Data Engineer – Manager

About WPP Media

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more information, visit wpp.com.

WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective. In a world where media is everywhere and in everything, we bring the best platform, people, and partners together to create limitless opportunities for growth. For more information, visit wppmedia.com

About WPP Media Data, Technology and Analytics (DTA): A Leading WPP Media Brand

DTA is WPP’s global data products and technology arm. We’re on a mission to transform marketing by building the fastest, most connected data platform that bridges marketing strategy to scaled activation.

We work with agencies and clients to transform the value of data by bringing together technology, data and analytics capabilities. We deliver this through the Open Media Studio, an AI-enabled media and data platform for the next era of advertising.

We’re endlessly curious. Our team of thinkers, builders, creators and problem solvers are over 1,000 strong, across 20 markets around the world.

Role Summary and Impact

As a Data Engineer, you will be a hands-on technical contributor within the Data, Technology & Analytics team, responsible for designing, developing, and automating robust data solutions for our diverse client base. You will play a critical role in building and maintaining the data infrastructure that powers our insights and analytics.

You will work extensively with the Measure data platform – a unified system for data connection, ingestion, transformation, and reporting – built on a robust technology stack including Adverity, GCP, and PowerBI. This role involves actively contributing to client projects that aggregate diverse data sources into a single, unified view, ensuring data integrity and consistency to enable comprehensive insights and custom visualisations. You will apply and help champion data engineering best practices throughout the data lifecycle.

In this role you will:

• Develop Data Solutions: Design, build, and implement robust data engineering solutions and data pipelines within the DTA team, ensuring high standards for data quality, reliability, and performance.
• Data Pipeline & Transformation: Develop, maintain, and optimize efficient, scalable, and reliable data pipelines (ETL/ELT) for ingesting, transforming, and loading diverse data sources into our data platforms, primarily BigQuery.
• Platform Expertise: Work with and contribute to the Measure data platform, utilizing tools like Adverity, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), BigQuery, and dbt to create and enhance data architectures.
• Collaboration & Requirements: Collaborate effectively with BI specialists, analytics teams, and planning teams to understand business requirements and translate them into technical data engineering specifications.
• Data Integrity & Quality: Write and optimize complex SQL queries, implement data validation rules, and support monitoring processes to ensure the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of data assets.
• Innovation & Best Practices: Stay up-to-date with new data engineering trends and technologies, contributing to the adoption of best practices and continuous improvement of our data capabilities.
• Performance Optimization: Assist in troubleshooting and optimizing data pipeline and database performance for large datasets and complex transformations.
• Maintain an understanding of digital advertising and ad serving technology (e.g., ad serving, vendor ad servers, web analytics, attribution), pursuing advanced accreditation where relevant.

Skills and Experience

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

Essential

• Hands-on experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, or a closely related data field.
• Practical experience with cloud data platforms, specifically Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services (e.g., BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Composer).
• Strong proficiency in SQL for data manipulation, transformation, and analysis.
• Experience in designing, building, and maintaining data pipelines (ETL/ELT).
• Experience with data transformation tools like dbt (Data Build Tool).
• Experience working with data ingestion tools (e.g., Adverity or similar ETL platforms).
• Understanding of data modeling techniques (e.g., star schema, snowflake schema).
• Experience working with digital marketing, media campaign data, ad serving technologies, and/or web analytics data.
• Good communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts and contribute to team discussions.
• Proactive and eager to learn new technologies and apply best practices in data engineering.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with a scripting language like Python for data automation and manipulation.
• Understanding of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles.
• Exposure to CI/CD practices for data pipelines.
• Experience with project management tools such as Jira and Confluence.
• Basic understanding of data governance principles.
• Experience working with dashboarding tools (PowerBi preferred)

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.  

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

We believe the best work happens when we’re together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That’s why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location