Senior Data Engineer
The Data Team is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to take a leading role in building complex, scalable systems that power the company's data strategy. The role involves leading architectural discussions, owning the design of business-critical data solutions, and delivering high-quality systems that bring millions of fans closer to the sports they love.
This position focuses on the optimisation of data platforms for real-time AI and machine learning workloads. The Senior Data Engineer will lead technical initiatives, maintain data integrity and performance, and work across teams to translate complex business requirements into effective data solutions. The role also utilises automation and artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, decision-making, and productivity across the organisation.
- Lead the design and delivery of robust data pipelines using GCP services such as BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub and Cloud Storage.
- Own the design of data models and databases that support business analytics and intelligence, using dimensional data-modelling principles.
- Select and use GCP database technologies such as Bigtable, Spanner or Firestore to optimise performance and scalability.
- Lead the automation of data workflows and optimisation of data storage and processing costs within GCP.
- Ensure data security by implementing GCP security practices, managing access controls, and complying with data-governance policies.
- Work closely with data engineers, business analysts and IT teams to define data requirements and deliver comprehensive data solutions.
- Provide technical leadership and guidance to team members.
- Evaluate new GCP features and data-engineering technologies to enhance data infrastructure.
- Lead the resolution of critical pipeline failures and data-quality incidents.
- Lead critical system-design and architectural decisions for scalable batch and real-time workloads.
- Partner with cross-functional teams to translate complex or ambiguous business needs into effective and innovative data solutions.
- Mentor engineers, review technical designs and foster a culture of continuous learning and engineering excellence.
- Own improvements to the reliability, performance and cost-effectiveness of data systems.
- Lead the design and maintenance of robust, secure integrations with core internal systems and critical third-party platforms.
- Define appropriate monitoring and alerting standards to ensure high system reliability and minimal downtime.
- Significant experience in data engineering or data warehousing with large-scale, complex datasets (required)
- Advanced SQL and Python skills, with experience using AI-assisted development tools appropriately (required)
- Strong knowledge of data-modelling techniques (required)
- Deep experience with cloud data services and technologies, ideally within the GCP ecosystem, such as Dataflow, Pub/Sub, BigQuery or Vertex AI (required)
- Proven experience designing and implementing robust ELT pipelines, including real-time and large-scale batch processing (required)
- Proven ability to deploy and maintain data infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code principles and tools such as Terraform (required)
- Experience with Airflow environment management and Docker (required)
- Experience contributing to an AI roadmap and evaluating AI tooling, including coding agents, for use within the development lifecycle (required)
- The ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly and concisely to technical and non-technical stakeholders (required)
- Demonstrable experience applying data-governance, privacy and security best practices in a regulated environment (required)
- A proactive and curious approach, with the ability to anticipate and resolve system inefficiencies (required)
- The ability to lead cross-functional technical work and translate complex or ambiguous requirements into robust data solutions (required)
- A track record of taking end-to-end ownership for the quality, reliability and performance of business-critical data solutions (required)
- Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical standards across a team (required)
- Company Performance Bonus
- Flexible Working Agreements where applicable
- Private Healthcare Scheme + Employee Enhanced Assistance
- Enhanced Family Leave - Maternity, Shared Parental & Adoption Leave: up to 6 months at full pay and 6 months at half pay
- Paternity leave: up to 4 weeks at full pay
- Subsidised Gym Membership
- Annual Travel Card Loan & Ride to Work Scheme
- Life Assurance (x3 salary)
- Contributory Pension Plan
- Virgin Family: Giving you access to exclusive Virgin offers and experiences
- Thursday drinks in the office and regular socials
LiveScore Group is a sports media and betting company, home to the LiveScore, LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet brands. Its flagship LiveScore product delivers real-time scores and free live streams to a large global audience, while LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet provide online sports betting and gaming. Headquartered in London, the privately owned group operates internationally, with offices in Stoke, Galway, Vienna, Gibraltar, Lagos, Malta and Cape Town. It combines media reach with regulated betting products across the UK and other markets.