Principal Data Engineer

Quick Facts

• Role: Principal Data Engineer (senior individual contributor and technical leader)

• Focus: Enterprise data platforms, scalable production pipelines, DataOps/DevOps best practices, and technical standards across teams

Description

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will shape the design, direction, and evolution of the company’s data platforms and products. You will lead enterprise-scale data solutions, influence engineering strategy and standards across squads and domains, and drive measurable business value through modern engineering practices.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the data platform and data engineering strategy aligned with Group Technology objectives

• Lead architecture decisions; establish engineering standards, best practices, and scalable design patterns across pipelines, storage, and processing

• Partner with Architecture and Product teams to shape long-term platform roadmaps

• Design and deliver robust, production-ready data platforms and pipelines (scalable, resilient, high-performing, cost-efficient)

• Champion modern data engineering practices: CI/CD, automated testing, observability, DevOps, and platform automation

• Drive data quality, governance, and security standards; promote reusable data products and shared platform capabilities

• Provide technical leadership across multiple squads; collaborate with senior stakeholders across Engineering, Product, Architecture, and Technology

• Lead complex business-critical initiatives across teams, systems, and geographies

• Mentor and coach engineers; foster knowledge sharing and engineering excellence within the Data Engineering Chapter

• Support hiring, onboarding, and capability development

• Stay ahead of emerging technologies and evaluate tools/approaches that deliver measurable value

• Continuously improve data engineering solutions balancing quality, speed, cost, and risk

Requirements

• Proven ability to influence executive-level stakeholders and collaborate across multiple domains

• Strong problem-solving and decision-making for complex, ambiguous, cross-system challenges

• Ability to lead through uncertainty and changing priorities

• Track record of setting engineering standards and raising team capability

• Experience coaching engineers and contributing to high-performing teams and engineering communities

• Expertise in distributed data processing systems and architectures

• Deep knowledge of data modelling, storage, access, and processing patterns

• Proven delivery experience for large-scale data platforms and production-grade data pipelines

• Strong programming skills in Python and SQL

• Hands-on experience with Spark and either PySpark or Scala

• Experience using dbt for data modelling and transformation

• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms: GCP, Azure, and AWS

• Experience with Databricks, BigQuery, and Azure Data Factory

• Strong DevOps and DataOps practices: CI/CD, Git, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes

• Experience with data quality tools/testing frameworks, including Great Expectations

• Deep understanding of batch, streaming, and event-driven data architecture patterns

• Strong knowledge of cloud-native/distributed systems design

• Experience designing resilient, scalable, and observable systems

• Proven ability to optimize platforms for performance and cost efficiency

• Ability to act as trusted technical authority and influence strategic direction and investment decisions

• Excellent command of English (written and spoken)

Benefits

• 29,000–39,000 PLN gross per month on an employment contract

• Private medical healthcare (LUXMED) including dental care for you and your family

• Medicover sports card (Fit&More)

• Employer-financed life insurance

• 30-minute lunch break included in the 8-hour working day

• Training and Buddy programme; wellbeing programme

• Co-financing of public transport tickets in Kraków

• Office comfort plus possibility of home office

• Language courses, access to LinkedIn Learning, and potential co-financing for studies/certification

• Employee referral programme