Data & AI Engineer

About ZURU

ZURU is a global company committed to transforming various industries through innovative automation and disruption. It operates through three main divisions: Toys, Tech, and Edge, delivering revolutionary products and services to consumers worldwide. Founded in 2003 by entrepreneurs Nick and Mat Mowbray, ZURU has grown rapidly to a team of over 5000 members across 30+ international locations. Among its acclaimed brands are Bunch O Balloons, Mini Brands, XSHOT, and MONDAY Haircare.

Role Overview

As a Data & AI Engineer at ZURU, you will be responsible for end-to-end ownership of data pipelines that fuel critical business decisions on a global scale. Using modern technologies such as Databricks, dbt, Fivetran, and AWS, you will design, build, and maintain reliable data systems that underpin analytics and AI initiatives. Your work directly influences the quality of data products and enables commercial, marketing, and logistics teams to operate with confidence.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and manage production data pipelines integrating data from SAP, retail point-of-sale, logistics, and marketing sources.
• Lead upgrades and migration projects transitioning legacy pipelines to scalable, contemporary architectures.
• Model data to support analytics and artificial intelligence applications, establishing best practices and standards.
• Implement monitoring, testing, and alerting mechanisms to proactively detect and resolve pipeline issues.
• Enhance infrastructure and tools to minimize manual effort by applying automation strategies.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to clarify ambiguous data requests into actionable datasets.
• Review colleagues’ work and provide mentorship in SQL, Python, and pipeline design techniques.
• Contribute to platform governance, documentation, and AI-related workflow improvements within the team.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum of 3 years experience designing and maintaining production-grade data pipelines.
• Expert level proficiency in SQL, including optimizing query performance on large datasets.
• Strong skills in Python programming to develop automation, tooling, and data workflows, alongside familiarity with software engineering best practices such as version control, testing, and code review.
• Hands-on experience with dbt and at least one cloud data platform like Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift.
• Demonstrated capability in pipeline orchestration and troubleshooting reliability issues in production environments.
• Self-driven with ability to manage full delivery lifecycle independently while navigating ambiguity.
• Effective communication abilities to document technical choices and convey trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders.

Desirable Skills

• Knowledge of Apache Spark, streaming technologies, or distributed processing architectures.
• Familiarity with AWS or similar cloud providers and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform.
• Experience applying CI/CD pipelines for data projects, data contracts, or frameworks ensuring data quality.
• Exposure to large language models (LLM) or AI-integrated data workflows.
• Background in mentoring colleagues or leading technical initiatives.

Life at ZURU

Joining ZURU means being part of an ambitious, fast-growing company with a strong focus on innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. The culture values high performance with an emphasis on teamwork and fun. Employees are encouraged to take ownership of their career growth with ample opportunities available due to the company’s rapid expansion.

Benefits

• Supportive environment for professional development and growth.
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits.
• Opportunities to work on global projects with an international team.
• Competitive salary and compensation packages.
• Additional perks including fresh fruit, coffee, and a fully stocked kitchen for employees.