Data Engineering Manager

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety involved. Then you’ll realise this is a modern software engineering environment, because it has to be. We’ve made significant investment in the standards and principles that shape how we work.

We iterate, learn, experiment and champion ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to exciting opportunities across everything from AI to reusable tech.

We don’t think we’re exaggerating when we say we work with one of the most exciting customer data sets in UK retail.

We sit within Customer & Channels and own the Digital Customer Interactions Data domain. We ingest, model and provision behavioural data from Sainsbury’s, Argos, Nectar, Habitat, Tu, Smart Shop and other digital channels into our cloud data platform, enabling data-driven decision making across marketing, analytics, data science, customer insight and reporting.

Our products provide near real-time and batch digital interaction data to a wide range of business capabilities, including CRM, CDP, Nectar
360, Smart Shop, customer journey analytics and strategic transformation programmes. We operate at the heart of the customer data ecosystem, creating trusted data products that are consumed across multiple teams and business units.

Working in an inclusive, agile and collaborative environment, you’ll have the space to solve complex engineering challenges, influence strategic decisions and help shape how customer interaction data is used across one of the UK’s largest retailers.

As a Data Engineering Manager, you will lead a multi-skilled data engineering team responsible for delivering scalable, governed and high-performing data products within the Digital Customer Interactions domain.

You will:

• Lead a team of Data Engineers, Analytics Engineers, Architects and associated engineering specialists to deliver innovative and reliable data products that create measurable business value.
• Own product delivery end-to-end, covering both change and run activities, including service management, reliability, operational support, governance and continuous improvement.
• Drive the technical direction and engineering strategy for customer interaction data products, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, supportable and aligned with enterprise architecture standards.
• Lead engineering delivery across cloud data platforms, data ingestion frameworks, orchestration platforms, streaming solutions and modern data engineering patterns.
• Oversee the design, development and operation of data pipelines that deliver trusted customer interaction data into analytical and operational platforms across the organisation.
• Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Data Architects, Governance, Analytics, Data Science, Security and business stakeholders to shape roadmaps, prioritise demand and deliver strategic outcomes.
• Provide leadership for high-profile programmes and cross-functional initiatives, balancing strategic investment, technical debt reduction, platform sustainability and business priorities.
• Own resource planning, capacity management and prioritisation across BAU support, roadmap delivery and strategic transformation programmes, making trade-offs, risks and dependencies clear.
• Ensure robust governance, privacy, security and data quality standards are embedded across all products, including data lineage, access management, PII handling, compliance requirements and operational controls.
• Recruit, retain, coach and develop talented engineers while fostering an inclusive, collaborative and high-performing engineering culture.
• Establish and promote engineering best practice across software engineering, data engineering, Dev Ops, automation, testing, observability and operational excellence.
• Manage product and engineering budgets, support financial planning activities and actively seek opportunities for cost optimisation and value realisation.
• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders and provide clear communication of delivery…