Lead Data Engineer

Build. Test. Deliver. Enjoy at Pepco!

About the role

At Pepco, we’re growing fast and building our Tech Hub in Porto to support our business across Europe.

We are looking for a Lead Data Engineer to join the team. In this role, you will be accountable for the technical leadership, delivery excellence, and people management of the Data Engineering domain within the enterprise data platform. This role owns the design, scalability, reliability, and continuous evolution of data pipelines and platform capabilities, ensuring high-quality, secure, and performant data products that power reporting, analytics, AI/ML, and strategic decision-making across the organization. You will also lead a multidisciplinary team of Senior Data Engineers, Data Engineers, a Senior Data Integration Engineer, and a QA Lead, driving engineering standards, architectural alignment, and operational excellence.

If you like things simple, practical and with real ownership, you’ll fit right in.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead, mentor, and develop a multidisciplinary team of Senior Data Engineers, Data Engineers, a Senior Data Integration Engineer, and a QA Lead, setting clear objectives, performance standards, and development plans.
• Foster a strong engineering culture focused on accountability, quality, continuous improvement, and delivery excellence.
• Own the end-to-end design, scalability, resilience, and evolution of enterprise data pipelines and platform components.
• Ensure alignment with enterprise data architecture, governance frameworks, cloud standards, and security policies.
• Define and enforce best practices across ETL/ELT, orchestration, DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing, and data quality management.
• Drive performance optimization, cost-efficiency, reliability, and observability of cloud-native data solutions.
• Ensure the timely delivery of trusted, curated datasets to support reporting, analytics, AI/ML, and operational decision-making.
• Oversee monitoring, incident management, root cause analysis and bug fixing for data platform issues, managing technical risks and cross-program dependencies.
• Collaborate with Data Architects, Product Owners, Data Scientists, and business stakeholders to translate strategic requirements into scalable engineering solutions.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex technical challenges within the data engineering domain.
• Contribute to roadmap planning, capacity management, and investment prioritization for the data platform.
• Ensure compliance with data security, privacy regulations, and governance standards while promoting standardized documentation and engineering practices.

What we’re looking for

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related discipline. Advanced certification in cloud data platforms (e.g., Microsoft Azure Data Engineer, AWS, GCP) strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, data platform delivery, or cloud data architecture.
• 5+ years in a technical leadership or team leadership role.
• Proven experience leading senior engineers and multidisciplinary technical teams.
• Demonstrated ownership of enterprise-scale data platform components.
• Experience operating within complex, multi-country or enterprise environments.
• Technical Expertise
  • Advanced SQL and programming (e.g., Python, PySpark).
  • Strong experience with ETL/ELT, orchestration, and cloud-native data platforms.
  • Solid knowledge of data lakes, warehousing/lakehouse architectures, and data modelling.
  • Good understanding of DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code.
  • Proven ability to design scalable, high-performance, and cost-efficient solutions.
• Leadership & Professional Skills
  • Strategic thinking with strong systems-level problem solving.
  • Ability to combine technical depth with team leadership.
  • Effective stakeholder communication, including senior leadership.
  • Strong ownership, accountability, and resilience in complex environments.
• High level of English

What we offer

• Hybrid model: 2 days remote / 3 days onsite
• Office based in Porto: 📍 https://maps.app.goo.gl/Nn7hc6uYrmPiT8Fc9
• Competitive salary and annual bonus
• Health insurance from the month after joining
• Meal allowance
• Employee discount in Pepco stores in Portugal
• Learning and development opportunities
• International exposure and collaboration across markets
• A simple, down-to-earth culture where people support each other

About Pepco

Pepco is one of Europe’s fastest-growing retail companies, with thousands of stores and millions of customers visiting us every month. Behind that growth, there’s a team of people who make things happen. We keep things simple, we focus on results, and we support each other to get there. At Pepco, no two days are the same. And that’s exactly how we like it.

Interested? Apply now and be part of building something new in Porto!