and different, so this is just a guide. If your experience doesn’t precisely match this, you’re encouraged to apply so that we can discover your unique talents!
How we hire for this role
We know your time is precious, so we keep our recruitment process as quick and easy as possible. If we believe you might be a match for a job you’ve applied for, you’ll enter our hiring process as follows:
- Initial conversation to learn more about the role.
- On‑site interview with our Head of Data and Principal Data Engineer with technical discussion.
- Meet‑the‑team session with our Lead Data Engineer and Solutions Architect.
Cultivating a diverse and inclusive culture is paramount for us. Recognising we are all different, if for whatever reason you need us to adapt the process, please get in touch via recruitment@holidayextras.com.
We reserve the right to close this job before the closing date due to a high volume of applications, please ensure you submit your application as soon as possible to be considered.
Why choose Holiday Extras?
We believe that holidays are the most precious time of all, so we create products, tech and services that make travel and holidays memorable and fun. We’re on a mission to be the only place to go for your holiday extras, offering unparalleled choice, value and service, turning our customers’ ordinary trips into extraordinarily good times. At Holiday Extras, we’re creating a workplace where everyone can thrive, build their careers and reach their limitless potential. As a Sunday Times Best Place to Work 2025, we’re proud to offer a world of benefits designed to enhance your lifestyle and well‑being. By joining our team, you’ll feel supported and rewarded every day.
Time is precious: 25 days annual leave (+BH’s), extra holidays through Holiday Buy, Birthday Day Off, and Sabbaticals at each milestone.
Parental Leave: Enhanced parental leave - Up to 1 year off, including 13 weeks at 100% pay, 13 weeks at 50% pay.
Road to well‑being: Access to Gym Discounts, Private Dental Insurance and Private Medical Insurance (after 4 years).
Celebrate success together: Enjoy a Profit Share Bonus and a pension scheme with Aviva.
Good for the soul: Join our Social Club for 25% off any ticket or event in the UK, Discounts on the latest tech, or give back to your community with our Volunteering Scheme.
Plan ahead: Income protection, Critical illness cover and Life assurance.
Senior Data Engineer (12 month FTC) in Hythe employer: Holiday Extras
Contact Detail:
Holiday Extras Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Data Engineer (12 month FTC) in Hythe
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, attend meetups, and connect with potential colleagues on LinkedIn. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for those interviews! Research the company, understand their data platform, and be ready to discuss how your skills in SQL, dbt, and BigQuery can make a difference. Practice common interview questions and have your own ready to show your interest.
✨Tip Number 3
Show off your projects! If you've built any cool data pipelines or models, bring them up during interviews. Having tangible examples of your work can really set you apart and demonstrate your hands-on experience.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in joining our awesome team at Holiday Extras.
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Data Engineer (12 month FTC) in Hythe
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV reflects the skills and experiences that match the Senior Data Engineer role. Highlight your advanced SQL, dbt experience, and any relevant projects that showcase your ability to design scalable data pipelines.
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: Use your cover letter to tell us why you're excited about this role at Holiday Extras. Share your passion for data engineering and how you can contribute to our mission of enhancing customer experiences through innovative data solutions.
Showcase Your Technical Skills: Don’t hold back on detailing your technical expertise! Mention your experience with BigQuery, Airflow, and Terraform, and provide examples of how you've implemented data quality frameworks or automated CI/CD pipelines in past roles.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply directly through our website for a smoother application process. It helps us keep track of your application and ensures you don’t miss out on any updates from us!
How to prepare for a job interview at Holiday Extras
✨Know Your Data Tools
Make sure you brush up on your SQL and dbt skills before the interview. Be ready to discuss how you've used these tools in past projects, especially in building robust data pipelines and models. Highlight any experience with BigQuery and Airflow, as these are crucial for the role.
✨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills
Prepare to share specific examples of challenges you've faced in data engineering and how you overcame them. This could include optimising performance or ensuring data quality. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your answers clearly.
✨Understand the Company Culture
Familiarise yourself with Holiday Extras' commitment to inclusivity and innovation. Think about how your values align with theirs and be ready to discuss how you can contribute to their culture. Mention any experiences that demonstrate your ability to work in diverse teams.
✨Ask Insightful Questions
Prepare thoughtful questions to ask during the interview. This could be about their current data projects, the team dynamics, or how they envision the role evolving with AI and personalisation. This shows your genuine interest in the position and helps you assess if it's the right fit for you.