Principal Data Engineer

Mō te tūranga What youll be doing   

Committed to making energy cleaner and cheaper for Aotearoa New Zealand our Retail structure is made up of a network of empowered teams united by a shared purpose and clear goals equipped with the skills and capabilities to deliver value to customers end to end.

Reporting to the Data & Architecture Practice Lead the Principal Data Engineer plays an important leadership role within the practice. Youll help shape and deliver our retail data and AI architecture so it supports our business goals and the people who use it.

Youll lead the design delivery and ongoing care of our retail data and AI platforms pipelines and products working within squads or supporting others as an enabler. This includes creating scalable modular data and AI solutions developing clear and reliable data models and ensuring our data platforms meet the needs of a wide range of data users. Youll also build and manage data pipelines from ingestion through to delivery with a strong focus on quality and automation using DataOps practices. Youll be helping to ensure our products are providing a customer experience second to none. 

In this role you will lead the transition of the retail data practice to modern and AI-supported approaches ensuring data is accessible and trusted and mentor other data practitioners fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Youll ensure platform high availability performance observability privacy and security as well as contribute to enterprise governance and design and implement retail principles patterns and standards. Collaboration with retail cross-functional teams and enterprise ICT will be essential to your success in this role.

Ngā pukenga kei a koe mō tenei tūranga What youll bring

We are seeking a data leader who has a strong track record with modern data platforms such as Databricks and AWS or Azure native services leading architecture and execution including CI/CD. Youll have proven experience in collaborating with business and product teams to achieve shared outcomes at pace as well as demonstrated ability to lead and mentor other data practitioners. Your extensive experience in designing building and maintaining scalable ETL/ELT data pipelines using Spark for data at scale will be invaluable. 

The ideal candidate is someone who possesses strong data modelling expertise across the data lifecycle and has proficient programming skills in languages such as Pyspark SQL Python and Terraform for IaC (Infrastructure as Code). You will assist with the technical upskilling and coaching of the rest of the team and act as a change agent being able to explain the reasons for changes in positive ways. You also have a good understanding of how to deal with different personalities and possess strong communication skills especially when working with other data practitioners. Youll be a proactive leader with the ability to drive initiatives and navigate ambiguity effectively.

Additional Information :

He aha koe i hono mai ai ki a mātou Why join us    

Were a great place to work with plenty of opportunities and career development for those that want it. We value and live by three How to Bes: be gutsy working together by being in the waka and doing the right thing by being a good human.

We embrace diversity and inclusion and ensure that everyone feels like they belong are welcomed feel valued and feel comfortable to bring their whole selves to work. We want all our people to be the best that they can be so we make sure that theres room for everyone to be exactly who they are and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences including individuals with disabilities diverse health needs and those who identify as neurodiverse because we believe our differences make us stronger. We believe that fun is good for you and we make sure that our office vibe reflects that. We support each other and celebrate our successes.

Sustainability sits firmly in our DNA both socially and environmentally and were doing what we can to help Aotearoa reduce their carbon emissions and were helping support others in our generation communities to do the same.

Ngā painga ki a mātou What we can offer   

We value work/life balance so our WFH and flexible work options (where possible) make things easier for you and your whānau. We also offer:

• an attractive and competitive salary package thats reviewed annually performance-incentive plus discounts from a number of partnerships
• Southern Cross Healthcare - Wellbeing One insurance funded scheme for eligible employees to give you that extra peace of mind 
• enhanced leave provisions: three company paid days (over the holiday period) enhanced parental leave and options to buy up to 12 days additional leave
• life trauma and income protection insurance (which we hope you wont need!)
• enhanced KiwiSaver contributions
• access to the Meridian employee share scheme
• excellent learning and development opportunities we want you to be the best version of yourself and will help you get there!
• award winning wellbeing programme that provides support whenever and wherever you need it
• employee discounts off your power with Meridian or Powershop every bit counts
• a one-off $400 payment to support your work from home set-up (if needed)

Tono mai ināianei tonu Apply now  

All in all were an awesome place to work. If this sounds like you and you want to bring your energy and use your power to make a difference (pun intended) then apply today and tell us why!

View the Position Description - Principal Data Engineer (PDF) - were not necessarily looking for someone who ticks all the boxes (an elusive unicorn) so if you think you have what it takes but dont meet every requirement in the PD we strongly encourage you to apply! 

If you have any general enquiries please email and one of our team will get back to you. Were committed to becoming more accessible and providing support if needed please get in touch via email or phone if there are any parts of our process you would like assistance with (process found here were more than happy to help. 

Advertising closes at 11:59pm on 15 April 2026 (please note this is subject to change) 

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time