Shape the Future of AIJoin one of the UK's fastest-growing companies and become a Professional Development Expert in Artificial Intelligence.

View Roles

Principal Data Engineer

BBC
Salford
3 days ago
Create job alert

Join to apply for thePrincipal Data Engineerrole atBBC

2 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants

Join to apply for thePrincipal Data Engineerrole atBBC

JOB PROFILE

JOB BAND: D

CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time

DEPARTMENT: Product Group

LOCATION: Salford

PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: up to £87,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

[video – Modernise the BBC]

The Principal Data Engineer is a role that will support the Product Data Domain teams. You will help to build ETL pipelines to ingest and transform data to develop the data products that will power key value use cases across the BBC. You will work in an agile multi-disciplinary team alongside product analytics developers, product data managers, data modelers and data operations managers, ensuring that all work delivers maximum value to the BBC.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

Product Group is responsible for the design, development, and delivery of the BBC’s portfolio of digital products.

Including iPlayer, Sounds, Bitesize, and the BBC News and BBC Sport apps and website, our portfolio is diverse and contains some of the largest and highest-profile properties on the UK internet. We’re a huge streaming media destination, a news source trusted across the world, a provider of educational and entertaining content to children of all ages, and a sports results, analysis, and commentary service, and much more besides. It's an unparalleled portfolio of products, and our strength is our range and breadth. Working with the BBC’s content divisions, our focus now is on driving engagement across our portfolio so that the BBC online becomes a valued daily habit for all audiences just as television and radio have been over the last century.

Data is fundamental to our future: both in helping us prioritise and shape our work and in creating richer, more personalised experiences for our audiences. And our portfolio means that we’ve got one of the widest, most diverse, and most exciting datasets to work within the UK.

Your Key Responsibilities And Impact

  • Leads and architects on developing robust and scalable complex data pipelines to ingest, transform, and analyse large volumes of structured and unstructured data from diverse data sources. Pipelines must be optimised for performance, reliability, and scalability in line with the BBC’s scale.
  • Lead initiatives to enhance data quality, governance and security across the organisation, ensuring compliance with BBC guidelines and industry best practices.
  • Prioritises stakeholders requirements and identify the best solution for timely delivery.
  • Leads on building automation workflows including monitoring and alerting.
  • Encouraging and mentoring team members in partnership with other disciplines to create value with data across the wider organisation.
  • Helps set standards for coding, testing and other engineering practices.
  • Leads on the building and testing of business continuity & disaster recovery procedures per requirements.
  • Proactively evaluates and provides feedback on future technologies and new releases/upgrades based on deep understanding of the domain.

Essential Skills

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

  • Extensive (5+ years) experience in a data engineering or analytics engineering role, preferably in digital products, building ETL pipelines, ingesting data from a diverse set of data sources (including event streams, various forms of batch processing)
  • Excellent SQL and python skills with experience in deploying and scheduling code bases in a data development environment, using technologies such as Airflow.
  • Good working knowledge of cloud-based Data Warehousing technologies (such as AWS Redshift, GCP BigQuery or Snowflake)
  • Demonstrable experience of working alongside cross-functional teams interacting with Product Managers, Infrastructure Engineers, Data Scientists, and Data Analysts
  • Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to prioritise and a structured approach and ability to bring others on the journey

Desirable Skills

  • Ability to listen to others’ ideas and build on them
  • Ability to clearly communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences
  • Ability to collaborate effectively, working alongside other team members towards the team’s goals, and enabling others to succeed, where possible
  • Strong attention to detail

Seniority level

  • Seniority levelMid-Senior level

Employment type

  • Employment typeFull-time

Job function

  • Job functionInformation Technology
  • IndustriesBroadcast Media Production and Distribution

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at BBC by 2x

Sign in to set job alerts for “Data Engineer” roles.

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Altrincham, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Blackburn, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Software Developer – Full Stack (Laravel/PHP)

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 4 days ago

Culcheth, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

Frontend software engineer (React) - Europe Remote

Manchester, England, United Kingdom $35,000.00-$40,000.00 2 months ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 6 days ago

Knutsford, England, United Kingdom 2 months ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 months ago

Manchester Area, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 months ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 4 days ago

Altrincham, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Software Engineer (Typescript) - Manchester

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Manchester Area, United Kingdom 6 days ago

Manchester, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

We’re unlocking community knowledge in a new way. Experts add insights directly into each article, started with the help of AI.


#J-18808-Ljbffr

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Principal Data Engineer

PRINCIPAL MACHINE LEARNING INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERS-AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE

Principal Data Engineer

Data Engineer - Product Metrics & Tooling - Global Tech

Data Scientist, Analytics (R Shiny)

Senior Machine Learning Scientist - Search

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

Jobs Careers

10 Machine‑Learning Recruitment Agencies in the UK You Should Know (2025 Job‑Seeker Guide)

With deep‑learning projects now integral across healthcare, finance and tech, UK demand for machine‑learning talent is booming. Lightcast shows +50 % YoY growth in UK adverts referencing “machine learning,” “deep learning,” “computer vision” or “reinforcement learning” in Q1 2025. Monthly vacancies sit around 1,800–2,100, but certified ML specialists number fewer than 15,000. Specialist recruiters help candidates access hidden roles, competitive packages, and structured interview prep. How we screened: Only UK‑registered agencies with clear ML/AI or Data practices Agencies that posted ≥ 5 UK ML roles between March and June 2025

Jobs Careers

Machine Learning Jobs Skills Radar 2026: Emerging Tools, Frameworks & Platforms to Learn Now

Machine learning is no longer confined to academic research—it's embedded in how UK companies detect fraud, recommend content, automate processes & forecast risk. But with model complexity rising and LLMs transforming workflows, employers are demanding new skills from machine learning professionals. Welcome to the Machine Learning Jobs Skills Radar 2026—your annual guide to the top languages, frameworks, platforms & tools shaping machine learning roles in the UK. Whether you're an aspiring ML engineer or a mid-career data scientist, this radar shows what to learn now to stay job-ready in 2026.

Jobs

How to Find Hidden Machine Learning Jobs in the UK Using Professional Bodies like BCS, Turing Society & More

Machine learning (ML) continues to transform sectors across the UK—from fintech and retail to healthtech and autonomous systems. But while the demand for ML engineers, researchers, and applied scientists is growing, many of the best opportunities are never posted on traditional job boards. So, where do you find them? The answer lies in professional bodies, academic-industry networks, and tight-knit ML communities. In this guide, we’ll show you how to uncover hidden machine learning jobs in the UK by engaging with groups like the BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT), Turing Society, Alan Turing Institute, and others. We’ll explore how to use member directories, CPD events, SIGs (Special Interest Groups), and community projects to build connections, gain early access to job leads, and raise your professional profile in the ML ecosystem.

🍪 We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you consent to the use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy. You can review our Cookie Policy for more information.