About Pret
Pret is an international on-the-go food and drink retailer founded in 1986. Our
purpose is to make every day a little bit brighter, through organic coffee,
freshly prepared food, and exceptional customer service to millions of people.
Pret runs hundreds of shops across the UK, France, USA, and Hong Kong, with
additional shops run by franchise partners around the world.
Pret is transforming from a bricks-and-mortar focused retailer to a truly
customer-centric digital business with a leading consumer brand that aims to
stand for more than just ‘freshly made, healthy food, to go’. We’re aiming to
better understand our customers and their preferences, so now is an exciting
time to join us!
The Role
The Lead Data Engineer will play a critical role in defining, shaping, and
delivering Pret’s data engineering strategy, enabling scalable and efficient
data solutions that power analytics, reporting, and decision-making across the
business.
Working as part of Pret’s highly skilled engineering team, you will lead the
design and development of robust data pipelines and systems, ensuring
performance, reliability, and scalability. You will be responsible for
managing, mentoring, and upskilling a team of 2 Data Engineers and a Principal
Data Systems Engineer, fostering a culture of technical excellence,
collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Reporting to the Global Head of Engineering, the Lead Data Engineer will work
closely with stakeholders across Operations, Finance, Payroll, HR, and beyond,
translating business needs into technical solutions and aligning the data
engineering strategy with Pret’s technology roadmap.
This is a unique opportunity to lead Pret’s data transformation journey,
driving innovation and enabling the business to unlock the full potential of
its data.
ResponsibilitiesÂ
- Shape and deliver Pret’s data engineering strategy, ensuring alignment with
business goals and technology initiatives.
- Lead the design, development, and optimisation of scalable data pipelines to
ingest, transform, and store data for analytics and reporting.
- Manage, mentor, and upskill a team of 2 Data Engineers and a Principal Data
Systems Engineer, providing technical guidance, setting priorities, and
fostering a high-performing team culture.
- Oversee the delivery of high-quality ETL solutions across cloud-based platforms
such as Snowflake and Azure, ensuring performance and reliability.
- Champion modern software engineering best practices, including automated
testing, peer code reviews, version control (Git), and CI/CD pipelines.
- Collaborate with the Principal Data Engineer/DBA to ensure Pret’s data
infrastructure is performant, secure, and scalable.
- Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimise data pipelines and systems for performance,
cost-effectiveness, and uptime.
- Lead Agile DevOps sprint cycles, managing team backlogs, priorities, and
delivery.
- Collaborate directly with stakeholders across Operations, Finance, Payroll, HR,
and IT to gather requirements and deliver data solutions that meet business
needs.
- Drive continuous improvement through exploration and adoption of emerging
tools, technologies, and cloud capabilities.
- Promote a culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation across
the data engineering team.
Skills and experience
Essential:
- 5+ years’ experience as a Data Engineer, with at least 2 years in a lead or
senior data engineering role.
- Proven leadership experience managing and mentoring technical teams, including
Data Engineers and DBAs.
- Proficient in designing and optimising cloud-based data pipelines using
platforms such as Snowflake and Azure.
- Strong hands-on experience with Python, Java and SQL for data transformation,
orchestration, and automation.
- Experience collaborating with DBAs to optimise database performance and ensure
infrastructure reliability.
- Demonstrable experience working in a DevOps-led Agile environment, leading
sprint cycles and managing team backlogs.
- Proficiency in version control tools like Git and implementing CI/CD pipelines
to automate deployments.
- Experience monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimising data pipelines for
scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
- Strong problem-solving, decision-making, and stakeholder engagement skills.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to engage
both technical and non-technical audiences.
Desirable:
- SnowPro Core or Advanced Certification.
- Experience with Azure Synapse, Data Factory, and Logic Apps.
- Experience with GCP (Dataflow and BigQuery)
- Familiarity with distributed data processing frameworks such as PySpark.
- Knowledge of Terraform for Infrastructure as Code.
- Experience developing CI/CD pipelines with tools such as GitHub Actions.
- Experience in database performance tuning, query optimisation, and monitoring
tools.
- Familiarity with event-driven architectures for real-time analytics.
Why Join Pret?
- Lead and mentor a team of talented Data Engineers, shaping the future of Pret’s
data strategy.
- Play a key role in Pret’s digital transformation, delivering innovative and
scalable data solutions.
- Work in a collaborative, learning-focused environment with cutting-edge tools
like Snowflake, Azure, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Competitive salary, benefits, and the opportunity to make a tangible impact on
Pret’s decision-making and technology roadmap.
If you are a strategic, collaborative, and technically skilled Lead Data
Engineer who thrives on leadership, innovation, and delivering value-driven
solutions – we’d love to hear from you!
Pret offers:
- Competitive salary and annual bonus
- 33 days holiday a year including
Bank Holidays
- Private healthcare
- Life assurance
- Pret pension scheme
- Season ticket loan
- Free lunch and drinks
- 50% discount in Pret shops
worldwide
- Great reward and recognition events
- Legendary parties
At Pret, we
embrace a hybrid working model, with our team spending three days a week in the
office.
The deadline
for applications for this role is Thursday 23rd January 2025.