Data Engineer – Customer Interactions

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes for us to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety it involves. Then you’ll realise that ours is a modern software engineering environment because it has to be. We’ve made serious investment into a Tech Academy and into setting standards and principles. We iterate, learn, experiment and push ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to awesome opportunities in everything from AI to reusable tech.

Why join us

Joining Sainsbury's Tech as a Data Engineer means becoming part of a leading technology organisation that powers the UK's top multi-channel, multi-brand retailer. We are a community of passionate engineers who are empowered to define and deliver through the use of technology. With a focus on continuous improvement and technical excellence, you will have the opportunity to shape our engineering vision, drive the adoption of best practices, and work with cutting-edge technologies. Not only will you contribute to innovative solutions that impact millions of customers, but you will also be part of a progressive community that fosters growth, collaboration, and the advancement of engineering expertise.

We use a variety of tech here and you need to be willing to pick up new tools and techniques. We’d also like you to be yourself - analytical, curious, and unafraid to challenge the status quo. You’ll constantly strive to improve the way things are done in your team, contributing as a progressive member of the engineering community.

We are looking for an experienced Data Engineer confident in investigating, ingesting, and exploiting large datasets, with core skills in SQL, Python, AWS, and CI/CD. Within the Customer & Channels space, you’ll be working with data at scale, supporting products and services used by millions of customers. We have thousands of shops and millions of customers creating billions of transactions per year, and we’re on a mission to use this data better than anyone else.

Key Responsibilities

- Work with various data squads across Sainsbury’s to ensure the right data is available for teams to build fantastic products.

- Design, implement, and maintain scalable data pipelines using CI/CD best practices.

- Automate end-to-end workflows, from data ingestion and testing through to deployment and monitoring.

- Optimise data and model-serving infrastructure for latency, scalability, and cost.

- Build infrastructure to monitor performance, data quality, and other key metrics in production.

- Implement security, compliance, and governance practices.

- Support troubleshooting and incident response for deployed systems.

- Build strong relationships with colleagues by sharing knowledge, mentoring, and supporting best practices.

- Mentor and support other Data Engineers.

- Partner with Data Modellers, Analytics Engineers, Data Scientists, Architects, and Product Managers to deliver world-class data products.

Essential Criteria

Required:

- Strong skills in SQL and Python; experience with Snowflake and DBT.

- Proficiency in SQL and NoSQL databases.

- Experience with containerisation tools such as Docker and orchestration tools like Airflow or Astronomer.

- Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure).

- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automation tools such as GitHub Actions.

- Experience with data quality and observability platforms (e.g. Soda.io, BigEye).

- Understanding of monitoring and logging tools (e.g. New Relic, Grafana).

Preferred:

- Prior experience deploying data pipelines in production environments.

- Knowledge of infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.

Benefits:

- Colleague discount across our multi-brands – Sainsbury’s, Argos, and Habitat.

- Holiday allowance.

- Bonus scheme.

- Pension plan.

- Flexible / smarter working policy.

- Special offers on gym memberships, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers, and more.

Who you are

Along with your expert knowledge of Python, AWS and Github, you’ll ideally bring us Snowflake and Terraform too. As important, you’ll have experience as a Data Engineer, Backend Software Engineer or similar, and be keen on good coding practices.

Initiative and curiosity are going to be crucial and you’ll also prefer to take ownership of your work so that you can see it through. And don’t be afraid to share your point of view — we love new thinking.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).