Oritain is a global leader in forensic origin verification. Using cutting edge science, advanced technology, and specialized services, we independently verify where products and raw materials come from – protecting brand integrity, supporting compliance, and strengthening supply chain trust and transparency.We are looking for a Principal Data Engineer to lead on the transformation of our entire data platform. This is a critical leadership role responsible for defining, building and running the scalable, robust, and trustworthy data infrastructure that will underpin all future product development, scientific analysis and business operations.The OpportunityReporting to the Head of Engineering, you will be the most senior technical voice for data platforms within the organisation. You will own the strategy, design, and initial implementation of the pipelines and architecture required to integrate complex scientific data with our commercial software applications.You will act as a technical leader and mentor to the wider engineering team, ensuring that all data-related systems meet the highest standards of reliability, performance, and security.Key Responsibilities Data Architecture & Strategy Platform Leadership: Define and own the technical strategy and architecture for our entire data platform.Pipeline Design: Design and implement highly scalable, performant, and reliable ETL/ELT data pipelines to handle diverse data sources.Technology Selection: Evaluate, recommend, and drive the adoption of new data services and modern data tools to ensure we have a future-proof data ecosystem.Data Modelling: Lead the design of canonical data models for our data warehouse and operational data stores.Implementation & Technical Excellence Hands-on Development: Serve as the most senior, hands-on developer, writing high-quality, production-grade code (primarily Python and/or Scala/Spark).Data Governance & Security: Architect data security and governance policies.Data Quality: Implement automated deduplication, conflict resolution and anomaly detection.Operational Health: Implement robust monitoring, logging, and alerting for all data pipelines and infrastructure.Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Work closely with the Infrastructure team to define and automate the provisioning of all Azure data resources using Terraform or similar IaC tools.Technology: We currently make extensive use of Microsoft Azure and related data services and are moving to Databricks.Cross Functional Leadership Collaboration: Partner closely with the Science to understand the structure, complexity, and requirements of raw scientific data. Also with the Product teams and to understand commercial and user-facing data requirements.Mentorship: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to software engineers on best practices for interacting with and consuming data services.Skills & Experience Principal/Lead Expertise: Extensive experience (typically 7+ years) focused on data engineering, including significant time spent in a Principal, Lead, or Architect role defining data strategy from the ground up.Databricks: Deep, practical, and architectural experience of the Databricks platform.Azure Data Stack: Operational experience of building and running within the Microsoft Azure data ecosystem (e.g., Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL/Cosmos DB).Coding Proficiency: Expert-level proficiency in Python (or Scala) and SQL, with a strong focus on writing clean, tested, and highly performant data processing code.Data Warehouse Design: Proven track record designing and implementing scalable data warehouses/data marts for analytical and operational use cases.Pipeline Automation: Strong experience with workflow orchestration tools and implementing CI/CD for data pipelines.Cloud Infrastructure: Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) and containerisation.Desirable Attributes Experience processing scientific, geospatial, or time-series data.Experience in the governance or compliance sector where data integrity is paramount.Familiarity with streaming data technologiesCompany Benefits Paid Leave- 35 days (inclusive of public holidays)Birthday OffVolunteering Leave AllowanceEnhanced Parental LeaveLife InsuranceHealthcare Cash PlanEmployee Assistance Programme (EAP)PensionMonthly Wellbeing AllowanceBreakfast, Snacks, Friday lunch & Barista Coffee Machine in the officeLearning Portal with over 100,000 assets available to support professional developmentHybrid working set-up (Farringdon, London)Plenty of friendly 4-legged pets in the office!We operate a hybrid working policy at Oritain with a 3 day a week presence at our Farringdon office. If this sounds like an opportunity you would like to learn more about, please click apply below.