Senior Python Engineer - Data Platform

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: WPP is at the forefront of the marketing and advertising industry's largest transformation. Our Global CIO is leading a significant evolution of our Enterprise Technology capabilities, bringing together over 2,500 technology professionals into an integrated global team. This team will play a crucial role in enabling the ongoing transformation of our agencies and functions.  We are seeking a Senior Data Engineer to serve as the technical anchor for WPP's global people data product. This is a hands-on senior role within the People Data & Insights team, responsible for the design, implementation, and ongoing evolution of the data pipelines and models that underpin enterprise-wide workforce reporting, regulatory compliance, and strategic people analytics across 90+ markets and 100K+ employees.  This is not a coordination role. It requires deep, practised data engineering capability combined with the architectural judgement to make enterprise-grade design decisions independently — with full autonomy over schema, ingestion patterns, data standardisation, and pipeline architecture — in a complex, multi-source, globally scaled environment.    What you'll be doing: * Pipeline Design & Delivery: Lead the design and implementation of core data pipelines that ingest, transform, and model people data from multiple HR and workforce systems — including Workday — into a governed, enterprise-grade data model built on Databricks and Delta Lake.  * Data Modelling & Standards: Own and evolve canonical people data structures across the global people data platform. Define and enforce schemas, ingestion patterns, and transformation logic that support scalability, consistency, and downstream reporting, analytics, and regulatory use cases.  * Technical Decision Authority: Make day-to-day architectural and design decisions independently — on schema design, data standardisation approaches, and pipeline patterns — reducing escalation to senior leadership and enabling faster, higher-confidence delivery.  * Regulatory & Compliance Enablement: Ensure pipelines and data models are designed and maintained to support statutory requirements, including the EU Pay Transparency Directive, UK Gender Pay Gap reporting, and ESG/CSRD workforce data obligations.  * Platform Alignment: Partner closely with enterprise data and business platforms teams to ensure the people data architecture aligns with WPP's broader data platform standards, governance frameworks, and integration patterns.  * Technical Leadership: Provide senior technical guidance, code review, and architectural oversight to other data engineers within the team — raising standards, improving consistency, and building engineering capability across the function.  * Governance & Quality: Embed data quality checks, validation frameworks, and governance controls into pipeline and model design — ensuring the platform remains accurate, audit-ready, and defensible for executive and regulatory reporting.    What you'll need: * Hands-on data engineering experience, including design and delivery of complex pipelines and data models in a cloud environment  * Strong proficiency in SQL; solid Python and/or PySpark capability * Demonstrable experience with Databricks, Apache Spark, and Delta Lake architecture * Proven ability to design and own enterprise-grade canonical data models across multiple upstream source systems * Experience integrating data from APIs and diverse upstream platforms at scale * Azure cloud platform experience * Strong data governance and quality mindset — experience building validation, reconciliation, and audit frameworks into pipeline design * Able to make independent technical design decisions and operate with a high degree of autonomy in a lean, fast-moving team * Experience providing technical guidance or oversight to other engineers * Familiarity with HR, people, or workforce data systems (e.g., Workday, BambooHR, HiBob, Greenhouse) * Experience with regulatory or compliance-driven data requirements (e.g., EU Pay Transparency, GDPR, ESG/CSRD) * Experience designing multi-layer data architectures (raw → enriched → curated) for downstream analytics and reporting consumption * Understanding of data product thinking — building governed data assets for use by analytics, reporting, and executive audiences * Experience working in a federated, globally distributed organisation with complex source system landscapes    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. PLEASE READ OUR PRIVACY NOTICE (HTTPS://WWW.WPP.COM/EN/CAREERS/WPP-PRIVACY-POLICY-FOR-RECRUITMENT) FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW WE PROCESS THE INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE.

Req ID - FEQ427R59 Location: London Recruiter: Kanwal Matharu  At Databricks, our core values are at the heart of everything we do; a culture of proactiveness and a customer-centric mindset guide us to build a unified platform that makes data science and analytics accessible to everyone. We aim to inspire our customers to make informed decisions that push their business forward. We provide a user-friendly and intuitive platform that makes it easy to turn insights into action and fosters a culture of creativity, experimentation, and continuous improvement. You will be an essential part of this mission, using your technical expertise to demonstrate how our Databricks Data Intelligence Platform can help customers solve their complex data challenges. You'll work with a collaborative, customer-focused team that values innovation and creativity, using your skills to create customised solutions to help our customers achieve their goals and guide their businesses forward. Join us in our quest to change how people work with data and make a better world! You will be reporting to the Manager, Field Engineering. The impact you will have:  * Form successful relationships with clients throughout your assigned territory to provide technical and business value in collaboration with an Account Executive and a Senior Solutions Architect. * Gain excitement from clients about Databricks through hands-on evaluation and Spark programming, integrating with the wider cloud ecosystem and 3rd party applications. * Contribute to building the Databricks technical community through engagement at workshops, seminars, and meet-ups. * Become a Big Data Analytics advisor on aspects of architecture and design. * Support your customers by authoring reference architectures, how-tos, and demo applications. * Develop both technically and in pre-sales, with the goal of becoming an independently operating Solutions Architect. What we look for: * Experience, technical customer-facing and with a background in Data Science / Generative AI / Machine Learning / Data Warehousing or Data Engineering.   * You will be working in the following any of the following vertical sectors:  * Real-money Gaming, Sports, Entertainment, Media, Telco and/or Hospitality. * Manufacturing, Energy, Utilities and Industrials * Travel, Transport and Logistics * Financial Services and Insurance * Public Sector * Consumer Package Goods (CPG) / Retail * Any experience in Pre-sales or post-sales experience working with external clients * Familiarity with working with clients, creating a narrative, answering customer questions, aligning the agenda with important interests, and achieving tangible outcomes. * Ability to independently deliver a technical proposition, identify customers' pain points and explain important areas for business value to develop a trusted advisor skillset. * Code in a core programming language such as Python, Java, or Scala. * Knowledgeable in a core Big Data Analytics domain with some exposure to advanced proofs-of-concept and an understanding of a major public cloud platform (AWS, GCP, Azure). * Experience diving deeper into solution architecture and design. * The role requires travel to customer sites in the UK. Travelling approx. 20-30% of the time * Nice to have: Databricks Certification About Databricks Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Benefits At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here. Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics. Compliance If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.