Data Engineer
Department: Global Technology
Location: Piccadilly, Manchester – hybrid, three days a week in the office
Contract type: Permanent
Reporting to: Head of Data & Reporting
About our Client
They are an international retailer operating hundreds of locations across the UK, France, USA, and Hong Kong, alongside additional locations run by franchise partners globally. They are transforming from a bricks-and-mortar focused retailer into a truly customer-centric digital business with a leading consumer brand. They are aiming to better understand our customers and their preferences, making this an exciting time to join the team.
About the Programme
This role sits within the Global Data & Systems function and is a critical hire for a fast-paced 9-month data modernisation programme. The programme will replatform the data and reporting estate onto Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, and a modern Azure-based integration stack, while retiring legacy MSSQL warehouses. The scope is broad across four core international markets, and the expectations of the leadership team are high.
The Role
The Data Engineer is one of the most technically influential roles in the modernisation programme. You will be hands-on every day, building the Snowflake, dbt, and Fivetran pipelines that replace our legacy MSSQL data warehouse.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, build, test, and operate high-volume data pipelines in Snowflake, dbt, and Fivetran.
- Ingest data from Workday, Oracle Symphony, NetSuite, ecommerce platforms, and other SaaS source systems.
- Own the technical design of the most complex and critical datasets in the platform, including finance, operations, and people domains.
- Lead code reviews and act as the technical reference point for the Data Engineers, raising the standard of the team's output through coaching, pairing, and example.
- Translate Business Analyst requirements into reliable, testable, well-documented pipelines with clear data contracts and lineage.
- Migrate workloads off legacy MSSQL, which includes reverse-engineering existing stored procedures and reconciling outputs to the source.
- Build automated data quality tests in dbt and integrate them into CI/CD to ensure datasets are trustworthy before they are exposed to reporting.
- Monitor and optimise pipeline performance and Snowflake costs by tuning warehouses, queries, and materializations.
- Participate in the on-call rota and respond to production incidents promptly, including out-of-hours where required.
- Contribute to and uphold the team's engineering standards, covering Git workflows, CI/CD, peer review, documentation, and environment hygiene.
- Work closely with Integrations Engineers on upstream data contracts and with the Reporting team on downstream semantic models.
- Stay current with developments in the modern data stack to bring practical recommendations back to the team.
Essential Skills and Experience
- 5+ years of experience as a data engineer, including 2+ years working on a modern cloud data platform.
- Strong, current hands-on experience with Snowflake, encompassing warehouse sizing, role-based access, performance tuning, and cost management.
- Strong, current hands-on experience with dbt (Core or Cloud), including testing, macros, snapshots, and incremental models.
- Strong SQL skills across multiple dialects (Snowflake SQL, T-SQL), with the ability to debug, optimize, and rewrite complex queries.
- Proficiency in Python for orchestration, transformation, and tooling.
- Experience with Fivetran or comparable ELT tooling such as Airbyte, Stitch, or Hevo.
- Experience reverse-engineering and migrating workloads off MSSQL (or similar legacy warehouses) onto a modern cloud platform, with parallel running and reconciliation.
- Strong engineering discipline, including Git, CI/CD, automated testing, peer code review, and environment management.
- Experience working in Agile sprint-based delivery within a fast-paced environment.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders.
- Right to work in the UK without sponsorship.
Desirable Skills and Experience
- SnowPro Core or Advanced certification.
- Experience with Azure data services like Function Apps, Logic Apps, Data Factory, and Service Bus.
- Experience with Microsoft OneLake or Fabric.
- Experience integrating Workday, Oracle Symphony, or NetSuite as data sources.
- Experience with Power BI as a downstream consumer, including semantic models, datasets, and RLS.
- Familiarity with infrastructure as code using Terraform.
- Experience mentoring or formally leading more junior engineers.
Data Engineer in Manchester employer: numi
numi is an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture in the heart of London. With a strong emphasis on mentorship and continuous learning, employees are empowered to grow their skills while enjoying a hybrid work model and comprehensive benefits such as private medical insurance. Joining numi means being part of a dynamic team dedicated to technical excellence and meaningful growth.
