{"id":498895,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kingfisher-principal-data-engineer","title":"Principal Data Engineer","company":{"id":13439,"name":"Kingfisher","domain":"kingfisher.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/kingfisher-com","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"iCIMS","truth_index":null},"role":"Data Science","role_family":"Data Science","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Cluj-Napoca, Romania"],"countries":["RO"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":35000,"max_usd":81000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":771},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":true},{"name":"Azure","optional":true},{"name":"Azure Data Factory","optional":true},{"name":"Databricks","optional":true},{"name":"Docker","optional":true},{"name":"GCP","optional":true},{"name":"Git","optional":true},{"name":"Google BigQuery","optional":true},{"name":"Great Expectations","optional":true},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":true},{"name":"pySpark","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"Scala","optional":true},{"name":"Spark","optional":true},{"name":"SQL","optional":true},{"name":"Terraform","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-07T08:53:18Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-31T07:39:35Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":53,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":53},"description":"Overview\nPrincipal Data Engineer\n(Hybrid, Cluj, Romania)\nWe’re Kingfisher, a team made up of over 74,000 passionate people who bring Kingfisher - and all our other brands: Castorama, B&Q, Screwfix, Brico Dépôt and Koçtaş - to life. That’s right, we’re big, but we have ambitions to become even bigger and even better. We want to become the leading home improvement company and grow the largest community of home improvers in the world. And that’s where you come in.\nAt Kingfisher, our customers come from all walks of life, and so do we. We want to ensure that all colleagues, future colleagues, and applicants to Kingfisher are treated equally regardless of age, gender, marital or civil partnership status, colour, ethnic or national origin, culture, religious belief, philosophical belief, political opinion, disability, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation.\nWe are open to flexible and agile working. Therefore, we offer colleagues a blend of working from home and our office, located in Cluj. Talk to us about how we can best support you!\nAt Kingfisher, we value the perspectives that any new team members bring, and we want to hear from you. We encourage you to apply for one of our roles, even if you do not feel you meet 100% of the requirements.\nIn return, we offer an inclusive environment, where what you can achieve is limited only by your imagination! We encourage new ideas, actively support experimentation, and strive to build an environment where everyone can be their best self.\nWe offer a competitive benefit package and plenty of opportunities to stretch and grow your career:\nAnnual performance bonus\nEmployee referral bonus\nPrivate medical coverage (Regina Maria - Priority Plan)\nOption to extend coverage to your spouse or children at no extra cost\nLife insurance (Metropolitan Life)\nEyeglasses vouchers\nWellhub fitness membership (co-funded)\nAccess to LinkedIn Learning, LEO Learning, and Bookster\nFresh fruit bar and premium coffee\nModern, collaborative workspace\nHybrid work model\nFlexible working schedule\n21 days of annual leave + extra days based on tenure (up to 25 days)\nAdditional days off when public holidays fall on weekends\nPaid leave for special life events\nMeal vouchers\nGift vouchers (up to 4 per year), offered for occasions like Christmas, Easter, March 8th, and June 1st\nWhat's the job?\nRole Overview\nA Principal Data Engineer is a senior individual contributor and technical leader who shapes the design, direction and evolution of Kingfisher’s data platforms and products.\nOperating at a Leading capability level, this role is recognised as a specialist and advisor across Group Technology, influencing strategy, standards, and ways of working across multiple squads and domains.\nYou will drive enterprise-scale data solutions, enable high-performing engineering teams, and ensure that data platforms deliver measurable business value.\nKey Responsibilities:\nTechnical Strategy & Architecture\nDefine and lead the data platform and data engineering strategy, aligned to Group Technology objectives\nOwn architecture decisions, patterns, and standards across data pipelines, storage, and processing\nEstablish and evolve data engineering principles, frameworks and best practices\nPartner with Architecture and Product to shape long-term roadmaps and platform capabilities\nEnsure solutions support scalability, resilience, performance, and cost optimisation\nData Platform & Engineering Excellence\nDrive the design and implementation of robust, production-grade data pipelines and platforms\nEnsure adoption of modern data engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, observability, DevOps)\nDefine and champion data quality, governance, and security standards\nPromote reuse through data products, shared services, and platform capabilities\nContinuously improve engineering effectiveness through standards, automation and tooling\nLeadership & Influence (Multi-Squad Impact)\nAct as a technical leader across multiple squads and domains\nInfluence senior stakeholders (Engineering, Product, Architecture, Tech Board)\nProvide clear direction, technical authority, and decision-making guidance\nLead complex initiatives spanning multiple systems, teams, and geographies\nTalent Development & Community Leadership\nMentor and coach engineers across the Data Engineering Chapter\nBuild capability through knowledge sharing, standards, and community engagement\nContribute to hiring, onboarding, and capability planning\nDrive a culture of learning, experimentation, and technical excellence\nInnovation & Industry Leadership\nStay ahead of industry trends and emerging data technologies\nDrive adoption of new tools, patterns, and approaches where they deliver value\nChallenge existing approaches and lead step-change improvements\nAct as a thought leader within Kingfisher Engineering\nDelivery & Business Impact\nLead delivery of large-scale, business-critical data initiatives\nAlign technical initiatives to customer and commercial outcomes\nEnsure effective execution across multiple squads and programmes\nBalance speed, quality, cost, and risk in decision-making\nWhat you'll bring\nCore Competencies (Principal Level Expectations)\nAt Principal level you operate consistently at Leading capability across:\nStakeholder influence & communication - influencing at exec level and across domains\nProblem solving & decision-making - solving complex, ambiguous, cross-system challenges\nDriving continuous improvement - setting standards across teams\nManaging ambiguity - leading through uncertainty and transformation\nBuilding high-performing teams - coaching and uplifting capability across the chapter\nData Engineering & Platform Expertise\nStrong experience in distributed data processing systems and architectures\nExpertise in data modelling, storage, access, and processing patterns\nProven track record delivering large-scale data platforms and pipelines\nCore Technology Stack (Kingfisher-aligned)\nProgramming: Python, SQL\nData processing: Spark / PySpark / Scala\nData modelling & transformation: DBT\nCloud platforms: GCP, Azure, AWS\nData platforms: Databricks, BigQuery, Azure Data Factory\nDevOps/DataOps: CI/CD, Git, Terraform, Docker/Kubernetes\nData quality: Great Expectations / testing frameworks\nEngineering & Architecture\nDeep understanding of:\nData architecture patterns (batch, streaming, event-driven)\nCloud-native and distributed systems design\nPerformance optimisation and cost efficiency\nExperience designing systems with resilience, scalability, and observability\nWhat Success Looks Like\nA successful Principal Data Engineer will:\nBe the go-to technical authority for data engineering at scale\nDrive consistent standards and practices across squads\nInfluence strategic direction and investment decisions\nBuild a highly capable, aligned engineering community\nDeliver measurable business outcomes through data platforms","description_format":"text","description_chars":6860,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Annual leave","Flexible schedule","Hybrid work","Life 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