Senior Data Engineer - Scotland

Blis; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

A global leader in big data analytics seeks a Senior Data Engineer to design and build large-scale data processing pipelines. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of experience in data engineering, particularly in GCP, Python, and Apache Druid. This role offers the opportunity to work with high-scale systems and contribute to innovative solutions that drive business growth.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in building data pipelines.
• Experience with Apache Druid and Imply platforms.
• Extensive knowledge of GCP and Python libraries for data science.

Responsibilities

• Design and build large scale data processing pipelines.
• Support and mentor other team members.
• Explore new data streams for growth.

Skills

Data pipeline development

Cloud data engineering

Python programming

Data governance

Critical thinking

Tools

Apache Druid

GCP

Apache Airflow

Spark

pandas

scikit-learn

Google BigQuery

Job description

Senior Data Engineer

Come work on fantastically high‑scale systems with us! Blis is an award‑winning, global leader and technology innovator in big data analytics and advertising. We help brands such as McDonald’s, Samsung, and Mercedes Benz to understand and effectively reach their best audiences.

We are looking for solid and experienced Data Engineers to work on building out secure, automated, scalable pipelines on GCP. We receive over 350 GB of data an hour and respond to 400,000 decision requests each second, with petabytes of analytical data to work with.

We tackle challenges across almost every major discipline of data science, including classification, clustering, optimisation, and data mining. You will be responsible for building stable production‑level pipelines maximising the efficiency of cloud compute to ensure that data is properly enabled for operational and scientific cause.

This is a growing team with big responsibilities and exciting challenges ahead of it, as we look to reach the next 10x level of scale and intelligence.

At Blis, Data Engineers are a combination of software engineers, cloud engineers, and data processing engineers. They actively design and build production pipeline code, typically in Python, whilst having practical experience in ensuring, policing, and measuring for good data governance, quality, and efficient consumption. To run an efficient landscape we are ideally looking for candidates that are comfortable with event‑driven automation across also aspects of our operational pipelines.

As a Blis data engineer, we seek to understand the data and problem definition and find efficient solutions, so critical thinking is a key component to efficient pipelines and effective reuse, this must include defining the pipelines for the correct controls and recovery points not only function and scale. The team are almost always adherents of Lean Development and work well in environments with significant amounts of freedom and ambitious goals.

This ideal candidate will be comfortable with fast feature delivery with a robust engineered follow‑up.

Key responsibilities

• Design, build, monitor, and support large scale data processing pipelines.
• Support, mentor, and pair with other members of the team to advance our team’s capabilities and capacity.
• Help Blis explore and exploit new data streams to innovative and support commercial and technical growth.
• Work closely with Product and be comfortable with taking, making and delivering against fast paced decisions to delight our customers.

Skills and requirements

• 5+ years direct experience delivering robust, performant data pipelines within the constraints of direct SLA’s and commercial financial footprints.
• Proven experience in architecting, developing, and maintaining Apache Druid and Imply platforms, with a focus on DevOps practices and large‑scale system re‑architecture.
• Mastery of building pipelines in GCP, maximising the use of native and supporting technologies e.g. Apache Airflow.
• Mastery of Python for data and computational tasks with fluency in data cleansing, validation and composition techniques.
• Hands‑on implementation and architectural familiarity with all forms of data sourcing i.e. streaming data, relational and non‑relational databases, and distributed processing technologies (e.g. Spark).
• Fluency with all appropriate Python libraries typical of data science e.g. pandas, scikit‑learn, scipy, numpy, MLlib and/or other machine learning and statistical libraries.
• Advanced knowledge of cloud based services specifically GCP.
• Excellent working understanding of server‑side Linux.
• Professional in managing and updating on tasks ensuring appropriate levels of documentation, testing and assurance around their solutions.

Desired

• Experience optimizing both code and config in Spark, Hive, or similar tools.
• Practical experience working with relational databases, including advanced operations such as partitioning and indexing.
• Knowledge and experience with tools like AWS Athena or Google BigQuery to solve data‑centric problems.
• Understanding and ability to innovate, apply, and optimise complex algorithms and statistical techniques to large data structures.

Experience with Python Notebooks, such as Jupyter, Zeppelin, or Google Datalab to analyze, prototype, and visualize data and algorithmic output.

About us

Blis is the only omnichannel DSP that unites telco data, real‑world movement patterns, and transactions to deliver a complete view of the consumer. Powered by T‑Mobile and built for precision at scale, Blis’ omnichannel platform helps marketers map the full purchase journey – from impression to transaction – and expand their audience reach, driving incremental results across every screen.

Founded in the UK in 2004, Blis employs over 300 global employees across 14 offices in 11 countries.

Our Values - B.L.I.S.

Brave

We’re leaders not followers. An innovation and growth mindset helps us solve everyday challenges and achieve breakthroughs. Our passion drives us to innovate. We don’t see barriers, just possibilities.

We take ownership and hold ourselves accountable for outcomes, good and bad – and we don’t pass the buck.

Love our clients

We’re client obsessed. We do what we say and build trusted relationships with our partners for the long term. We act with integrity. We put our clients at the center of our business. We obsess over the best insights, ideas and solutions to deliver WOW and work with honesty and accountability to get it done.

Inclusive

We’re one team. We are empathetic and embrace diversity. Everyone has a voice and can bring their authentic self to work. We care about and support each other – with humility and good humor. Mutual respect and wellbeing are key. We strive to eliminate bias and be open and transparent.

Solutions driven

We’re action oriented. Speed matters in business, so we’re solution‑driven and action‑oriented. We value simplification and calculated risk taking. We are lean, agile and resourceful self‑starters. We collaborate and break silos, working thoughtfully and with urgency to solve problems, while learning from mistakes and celebrating wins.

If this looks like the perfect fit for you or if you just want to have a conversation, please apply and we will get back to you as quickly as possible!