Principal Data Engineer

Data, is at the heart of player, product, and business insights on our titles. This critical role will build and grow the foundation for our studio in insights about our players and our business. The role will report to the Director of Data, Analytics & Insights (DAI). The person in this role is most successful when they can merge technical skill with user needs to drive highly scalable, robust CI/CD data ecosystems used to create incredible insights while helping to grow a team of amazing engineers to learn and succeed. If that's you then we should talk! The Principal Data Engineer will grow and lead a team of amazing engineers to deliver and manage a data stack that will fuel the whole studio on insights for our games, players, and overall business. Collaborate with internal and external teams and stakeholders to develop and deliver data solutions and capabilities that integrate with online gaming technology.,

• Lead the design, architecture, and implementation of the studio's data stack, ensuring scalability, efficiency, and alignment with both technical and business goals.
• Collaborate with analytics and game development teams to create broader insights and build data systems that provide valuable, actionable information.
• Participate in all stages of agile software development and lifecycle management, including design, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
• Develop near real-time and batch-based data processing frameworks to support live game operations, player behavior analysis, and other key business insights.
• Build and maintain large-scale data pipelines, ensuring high performance and low latency across diverse data sets.
• Design and implement continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to automate deployment and streamline processes.
• Develop tools and software that enhance our ability to capture, process, and analyze data at scale, improving decision-making for all teams.
• Oversee the integration of data security, ensuring compliance with GDPR, PII policies, and best practices in data governance.
• Provide technical leadership on data engineering projects, setting standards, guiding architecture decisions, and ensuring delivery aligns with the studio's strategic goals.
• Mentor and lead on data engineering in the studio, fostering a collaborative environment of innovation, technical excellence, and continuous learning.
• Stay ahead of industry trends in data engineering and apply cutting-edge practices and technologies to maintain our data infrastructure's competitiveness and efficiency.
  
  Extensive experience in data engineering, with demonstrated leadership in designing and managing data architectures at scale.
• Product-focused mindset with a passion for understanding the games we create and how data can enhance both player experience and business performance.
• Demonstrated expertise in data architecture patterns, including experience building CI/CD data stacks and optimizing data infrastructure for scale and performance.
• Deep knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and experience deploying large-scale data systems in a cloud environment.
• Significant experience with cloud-based big data ecosystems such as Snowflake and familiarity with modern data infrastructure tools like DBT, Airflow, and Kafka.
• Proficiency in SQL & Python required; experience with Java or Scala is a plus.
• Hands-on experience with containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) and orchestration systems for deploying and maintaining applications.
• Strong experience with Linux/Unix systems, including scripting (bash) and managing production environments.
• Proven expertise in ETL/ELT pipeline development and working with large, diverse data sets at scale.
• Strong experience with agile methodologies, turning user stories into actionable engineering tasks, and driving impactful development through collaboration with product owners.
• Knowledge of data governance, security protocols, and best practices related to GDPR, PII, and other data privacy regulations.
• Ability to build strong relationships across teams, empowering engineers and stakeholders through clear communication and collaboration., Previous experience leading data engineering efforts within the gaming industry or other fast-paced, data-driven environments.
• Experience in data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker, Power BI) and the ability to interpret and present complex data insights in a user-friendly way.
• Experience working on projects that involve real-time telemetry, player behavior analytics, or other high-volume, real-time data applications.
• Demonstrated success in leading or contributing to the consolidation of data systems.
  
  Build A Rocket Boy is an independent game developer, headquartered in Edinburgh Scotland, with operations in Budapest Hungary, the Netherlands, France, and California USA. Led by game developer Leslie Benzies, Build A Rocket Boy's team includes hundreds of the industry's brightest development talents with the shared vision to create new and innovative entertainment experiences. Build A Rocket Boy's first project is EVERYWHERE - a new multi-world game experience that blurs the line between reality and the digital world.
  
  Our Global Benefits & Perks
• Unlimited coaching & therapy - with Oliva, to support your mental health
• Stock Options - everyone owns a piece of our success
• Pension scheme - up to 5% employer matched contribution to finance those golden years
• Socials - office & remote events, play sessions and company-wide parties
• And even more benefits based on your location!