Senior Data Engineer

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands.

We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth.

We work with the world's most valuable brands and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise.

Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.

For more information, visit WPP.com.

Why we’re hiring

We’re growing the data engineering capability behind ad-tech solutions that process large-scale, real-time audience data. In this role, you’ll take deep technical ownership of the data model that supports targeting and measurement decisions for advertisers at scale.

You’ll help evolve a complex, interconnected data platform while working with modern distributed processing technologies and a highly collaborative engineering team.

Who you’ll be working with

You’ll work closely with data engineers and colleagues across Quality Assurance, Analytics and connector teams. We value teamwork over ego, collaboration over competition, open and honest communication, strong opinions held with curiosity, and continuous improvement through kaizen.

Our technology environment

• Scala-based backend services
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Apache Spark for large-scale distributed data processing
• Parquet and BigQuery
• Tyda, an open-source, automation-driven software development lifecycle process

What you’ll do

• Own and evolve a core data model spanning input and output models, field types and partitioning strategies across multiple pipeline stages.
• Maintain and extend a multi-layered audience segmentation framework, normalising raw data into standardised and canonical representations across dimensions such as location, age, gender, interests and brand affinity.
• Work across a broad modelling surface, including audience types, behavioural signals, relational structures, embeddings and anomaly detection.
• Develop and maintain Spark-based data jobs in an environment using Scala, GCP, Parquet and BigQuery, with a clear understanding of end-to-end data flow.
• Partner with Quality Assurance, Analytics and connector teams to ensure data correctness, integrity and reliable downstream use.
• Write production-ready code that is readable, testable, performant and resilient to edge cases and failures.
• Contribute to team practices, continuous improvement and constructive peer feedback while taking ownership of data quality and engineering standards.

What you’ll need

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, with a strong record of delivering complex, multi-layer data pipelines.
• Experience with Scala or a similar strongly typed or advanced functional programming language; you’re comfortable reasoning about complex type systems and willing to develop further in Scala.
• Experience with Apache Spark and large-scale distributed data processing.
• 3+ years of experience with GCP and big-data stores such as BigQuery.
• The ability to build a clear mental model of a large, interconnected data domain and reason about how changes in one area affect others.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex data models and technical decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience with data monitoring, detection, troubleshooting and validation frameworks, together with a track record of delivering well-designed, well-tested and performant solutions in an agile environment.

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

#LI-Hybrid

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

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