Senior Data Engineer (f/m/d)

Thoughtworks

Principal data engineers at Thoughtworks, are strategic leaders who spearhead data engineering initiatives, tackle complex business challenges and uncover transformative insights. They possess a deep understanding of a client's business ecosystem and partner with executives to align technology strategies with business objectives. By contextualizing emerging trends and Thoughtworks' exploration, they expand the impact of data engineering within the client organization. They draw upon their profound expertise in developing modern data architectures and infrastructure for the management of data applications. Effective collaboration is paramount, as data engineers adeptly convey their discoveries to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. They stay abreast of industry advancements, ensure data quality and security, and provide mentorship to junior team members. At Thoughtworks, data engineers leverage their deep technical knowledge to solve complex business problems, making a significant impact on client success. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES * You will collaborate with sales and pre-sales to clarify requirements and design viable solutions and drive pursuits with technical stakeholders. * You will establish a clear vision and direction for the data paradigm/practices, aligning it with the overall business strategy. * You will collaborate with executive level stakeholders to understand their strategic objectives and identify opportunities to leverage data and data quality. * You will consult on complex data platform programs, synchronizing cross-cutting architectural concerns and providing client-facing technical leadership and guidance as a data subject matter expert. * You will be responsible to create, design and develop intricate data processing pipelines, addressing clients' most challenging problems. * You will collaborate with data scientists to design scalable implementation and production of their models. * You will write clean and iterative code based on TDD and leverage various continuous delivery practices to deploy, support and operate data pipelines. * You will design and implement the strategy around data governance, data security and data privacy to support business and compliance requirements. * You will represent Thoughtworks in various online and offline forums, including events and conferences. JOB QUALIFICATIONS TECHNICAL SKILLS * You must have extensive pre-sales experience and a proven ability to independently drive complex pursuits and create winning commercial proposals. * You have experience leading enterprise data strategy, system design, and the end-to-end implementation of large-scale technical solutions. * You are a native-level German speaker (C1) who is comfortable driving consensus and managing expectations with senior technical stakeholders. * You possess hands-on experience in system design using Domain-Driven Design principles for complex enterprise organizations with multiple domains. * Working with data excites you; you have designed Big Data architectures, built and operated data pipelines, and managed data storage within distributed systems. * You have a deep understanding of data modeling and practical experience with modern data engineering tools, platforms, and cloud warehousing solutions. * You are a "hands-on" leader—equally happy writing production-grade code as you are leading a team to implement a vision. * You have built and deployed large-scale data pipelines and data-centric applications using distributed storage and processing platforms in production environments. * You have experience designing and developing streaming solutions (Cloud or On-premise) leveraging leading technologies and industry best practices. * You have experience implementing data governance and security policies, complemented by a solid understanding of MLOps and data science concepts. PROFESSIONAL SKILLS * You understand the importance of stakeholder management and can easily liaise between clients and other key stakeholders throughout projects, ensuring buy-in and gaining trust along the way. * You are resilient in ambiguous situations and can adapt your role to approach challenges from multiple perspectives. * You don’t shy away from risks or conflicts, instead you take them on and skillfully manage them. * You coach, mentor and motivate others and you aspire to influence teammates to take positive action and accountability for their work. * You enjoy influencing others and always advocate for technical excellence while being open to change when needed. * You are a proven leader with a track record of encouraging teammates in their professional development and relationships. * Cultivating strong partnerships comes naturally to you; You understand the importance of relationship building and how it can bring new opportunities to our business. OTHER THINGS TO KNOW LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys. RESPONSIBLE USE OF AI IN RECRUITMENT At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions. Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers. We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment. ABOUT THOUGHTWORKS Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary. #LI-Onsite See here our AI policy.

DEPT

LEAD ENGINEER (D/F/M) Hamburg, hybrid DEPT® is a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, our 4,000+ specialists deliver growth invention services across Brand & Media, Experience, Commerce, CRM, and Technology & Data. We’re 50|50 tech and marketing, partner-led, and first to move. Clients include Google, Lufthansa, Meta, eBay, and OpenAI. We have been certified B Corp and Climate Neutral since 2021. JOB PURPOSE This role is part of our Experience & Engineering team in Germany. We combine technology and experience design to create emotive yet conversion-focused ideas, products, and campaigns at scale and speed. Our specialty is digital experiences and communication that change perceptions and shape new behaviours to make a difference in the market. In this key leadership position, you are responsible for the strategic direction and growth of our Engineering teams. You will lead a team of approximately 7-9 professionals, including Team Leads and Senior Engineers. Your focus shifts from writing code to building systems: you will optimize processes, develop the next generation of leaders, and actively drive the cultural change toward AI-driven development. WHAT YOU’LL DO: * Leadership of Leaders: You lead, coach, and mentor Team Leads and Senior Engineers. You own their career paths and empower them to lead their own sub-teams to excellence. * AI Change Management: You define the roadmap for integrating Artificial Intelligence into the daily engineering lifecycle (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Agentic Workflows). You act as a change agent, transforming our workflows for maximum efficiency and innovation. * Operational Excellence: You take full ownership of your department's operational performance (resource planning, budget monitoring, utilization) and ensure a profitable and scalable engineering organization. * Strategic Partnering: You work closely with Directors and VPs to sharpen DEPT®’s technological vision in the DACH region and act as a high-level technical sparring partner for our key accounts. * Cultural Stewardship: You foster an inclusive, motivating, high-performance culture and establish modern department rituals that promote knowledge sharing and innovation. WHAT YOU BRING: * Proven People Manager: You have a track record of leading teams in a "manager-of-managers" structure or significant experience leading larger engineering departments. * Change Agent: You are passionate about the potential of AI in the software lifecycle and have a clear vision of how modern engineering organizations must evolve. * Frontend Background: You possess a deep technical history in frontend development, allowing you to validate architectural decisions and act as a mentor on eye-level. * Business Acumen: You understand the economic drivers of an agency or consultancy and can translate KPIs into actionable success. * Communication: You are a confident communicator in both German and English, able to present complex technical topics to both stakeholders and clients. WE OFFER: * Flexible, hybrid working policy (1-2 days at the office, depending on location); * Company pension scheme. * Lease bike options / JobRad and 25% subsidy for the Deutschlandticket. * Occasional breakfast/lunch at the office, Smoothie Tuesdays. * Stay happy and healthy with a contribution to your health through the OpenUp platform; * €50 personal monthly allowance via our dedicated benefits apps for use across daily expenses and lifestyle perks. * Future Bens - Exclusive access to sustainable, healthy products at attractive deals. * Social events, plenty of opportunities to connect with colleagues through organised activities and celebrations. * A reputation for doing good. DEPT® has been a Certified B Corp® since 2021 and named ‘Agency of the Year’ at both The Lovies and The Webby Awards. * Awesome clients. Whether big or small, local or global — at DEPT® you’ll get the opportunity to work with clients of all sizes and across all industries. And we celebrate all of our successes together! * The opportunity for possibility. We want to enable you to do what you do best and help you develop your skills further with training, development and certifications. * Global annual DEPT® Cares Month in which employees come together and donate their skills to support local charities. WHY DEPT®? We are a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, we create what is next by pioneering ideas, acting fast, and moving further because standing still just is not in our DNA. We are drawn to people who stay curious, move with intent, and never stop inventing. Our culture runs on three values: better together, relentlessly curious, and get sh*t done. It is how we work, how we grow, and how we make things that matter. At DEPT®, you will find the freedom to explore, the space to collaborate, and the trust to make a real impact for our clients, for each other, and for the world we are helping to build. DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION  At DEPT®, we take pride in creating an inclusive workplace where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive. We actively seek to recruit, develop, nurture, and retain talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, with varying skills and perspectives. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Apply, and let us decide! Research shows that women and members of underrepresented groups tend not to apply for jobs when they think they may not meet every requirement, when in fact they do. We believe in giving everyone a fair chance to shine. We also encourage you to reach out to us and discuss any reasonable adjustments we can make to support you throughout the recruitment process and your time with us. Want to know more about our dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion? Check out our efforts here.

OH-SO

WHAT TO EXPECT We are a startup digital agency, and no two projects, clients, or even days look the same. In ecommerce we build on Shopify and Liquid and Next.js, with custom AWS microservices and apps that take Shopify well past the defaults.  On the marketing side we build highly customised sites in Next.js and React, with careful design and animation and a real focus on how the page performs and feels.  In automotive we build full platforms, from stock-car locators to configurators and more. Across all of it, we bring AI into the work through our own products. Here nothing will be fixed. You will work across changing projects and settings, on long builds that run for months and shorter spikes to figure out how a business can actually use AI, and you will help us rethink how agency work is done. Sound like your kind of place? Here is what we need from you. YOUR COMPETENCIES Mindset Is your goal to deliver great software, whether the problem is easy or hard? Do you push deeper than most to find the right solution, not just the first one that works? Then you are the person we need.  Responsibility You own what you build, all the way through, not just until it ships and becomes someone else's problem. The parts that go smoothly and the parts that get messy are both yours to see through. You bring your ideas and your curiosity, you use AI to build better and faster, and you stand behind what you put your name on. Drive You will not know everything yet, and that is fine. What we cannot teach is drive. We bring the tools and the guidance. You bring the push to grow fast, understand what you build, and keep reaching past what you know. What you bring to the table: * You work across crafts, not in a corner. You are close with developers, designers, and strategists, and you would rather build in the open than behind a wall. * You make the team better. You speak up when something can be sharper, and you share what you learn instead of sitting on it. * You care whether the client wins. You focus on the quality of the product and the experience, not just the ticket in front of you. WHAT YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO What you will actually do: We build complex, end-to-end products for both big-names and niche clients. You will own the frontend side of that work, plus the bits right next to it. Day to day, that means: * Turning designs into real interfaces in React and Next.js. * Building small pieces of UI and the logic behind them on your own, and taking on medium ones with a more senior engineer alongside you. * Working in an responsive team with clean tickets, clear updates, and knowing when to push on alone and when to ask for help. * You’re enjoying being part of a team, not a remote desk which prefers to work in isolation most of the time. The tech stack you will work with: * Languages and frameworks: React, Next.js, TypeScript, HTML, CSS * APIs: REST and GraphQL * Delivery: Existing CI/CD practices * AI tooling: Claude, Cursor, Pi, Antigravity, plus your and our own Skills and MCP setup Who you will work with We are a bunch of colleagues originally from similar backgrounds who got tired of how things were usually done and set out to find better ways. That is the whole reason this company exists, and it is still what we are doing. We are not a place of rockstars and egos. People here ask questions out loud, show rough work without flinching, and would rather help each other get something right than look clever alone. We push each other, in the good way, and we do not take ourselves too seriously while we are at it. You would be joining that. You’ll work closely with the crafts, designers and strategists, and just as easily with the people steering the projects and the business. There is no wall between you and any of it. Take on the parts you are ready for, and when you want more, a pitch, a client conversation, a bigger call, speak up at the right moment and the door is open. Smaller team. More ownership. Bigger work.