Data Engineer

Unite Foundation; Bristol; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading student accommodation provider is seeking a skilled Data Engineer to join their team in Bristol. This role involves building scalable data architectures, collaborating with a team of engineers, and employing cloud services like AWS to manage data pipelines. The ideal candidate will have experience in SQL, Python, and Spark, along with strong problem-solving skills and a background in Agile methodologies. Enjoy competitive benefits and the opportunity to innovate within a dynamic data environment.

Benefits

Discretionary annual bonus

25 days paid holiday

Generous pension scheme

Healthcare Cash Plan

Enhanced Family Leave

Qualifications

• Experience of working as a Data Engineer.
• Understanding of data modelling techniques and data pipeline design patterns.
• Experience working in an Agile environment for product delivery.

Responsibilities

• Build, test and maintain robust, scalable data architectures and pipelines.
• Collaborate with other data engineers to share knowledge.
• Troubleshoot complex data issues and optimize existing systems.

Skills

SQL

Python

Spark (pyspark)

Git

AWS Services

APIs

Agile Methodologies

Tools

Airflow

Talend

Databricks

Job description

We are seeking a skilled, motivated Data Engineer to join our dynamic and innovative team. As a Data Engineer in the Data & Insight Team you will work as part of a team of data engineers to design, develop, test and maintain data products and our data analytics platform.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join our team at a pivotal moment. As we upgrade our data platform to modernise our analytics and AI capabilities you’ll play a crucial role in building the architecture and pipelines to deliver the data assets that will drive our future success. If you’re passionate about creating innovative and scalable data solutions and want to be part of a team that will help reshape how Unite Students leverages data, we want to hear from you.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Build, test and maintain robust, scalable data architectures and pipelines that align with architectural standards and business objectives
• Collaborate with other data engineers to share knowledge and deliver solutions
• Contribute to the culture of continuous improvement within the team and seek opportunities to automate processes
• Troubleshoot complex data issues and optimize existing systems for performance and reliability
• Implement data validation and quality checks and monitoring solutions to ensure data integrity and observability to meet data governance standards and requirements
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to help define requirements and ensure alignment with business needs
• Communicate complex technical concepts effectively to non‑technical stakeholders
• Keep informed of new technologies and deliver proof‑of‑concept projects to drive innovation
• Contribute to Agile ceremonies and technical processes such as code reviews and Change Advisory Board meetings

What We’re Looking for in You

• Experience of working as a Data Engineer
• Highly proficient in SQL, Python and Spark (pyspark) for developing and testing data engineering pipelines and products to ingest and transform structured and semi‑structured data
• Understanding of data modelling techniques and data pipeline design patterns and behaviours
• Experience with pipeline management and orchestration tools such as Airflow
• Experience with low/no‑code pipeline development tools such as Talend or SnapLogic
• Experience developing data pipelines using cloud services (AWS preferred) like Lambda, S3, Redshift, Glue, Athena, Secrets Manager or equivalent services
• Experience of working with APIs for data extraction and interacting with cloud resources via APIs/CLIs/SDKs (e.g. boto3)
• Experience building out a data warehouse on platforms such as Redshift, Snowflake, or Databricks
• Comfortable working with Git for source control (in Azure DevOps repos or equivalent)
• Experience working in an Agile (Scrum) environment for product delivery using Azure DevOps or similar tools
• Strong problem‑solving abilities with the capability to quickly analyse issues and locate performance bottle‑necks in code and pipelines
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical concepts for non‑technical audiences and non‑data experts

Nice to Have

• AWS certification(s)
• Experience developing data pipelines with Databricks
• Experience building and deploying data models with dbt
• Infrastructure as Code experience (Terraform)

What You’ll Get in Return

• A discretionary annual bonus so you can share in the company’s success
• 25 days paid holiday and an annual holiday buying scheme, with 5 additional days awarded for long service
• A generous pension scheme – employer contributions between 5% and 11% depending on how much you save
• Various benefits to support your health and wellbeing including a Healthcare Cash Plan, an Employee Assistance Programme, a Wellbeing platform and a Gym benefit that you can share with your family and friends
• Enhanced Family Leave including 18 weeks full pay for birthing parents and 4 weeks for non‑birthing parents
• Lots of other great benefits including an annual ShareSave scheme, Employee Life Assurance, a discounts portal and more

Founded in 1991, Unite Students is the UK’s leading provider of purpose‑built student accommodation. You can find us in 23 leading university towns and cities, with 70,000 students calling US home! We are driven by our values, culture, and a commitment to develop diverse and inclusive teams, filled with positive energy and new ideas.

Instinctive inclusion. We know that to create and maintain a happy healthy organisation, we have to work hard to ensure inclusion isn’t just what we do but who we are.

People make Unite Students. Employees, students and neighbours all contribute to building environments where we can all thrive.

Room for Everyone

We’re proud to be an employer that embraces individuality, and we’re passionate about building inclusive teams. We focus on creating a collaborative culture where you can be you, where your voice is heard, and where you can truly belong. We take great pride in being rated Gold Investors in People and are constantly striving to provide the highest standard of learning and development opportunities and professional pathways for our people. Building a home for success, for both our employees and students, requires exceptional people with a passion for creating room for everyone, doing what’s right, keeping US safe, and raising the bar. Join us as we build better experiences for students that live with us.