Senior Data Engineer

Senior / Staff Data Engineer (Streaming & Experimentation) - Contract

Tech: Kafka, Scala / Kotlin / Python, event streaming, Optimizely and feature-flagging platforms

Office: Fully remote (Must be located in the UK)

Rate: £650 per day Outside IR35

Duration: 6 months initial, with a strong chance of extension

Start: ASAP

What you’ll do:

• Own the architecture and delivery of production streaming pipelines and the data layer they feed
• Lead the design of the next generation of streaming frameworks, so new data sources can be onboarded quickly and reliably
• Support and extend the experimentation stack (Optimizely, feature flags and A/B testing), making sure results can be trusted
• Define and drive data contracts, freshness standards and alerting, so downstream teams can rely on the data by default
• Work directly with stakeholders across data, analytics, ML and insights, agreeing boundaries and priorities rather than waiting to be handed them
• Be the escalation point for complex streaming issues, and raise engineering standards through design and code reviews

What they need:

• A track record of designing, building and running production streaming or event-driven systems at scale, ideally on Kafka
• Strong programming in at least two of Scala, Kotlin or Python
• Solid grasp of Kafka Connect, schema registries and distributed systems, including failure modes, backpressure and data loss
• Hands-on experience with Optimizely or a comparable experimentation and feature-flagging platform, including supporting A/B tests and trusting their results
• Hands-on experience with data quality, freshness and observability practices
• Senior to staff-level ownership: shaping direction, not just delivering against it
• Confident stakeholder management
• The right to work in the UK without sponsorship

Interested? Apply now or email me directly at [email protected] with your latest CV and a few lines on your streaming and experimentation experience. All conversations are confidential.