Lead Data Engineer

Job Description

Job Description:

[Insert short summary of role – approximately 1 paragraph]

What are we looking for?

Mars Petcare consists of five Divisions: Pet Nutrition, Royal Canin, Mars Veterinary Health & Diagnostics and Kinship. The Pet Nutrition division is currently embarking on a 3-year Digital Transformational program that aims to irreversibly digitise Mars.

Our purpose in the R&D Digital Transformation of Pet Nutrition Is to create step-change value creation for pets and pet parents by digitalising R&D to accelerate innovation, deliver superior propositions and fuel an integrated supply chain, with Increased agility and reduced cost. Some of the key deliverables we will look to unlock are:

• From siloed, small-scale product performance evaluation to a fully Integrated, data driven performance assessment through real-time predictive solutions; maximising capability and reducing evaluation time & cost by building confidence to drive superior propositions across the portfolio.

• From traditional Innovation and scale-up protocols to innovative digital modelling which enables rapid scenario evaluation, accelerated development and scale-up, with increased agility and reduced costs/resources.

• From dispersed physical quality records to digitalised quality standards, capturing of data and trend predictions, which can be leveraged in order to proactively mitigate emerging risks and avoid non-quality Impacts.

• From fragmented legacy IT systems holding unreliable data to an integrated R&D digital & data ecosystem with the purpose of enacting step-change operational efficiency and maximising business value by confidently utilising trustworthy data.

What will be your key responsibilities?

• As a Lead Data Engineer in the R&D team, your key responsibilities are as follows:

  1. Technical Excellence:

  • Lead development activities using Python, PySpark and other technologies to create and maintain data assets and reports for business insights.

  • Engineer and orchestrate data models and pipelines within a cloud environment, leveraging technologies like Databricks, Spark, Delta Lake and SQL.

  • Maintain a progressive tech stack, including Python, PySpark, Logic Apps, Azure Functions, ADLS, Django and ReactJs.

  • Champion DevOps and CI/CD methodologies to ensure agile collaboration and robust data solutions.

  • Write high-quality code that contributes to a scalable and maintainable data platform.

  2. Leadership and Mentorship:

  • Mentor, coach, and inspire a team of aspiring data engineers, fostering their professional growth and development.

  • Lead engineering projects in collaboration with team members, ensuring the rapid development of high-quality, scalable and sustainable data solutions.

  • Actively participate in the evolution of our platform by researching and suggesting new technologies, staying at the forefront of industry trends.

  3. Data Solution Ownership:

  • Take full ownership of the most challenging areas of development within the Pet Nutrition data platform.

  • Manage data from various divisions to produce valuable data assets related to pets and pet owners.

  • Harvest and maintain a semantic and intelligent data layer, ensuring comprehensive leadership of the data solution within the environment.

  4. Collaboration and Communication:

  • Collaborate closely with analysts, data scientists, and technology partners to understand their requirements and translate them into actionable data solutions.

  • Maintain fluid communication with the Data Engineering Lead, working collaboratively and exchanging ideas to drive platform excellence.

Education & Professional Qualifications

• 10+ years’ experience working as a Data Engineer

• 5+ years’ experience leading a team in either a technical or line manager function

Knowledge / Experience

• Profound expertise in data processing and transformation using Spark, Databricks, Azure Data Factory, or similar data processing technologies.

• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure cloud services and infrastructure, including familiarity with Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), Azure DevOps, Azure Logic Apps and Azure Functions.

• Mastery in one or more of the following programming languages: Python, SQL or PySpark, with the ability to effectively utilize them for data engineering tasks.

• Extensive experience in designing, developing, and managing end-to-end data pipelines, ETL (Extract, Transform, Load), and ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) solutions.

• Maintains a proactive approach to staying updated with emerging technologies and a strong desire to continuously learn and adapt to new tools, languages and methodologies in the ever-evolving field of data engineering and analytics.

• Possesses expert knowledge of the contemporary data engineering and analytics landscape, including current tools, pertinent approaches and likely challenges.

• A strong history of designing and constructing databases, analytics systems and Business Intelligence (BI) platforms within the context of Big Data.

• A demonstrable ability to mentor and coach junior data engineers, sharing knowledge and expertise to help them grow in their roles.

• The capability to collaborate efficiently with business stakeholders to understand their requirements and translate them into effective data solutions.

• Strong support for Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) practices and an understanding of agile working methodologies.

• Familiarity with graph database technologies such as Neo4J and Cypher.

• Knowledge and experience working with Delta Lake, a storage layer that brings ACID transactions to data lakes.

• Understanding of the Azure Platform set up including Subscriptions, Resource Group, IAM, Networking and DevOps.

• Experience in setting up processes for cost/performance monitoring Spark jobs to improve maintainability.

• Have deep knowledge on providing technical governance to enhance ways of working to improve the SDLC process.

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.
• Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
• An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.

Mars is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.