Senior Data Engineer at Reach

  • UK Only
  • Reach
Job Description:

Reporting to the Head of Engineering, the Senior Data Engineer will lead on the technical design and implementation of an enterprise data warehouse (EDW).

Reach currently utilises Tableau as their visualisation platform. The dashboards are sourced from data held within a customer data lake housed within AWS. Currently the business intelligence team uses queries built in Athena to create tables and views that support the dashboards within Tableau. Reach plc are looking to create an EDW to improve the reporting capability within the business intelligence team. As the data lake already exists within the AWS suite of services, Redshift has been chosen as the platform to house the EDW.

There are multiple sources of data that are brought into the data lake via the Ingestion team. You will work closely with the Ingestion team and Data Architect to gain an understanding of the data. You will be responsible for the implementation of a high performance EDW using Redshift that will be used to power reporting and analytics across the organisation. Due to the nature of the analytics and data science teams within Reach PLC, there is a requirement for data marts to be included in the design.

100% home based (UK & Ireland).We can accommodate office work for those who can commute to our Canary Wharf office.

So, who are we?

We are Reach plc, you might not have heard of us but we have probably met without you even realising it. We are home to the UK and Ireland’s most iconic digital platforms, magazines and newspapers. From the Mirror, Daily Express and OK!, to our regional titles such as the Liverpool Echo, BirminghamLive and the Manchester Evening News (plus lots more), our brands and the stories we cover are as varied as our people. We help all kinds of people share experiences through our stories because we believe this is what makes us human. Oh, and we should probably also mention that with a monthly readership of 47 million people, Reach is the largest commercial publisher in the UK. At Reach, not only will you feel better understood, you will also feel you understand other people better too.

Key Responsibilities

You’ll own every aspect of Reach’s use of the Redshift platform. This includes:

  • Provisioning Redshift and other infrastructure in AWS using Infrastructure-as-Code (IAC) tools
  • configuring Redshift, including backup, archiving and resilience
  • Monitoring the ongoing cost and performance of Redshift
  • loading data into Redshift for transformation and use by modellers and analysts
  • Modelling raw data to support analytical insights
  • Ensuring regulatory and group data policy compliance
  • Thought leadership in the use of the EDW
  • You’ll confidently recommend and justify technology choices - but hold your views lightly and be prepared to work with other choices if discussion suggests alternatives.
  • You’ll liaise with data and BI engineers, data modellers and non-technical stakeholders to ensure that your work always contributes to achieving Reach’s broader data strategy.
  • You’ll provide database support by coding utilities, responding to user questions, and resolving problems as they arise.
  • Part of the longer term data strategy is to unify data sets and create a uniform view of the business data. You’ll work closely with the Data Architect and other engineers to deliver this strategy.
  • You’ll document and diagram your decisions where doing so will be useful to a broader audience.

The Ideal Candidate

The EDW and its data sets are a core part of Reach’s long term digital strategy, so while we’re looking for expertise in a number of areas, you will be supported throughout and will work within and across teams.

  • Can extrapolate from the job requirements, the technical skills and personal traits required to excel in this role and can recognise those attributes in themselves.
  • Has worked with many data warehouse solutions but has expertise in Redshift. Can produce data models and physical schemas.
  • Has the ability to work effectively remotely and resourcefully, with excellent remote management and communication skills.
  • Extensive professional experience working with data warehouses at a level consistent with the responsibilities outlined above.
  • Good IAM, RBAC and AWS security experience.
  • Experience building data pipelines and orchestrating workflows in an enterprise environment
  • Has a broad palette of technical choices for ETL, processing and consuming data, including a thorough, in-depth knowledge of the AWS service and tooling landscape
  • Strong engineering ability including coding and CI/CD pipelines to deploy to various environments.
  • Solid understanding in data management and governance in big data environments
  • Good understanding of batch data processing
  • Experience building data ingestion processes with Python
  • Understanding of the Kimball methodology for data warehousing where and how to implement the models to maximise the performance of Redshift
  • Expert knowledge and experience of OLAP, Data Mart and Data warehouse Data Models

Essential:

  • Expertise in Redshift

Desirable:

  • Ideally worked roles in media companies or technology companies
  • Ideally has IaC experience and knowledge of the underlying AWS constructs and services
  • Experience with ELT tools for data transformation such as Alteryx, Matilion or similar is desirable
  • Machine learning experience is desirable

Company Benefits

  • Help saving for your retirement - matched contributions up to 6%
  • 25 days’ holiday per year when you join. After three, five and ten years’ service with Reach, you’ll accrue one additional day of annual leave. We also have a Holiday Purchase Scheme
  • Giving back day - an additional day’s leave each year to support a cause close to your heart
  • Flexibility - In this role, you’ll be fully remote-working (UK based) giving you more flexibility to balance home and life. We’ll support you with your home set-up, and you’ll be able to claim expenses for any trips to our office ‘hubs’
  • Enhanced family leave - including maternity, paternity and adoption - and you’ll be eligible after just six months’ employment.
  • Private Healthcare Cash Plan - free health cash plan so you can claim back cash for a range of medical expenses
  • As one of the UK’s top 50 Inclusive Employers everyone’s invited to join our events, programmes and networks to celebrate diversity and build an environment where all our people can thrive
  • Wellbeing support - including a 24/7 assistance programme for you and your nearest and dearest, a free subscription to mindfulness app Headspace and access to free mental health coaching through Sanctus
  • Awesome career opportunities - you’ll have support from your line manager and a range of learning & development programmes
  • We are a FTSE 250 Company, and also a member of the 30% Club, a global campaign aimed at increasing gender diversity at board and senior management levels

Interview Process

1.10-15 minute screening call with internal recruiter

2.60 minute first stage video interview with hiring manager (tech questions/Q&A)

3.Take home task

4.60 minute final video interview with Director of Data & Analytics (review tech task/Q&A)

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