Senior Data Support Engineer (Apache Airflow)

Are you ready to chart your own career path? With our refreshed strategy, we’re building on our rich heritage and transforming our business to be more scalable and efficient, unlocking the capabilities needed for future success. This includes significantly investing in technology, streamlining the way we work and creating an environment where colleagues feel engaged, empowered and accountable; where they can show up, speak up and perform - because we believe in the difference our work makes.

At a glance:

Location: Cirencester Office

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Employment Type: Permanent

Seniority: Mid-Senior Level

About the role:

As a Senior Support Engineer for our Data Platform, Snowflake and Apache Airflow, you will be a key part of the St. James’s Place(SJP) infrastructure team You will be responsible for ensuring the platform is maintained in line with provider recommendations to ensure a highly resilient service is available to our community. Resolving incidents, proactive monitoring and associated actions to deliver such a service. It also ensures that policies are met and support processes in place to support policies and IT controls, such as access controls, and recoverability testing.

We are a cloud first organisation and make extensive use of SaaS, IaaS, PaaS solutions. You’ll be keeping abreast of key developments and continuously driving for improvements through automation and performance tuning methods that could impact our database related systems as well as changes in tools, technologies or working practices that can be exploited to improve the services we deliver.

What you'll be doing:

• Provide expert-level support to customers using the SJP Data Platform technologies including Snowflake and Apache Airflow.
• Supporting incident resolution for the platform and proactively monitoring and maintaining it to ensure high level of operational resilience.
• Appling SJP IT policies and IT controls for the platform technologies.
• Carrying out technical support as required on the platform, supporting the technical consultants to foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement and feeding into governance as required.
• Acting as a subject-matter expert for Snowflake and Apache Airflow within the Technology Operations division providing guidance.
• Working closely with internal and 3rd party architects that manage and design the architecture for the SJP Data Platform.
• Supporting the Technical Consultant and understanding strategic business requirements, business drivers, and business capabilities (future and current state) to determine corresponding support requirements.
• Identifying areas for automation and process improvement to deliver automated functions which will significantly reduce manual repetitive effort and improve efficiency.
• Monitoring the application of data standards and architectures including security and compliance ensuring security is integrated into all database architecture solutions.
• Staying up to date with industry trends and advancements in the Data space, particularly Snowflake, and Apache Airflow.
• Sharing knowledge with the team through mentoring and coaching

About you:

We’re looking for a proactive, detail-driven support engineer with strong expertise in Snowflake and Apache Airflow, who thrives in a fast-paced, cloud-first environment. If you’re passionate about delivering resilient, high-quality services, building strong stakeholder relationships, and continuously improving through automation and innovation this role is for you.

Essential Criteria:

• Strong hands-on experience supporting data platforms, with expertise in managing Apache Airflow within a Snowflake based environment
• Proven ability to manage incidents, perform proactive monitoring and maintain high levels of platform availability and resilience
• Advanced troubleshooting skills across data pipelines, integration and storage, with the ability to diagnose root causes and resolve complex issues
• Experience working within cloud environments (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS) with an understanding of performance optimisation, automation and platform stability
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with experience supporting engineers, architects and business users in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to drive continuous improvement, including automation, process enhancements and mentoring or supporting more junior team members

Desirable Criteria:

• Knowledge of data platform security, governance and compliance within regulated environments
• Understanding of financial services or similar regulated industries and their data platform requirements

Special Requirements:

• Out of hours activity
• Travel as required to other locations or events

What's in it for you?

We reward you for the work you do, whether that’s through our discretionary annual bonus scheme that reflects both personal and company performance, competitive annual leave allowance (28 days plus bank holidays, with the option to purchase an additional 5 days), or online rewards platform with a variety of discounts.
We also have benefits to support whatever stage of life you are in, including:

• Competitive parental leave (26 weeks full pay)
• Private medical insurance (optional taxable benefit)
• 10% non-contributory pension (increasing with length of service)

Reasonable Adjustments
We're an equal opportunities employer and want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive for all, if you require reasonable adjustment(s) at any stage please let us know by emailing us at careers@sjp.co.uk
Research tells us that applicants (especially those from underrepresented groups) can be put off from applying for a role if they do not meet all the criteria or have been on an extended career-break. If you think you would be a good match for this role and can demonstrate some transferable experience please apply, regardless of whether you tick every box.

What's next?

If you're excited about this role and believe you have the skills and experience we're looking for, we'd love to hear from you! Please submit an application by clicking ‘apply’ below and our team will be in touch.
As a business regulated by the FCA we would advise you to familiarise yourself with the conduct regulations and in particular consumer duty obligations prior to an interview with SJP.

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