Senior Data Engineer

Company description Publicis Media harnesses the power of modern media through leading agency brands Dysrupt, Infinite Roar, Publicis Collective, Publicis Health Media, Spark Foundry, Starcom and Zenith, as well as global accelerator PMX; immersive experience group PMCI and access to integrated platform-based technologies and offerings from CJ, Epsilon and Influential. Publicis Groupe operates as a key business solution of Publicis and its digital-first, data-driven global solutions deliver client value and drive growth in a platform-powered world. It is present in over 100 countries with over 23,000 employees worldwide.

Overview

Performics is the Performance Centre of Excellence within Publicis Groupe, delivering AI-powered, data-driven marketing solutions for global brands. Our flagship platform, OneSuite, unifies automation, orchestration, and intelligent data systems to transform how performance marketing operates across Search, Social, Programmatic, and Commerce channels.

At the heart of this ecosystem is the Data Foundation Platform (DFP) — the unified data layer that powers OneSuite’s analytics, AI orchestration, and decisioning capabilities.

DFP ingests, transforms, and standardizes data from 20+ marketing platforms, enabling intelligent agents, real-time optimization, and cross-channel performance insights.

About the Role

We’re seeking a Senior Data Engineer to lead the technical direction and architecture of the Data Foundation Platform within OneSuite. This is a hands‑on engineering role — you’ll contribute directly to production code, build pipelines, and review implementations while shaping the long‑term data platform architecture.

You’ll operate as the technical authority for DFP — guiding design patterns, ensuring code quality, and solving complex problems in distributed data systems. You’ll collaborate closely with peer charters to ensure the data foundation remains reliable, scalable, and production‑ready.

Responsibilities

Data Platform Architecture

• Lead the hands‑on design, coding, and evolution of DFP’s cloud-native data architecture (AWS/GCP/Snowflake).
• Architect and implement scalable ingestion and transformation pipelines using Fivetran, Databricks, and Airflow/DBT.
• Design and code modular data services and APIs that unify campaign, conversion, and audience datasets across 20+ marketing platforms.
• Build and optimize schemas, transformations, and ETL logic for high-performance, reusable data workflows.
• Contribute directly to the DFP codebase (Python, SQL, Spark) — developing pipelines and infrastructure alongside the engineering team.
• Establish data versioning, testing, and governance frameworks ensuring reliability, lineage, and compliance.

Data Engineering Leadership

• Drive best practices in data modeling, CI/CD, code reviews, and performance optimization.
• Collaborate across engineering teams to define data contracts, schema validation rules, and automated quality checks.
• Mentor junior engineers by pairing on code, reviewing pull requests, and helping them deepen technical maturity.
• Participate actively in sprint planning and retrospectives, ensuring engineering execution aligns with platform goals.
• Partner with Product and Data Science teams to translate analytical requirements into efficient, production‑grade data solutions.

AI-Ready Infrastructure

• Design and maintain pipelines supporting Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Context Engine™ workflows.
• Build high-performance APIs and caching strategies enabling low-latency data access for AI agents and orchestration systems.
• Implement vector-based data retrieval layers (pgVector, Pinecone) and ensure efficient embedding pipelines for AI contexts.
• Partner with AI teams to monitor data latency, cost efficiency, and observability metrics.

Collaboration & Governance

• Partner with Platform Operations and Security to enforce privacy, compliance, and access control frameworks (GDPR, SOC2).
• Work cross-functionally with analysts, AI engineers, and platform leads to deliver production‑grade, business‑critical data products.
• Lead by example in data documentation, pipeline testing, and lineage tracking — ensuring transparency and reproducibility across all pipelines.

Qualifications

• Hands‑on experience as a Data Engineer or Data Platform Developer, including direct contributions to production codebases.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python, SQL, and Apache Spark for data pipeline development.
• Proven experience building ELT workflows using Fivetran, Airflow, DBT, or Databricks.
• Solid understanding of data modeling, dimensional design, and schema normalization at enterprise scale.
• Strong experience with AWS (S3, Redshift, Glue, Lambda) or GCP (BigQuery, Dataflow).
• Experience working with marketing or ad platform data (Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, DV360, Amazon Ads).
• Demonstrated expertise in code versioning (GitHub), CI/CD integration, and data observability practices.
• Ability to write clean, modular, testable code and review peers’ contributions for maintainability and performance.

Additional information

Publicis Groupe has fantastic benefits on offer to all of our employees. In the UK, in addition to the classics, Pension, Life Assurance, Private Medical and Income Protection Plan, we also offer:

• WORK YOUR WORLD opportunity to work anywhere in the world, where there is a Publicis office, for up to 6 weeks a year.
• REFLECTION DAYS — Two additional days of paid leave to step away from your usual day‑to‑day work and create time to focus on your well‑being and self‑care.
• HELP@HAND BENEFITS 24/7 helpline to support you on a personal and professional level. Access to remote GPs, mental health support and CBT. Wellbeing content and lifestyle coaching.
• FAMILY FRIENDLY POLICIES We provide 26 weeks of full pay for the following family milestones: Maternity, Adoption, Surrogacy and Shared Parental Leave.
• FLEXIBLE WORKING, BANK HOLIDAY SWAP & BIRTHDAY DAY OFF You are entitled to an additional day off for your birthday, from your first day of employment.
• GREAT LOCAL DISCOUNTS This includes membership discounts with Soho Friends, local restaurants and retailers in Westfield White City and Television Centre.

Full details of our benefits will be shared when you join us!

Publicis Groupe operates a hybrid working pattern with full‑time employees being office‑based three days during the working week.

We are supportive of all candidates and are committed to providing a fair assessment process. If you have any circumstances (such as neurodiversity, physical or mental impairments or a medical condition) that may affect your assessment, please inform your Talent Acquisition Partner. We will discuss possible adjustments to ensure fairness. Rest assured, disclosing this information will not impact your treatment in our process.

Please make sure you check out the Publicis Career Page, which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG’s (Employee Action Groups).