Be at the heart of actionFly remote-controlled drones into enemy territory to gather vital information.

Apply Now

Lead Data Engineer

Jollyes The Pet People
Essex
5 days ago
Create job alert
Overview

Lead Data Engineer, based in Waltham Abbey (Hybrid role). Salary £60-80k p.a. + many benefits. This is a newly created role to lead a team and be hands on in replacing old tech systems and creating ETL pipelines. We’re a small high-impact team but Jollyes is growing.


This is a full-time, hybrid role involving a minimum of 3 office days per week at our pet-friendly support office in Waltham Abbey (Essex) and up to 2 days per week from home (or other Jollyes location as preferred). 37.5 hours per week.


Responsibilities

  • Backend Development: Design, build, and maintain serverless and traditional backend architectures using best practices. (We build on AWS using Lambdas and ECS images – largely in NodeJS.)
  • ETL Pipeline Management: Develop and optimise data pipelines to enable seamless data flow and transformation. (We currently use a mix of SSIS, ETL Works, Airflow, Snowflake and are moving to Airflow/Snowflake only architecture.)
  • Snowflake Management: Create production-ready procedures in Snowflake for moving and analysing data.
  • System Optimisation: Improve existing backend systems for enhanced performance, scalability, and reliability. (We’re migrating away from an old ERP monolith to a SAAS architecture and new systems arrive for different teams across the business.)
  • Cross-functional Collaboration: Work with teams across finance, marketing, and supply chain to support data needs and align technical solutions with business objectives.
  • Technical Leadership: Provide guidance on architecture decisions, ensuring solutions are aligned with long-term technical goals and day-to-day team leadership.
  • Data Governance & Security: Ensure compliance with GDPR, data retention policies, and Jollyes’ information security standards.
  • Documentation & Standards: Establish best practices for coding, version control, and deployment across the data stack. (Currently, we use Bitbucket, but have poor documentation.)

The Skills – Lead Data Engineer

  • Proficiency: SQL and Python with experience with ETL workflows.
  • Cloud: Experience with cloud-based data environments (AWS: S3, Lambda, ECS).
  • Education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification or equivalent experience in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field.
  • Communication: Effective written and verbal communication, with attention to detail and technically opinionated.
  • Problem-Solving: Curious and action-orientated; driven to make data useful.
  • Decision-Making: Comfortable making decisions and implementing new solutions.
  • Data Sensitivity: Can handle sensitive and confidential information.
  • : Experience working with non-data stakeholders to translate their needs into useful results presented clearly.
  • Orchestration & Modelling: Familiarity with orchestration tools (Airflow, DBT) and data warehouse modelling.
  • Leadership: Experience managing other data engineers.
  • Industry Experience: Experience with customer and commercial datasets, especially in retail or FMCG.
  • Interest in Pets: A love of pets!

About Jollyes Pets

Jollyes are an award-winning UK pet retailer with over 100 stores and over 50 years of pet expertise. Winners of the Retail Week award for ‘Best Retailer 2024’ (under £250m t/o), and listed in the Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Work’. Accredited by 'Rest Less' as an age-inclusive employer, welcoming applications of all ages (16+), and with accreditation to the Pet Sustainability Coalition, we are friendly to pets, people, and the planet.


Benefits

  • Competitive salary of £60-80k p.a. (depending on level of experience).
  • iTrent financial wellbeing package, powered by Stream, enabling access to earnings before pay day plus discounts and savings benefits.
  • Retail Trust membership – counselling, wellbeing and financial support for the retail industry.
  • Colleague ‘Treats’ – discounts on up to 800 high street retailers and online service providers.
  • Colleague ‘We Care’ wellbeing & medical support services – online GP, mental health support, get fit programme and more.
  • Discounts: 30% off Jollyes branded products (and 20% off other brands in store).
  • Workplace pension scheme provided by Legal & General (contributions EE 3%, ER 5%).
  • Additional paid leave for wedding, new pet arrival, and birthday.
  • Enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave and family-friendly policies.
  • Buy/Sell holiday scheme – purchase or sell up to 5 days.
  • Discounted membership for David Lloyd Clubs.
  • Probationary period: further benefits including enhanced pension and PMI.


#J-18808-Ljbffr

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Lead Data Engineer

Lead Data Engineer - Reigate

Lead Data Engineer - Edinburgh

Lead Data Engineer

Lead Data Engineer

Lead Data Engineer

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.

Machine Learning Recruitment Trends 2025 (UK): What Job Seekers Need To Know About Today’s Hiring Process

Summary: UK machine learning hiring has shifted from title‑led CV screens to capability‑driven assessments that emphasise shipped ML/LLM features, robust evaluation, observability, safety/governance, cost control and measurable business impact. This guide explains what’s changed, what to expect in interviews & how to prepare—especially for ML engineers, applied scientists, LLM application engineers, ML platform/MLOps engineers and AI product managers. Who this is for: ML engineers, applied ML/LLM engineers, LLM/retrieval engineers, ML platform/MLOps/SRE, data scientists transitioning to production ML, AI product managers & tech‑lead candidates targeting roles in the UK.

Why Machine Learning Careers in the UK Are Becoming More Multidisciplinary

Machine learning (ML) has moved from research labs into mainstream UK businesses. From healthcare diagnostics to fraud detection, autonomous vehicles to recommendation engines, ML underpins critical services and consumer experiences. But the skillset required of today’s machine learning professionals is no longer purely technical. Employers increasingly seek multidisciplinary expertise: not only coding, algorithms & statistics, but also knowledge of law, ethics, psychology, linguistics & design. This article explores why UK machine learning careers are becoming more multidisciplinary, how these fields intersect with ML roles, and what both job-seekers & employers need to understand to succeed in a rapidly changing landscape.

Machine Learning Team Structures Explained: Who Does What in a Modern Machine Learning Department

Machine learning is now central to many advanced data-driven products and services across the UK. Whether you work in finance, healthcare, retail, autonomous vehicles, recommendation systems, robotics, or consumer applications, there’s a need for dedicated machine learning teams that can deliver models into production, maintain them, keep them secure, efficient, fair, and aligned with business objectives. If you’re hiring for or applying to ML roles via MachineLearningJobs.co.uk, this article will help you understand what roles are typically present in a mature machine learning department, how they collaborate through project lifecycles, what skills and qualifications UK employers look for, what the career paths and salaries are, current trends and challenges, and how to build an effective ML team.