THE ROLE AND THE TEAM
As our Engineering Manager for the Data Enablement Team, you are a player-coach. Your mission is to lead a high-caliber team of Data Engineers in building our Centralized Data Lakehouse from the ground up. We are moving away from fragmented data silos towards a unified, high-quality Data Product architecture.
You will be the driving force behind our technical execution. While you lead the team, you aren't afraid to dive into the architecture or review complex Spark jobs. You ensure that our platform is not just a theoretical concept but a high-performance engine that delivers reliable insights. You will also ensure that we are perfectly integrated into the Zalando ecosystem, maintaining a lean and efficient exchange with their Data Foundation.
WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)
- Hands-on Leadership: You lead, mentor, and hire a team of Data Engineers. You are a "maker" at heart who leads by example, promoting trunk-based development and high engineering standards.
- Platform Execution: You own the delivery of our Data Roadmap. You ensure the successful rollout of our Medallion architecture on Databricks and AWS.
- Operational Excellence: You focus on the "run" as much as the "build." You drive initiatives to optimize storage costs and implement automated data retention policies.
- Ecosystem Integration: You ensure Tradebyte’s data strategy aligns with the broader Zalando Group standards while maintaining our speed and independence.
- Data Contracts & Quality: You work with source system owners (e.g., TB.One) to ensure robust Data Contracts and end-to-end reliability from ingestion to the Gold layer.
- Technical Governance: You oversee the Unity Catalog implementation, ensuring security and governance are "built-in" features, not afterthoughts.
WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF
- The "Maker" Mindset: You have a strong background in Data Engineering and have transitioned into leadership without losing your technical edge. You can still hold your own in a deep-dive technical discussion about Spark optimization or Terraform.
- Courageous Leadership: You have the confidence to challenge the status quo. If a process is inefficient or a technical direction is flawed, you speak up. You prioritize building the right solution over the easy one.
- Experience with Scale: You’ve built or managed modern Lakehouse architectures (Databricks/AWS) and know how to move from PoC to a stable production environment.
- Pragmatic Problem Solver: You prioritize results over perfect slides. You know how to balance long-term architecture with the need for quick wins (like reducing cloud spend).
- Clear Communicator: You can translate technical challenges into actionable steps for the team and provide clear updates to internal stakeholders.
- Zalando Group Context: Experience in navigating quickly a large group ecosystem is a significant plus.
OUR OFFER
- Employee shares program
- 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners
- 2 paid volunteering days a year
- Hybrid working model - work where it works for you within Germany or the UK, with occasional office attendance required for moments that matter.
- Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year
- 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days)
- Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement)
- Family services, including counseling and support
- Health and wellbeing options (including Wellhub, formerly Gympass)
- Mental health support and coaching available
- Drive your development with our training offerings and biannual peer-to-peer review
