Lead Data Engineer

Develop your career at REA!Internal applications close on Wednesday 25th September Permanent opportunityYou’re here because you’re interested in taking the next step in your career. Your team knows you are great, but this team might not know you so well. This role reports to Peter Crooks it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to them for a chat to learn more about the position! Prior to applying, please speak with your current manager – it’s crucial they are aware of your interest in another role. Which team is this inAs a Lead Data Engineer within the PropTrack Engineering team you will be accountable for the technical outcomes of your team. The Lead Data Engineer is a structural role that provides the technical direction required to ensure their product delivery team produces great technical results. You will be the technical team leader for your team, working closely with the Delivery Lead and Product Manager. You will have a great blend of technical and people skills and will apply those skills to help organize and plan the work for the team, including leading estimation, discovery, technical planning, experimentation and support and maintenance activitiesDay to day of the jobYou will apply your people skills as a ‘people leader’ of 1-3 developers and will support their career progression and give them high value performance and mentoring feedback. You will also mentor more junior team members who may not be reporting directly to you. You will be responsible for the systems health of the team’s custodian systems. You will lead the custodianship activities that make sure systems health is planned and prioritized appropriately. You will be responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining our products in a collaborative team environment. You will collaborate with Product Managers and Designers to understand requirements and develop solutions that meet the needs of our users.You will liaise with Tech Leads and Architects to ensure your solution is in line with our technical vision. You will lead the engineering team in the implementation of solutions using a variety of programming languages, databases and cloud technologies.You will champion agile software development practices such as test-driven development, continuous delivery and pair programming and take overall responsibility for the technical quality of the solution. You will liaise with Data/Systems Engineers to deploy your solutions to production environments and monitor its performance. The Lead Data Engineer plays a crucial role in supporting the team by:Providing Technical Leadership: Offering clear technical guidance and direction to a team of highly skilled engineers, ensuring they are aligned and empowered to achieve their goals.Production System Support: Ensuring the reliability and stability of production systems, taking necessary measures to address issues promptly and effectively.Technical Mentorship: Providing mentorship and guidance to less experienced team members, fostering their professional growth and skill development.Technical Coordination and Planning: Orchestrating and planning the technical activities required to achieve the team's desired outcomes, ensuring efficient execution.Supporting Discovery Activities: Collaborating with designers, PMs, and BAs to support the discovery process, ensuring technical feasibility and alignment with user needs.Custodianship and System Health: Prioritizing and triaging custodianship work and leading the development of a Systems Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) to maintain the well-being of team systems.Enforcing Technical Practices: Ensuring that the team adheres to established technical best practices and standards to maintain code quality and consistency.Code Review and Documentation: Actively participating in code review processes and offering constructive feedback on Pull Requests (PRs) and engineering documentation, contributing to the improvement of code quality and knowledge sharingWho we’re looking for Interpersonal and Communication Skills: Effective collaboration and communication are paramount in this role. We are looking for individuals who excel in interpersonal interactions and can articulate complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.Adaptability: You should be comfortable working productively in a fast-paced and agile environment, where adaptability and responsiveness are crucial to success.API Development: Significant experience with development and maintenance of performant, scalable and reliable data APIs.Scalable Solution Design: Advanced skills in designing solutions that scale and perform at large scales are a must. Your ability to architect data products with scalability in mind will be highly valued.Modern Software Development Practices: Expertise in modern software development techniques, including but not limited to test-driven development, micro-services architecture, and continuous delivery.Event-Driven Architecture: Experience with Event-Driven architecture for real-time solutions is highly desirable, as it aligns with our data product team's goals and initiatives.Cloud Platforms: Proficiency in working with cloud platforms, including Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and associated services such as GCP BigQuery, AWS MSK (Managed Streaming for Kafka), Lambda, EC2, RDS (Relational Database Service), and AWS networking. Experience with cloud-native solutions and architecture is highly valued.Data Processing and ETL: Strong knowledge of data processing and ETL /ELT methodologies, including expertise in tools like Apache Airflow for workflow automation and orchestration.Data Modelling: Proficiency in data modelling techniques, including conceptual, logical, and physical data modelling, to ensure data structures meet the needs of the business and support effective analytics.Data Governance: Understanding of data governance principles, including data lineage, data quality, and data security, to maintain data integrity and compliance with regulations.Data Security: Understanding of data security best practices, encryption, and compliance standards to protect sensitive information.Some of these things might push you out of your comfort zone or you might be looking at this thinking you can absolutely flourish in this role… Whatever you think, we think you should throw your hat in the ring!Reach out to Alice Galloway if you need any help.