Senior Data Engineer

About Abbott

Abbott is a worldwide leader in healthcare dedicated to improving lives at every stage. With a diverse portfolio encompassing diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition, and branded generic medicines, Abbott employs over 122,000 people serving more than 160 countries. In Ireland, Abbott has a heritage since 1946, with over 6,500 employees across multiple locations, including Sligo.

Employment offers for this role are contingent upon passing a pre-employment medical assessment, including drug and alcohol tests by a company-designated medical professional.

Role Overview

As a member of Abbott’s Digital, Data & AI team in Sligo, you will help shape life sciences' future by blending technical expertise with industry knowledge. This position is ideal for experienced data professionals from pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, or regulated life sciences sectors passionate about leveraging data and AI to solve complex challenges.

The Senior Data Engineer will architect, build, and enable scalable data products and platforms that drive measurable business outcomes across Abbott Diabetes Care. The focus is to convert complex data into trusted, accessible assets powering analytics, automation, AI, and decision-making. Close collaboration with stakeholders, architects, data scientists, and IT underscores this role.

You will build foundational data capabilities, define standard operating procedures, and create scalable, repeatable data management processes to support enterprise-wide consistency and quality. Flexibility in working hours is expected due to global team collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable data platforms and pipelines supporting business, AI, and analytics use cases.
• Translate business needs into robust technical data solutions to deliver clear value.
• Develop reusable data assets enhancing enterprise data accessibility and efficiency.
• Ensure scalability of data systems to handle growth, complexity, and AI application demands.
• Contribute to advancement of Abbott’s modern data architecture and ecosystem.
• Implement and monitor data quality controls ensuring reliability and trustworthiness.
• Collaborate with governance teams to uphold data ownership and accountability.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, privacy, security, and regulatory frameworks.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives and enterprise Data Quality Frameworks.
• Build foundational datasets that support advanced analytics, machine learning, AI, and automation.
• Work with Data Scientists to operationalize analytical models and AI solutions at scale.
• Identify and promote process simplification, automation, and modernization opportunities.
• Work closely with business and technical partners to deliver integrated solutions.
• Translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and influence best practices.
• Mentor junior team members fostering technical excellence and ongoing learning.
• Stay current on emerging technologies and recommend innovative solutions to enhance organizational outcomes.
• Promote a data-driven culture by sharing knowledge and improving data literacy.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related fields.
• Extensive experience delivering enterprise-scale data engineering solutions.
• Proficient with AWS Cloud, Databricks, Oracle databases, Python, Spark, and SQL.
• Practical knowledge of Data Governance and Data Quality standards.
• Experience supporting AI, machine learning, and reporting systems.
• Strong understanding of modern data architectures, modeling, metadata, lineage, and management.
• Proven ability to work within strictly regulated environments, ensuring data integrity, quality, and compliance with GxP, CSV, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, EU Annex 11, ALCOA+ principles, and relevant quality management systems.

Essential Skills

• Relevant experience in Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Biotechnology, or Healthcare sectors.
• Excellent stakeholder communication and management capabilities.
• Proven success enabling business outcomes through data solutions and AI integration.
• Experience collaborating across multidisciplinary teams in business and technology.
• Ability to convert business requirements into scalable data engineering solutions.
• Innovative mindset with strong curiosity and a drive for continuous improvement.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, or other highly regulated industries.
• Experience with cloud platforms and contemporary data architecture paradigms.
• Familiarity with AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics environments and practices.
• Demonstrated leadership in technical projects and mentoring roles.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package.
• Comprehensive family health insurance.
• Robust pension scheme.
• Life assurance coverage.
• Career development opportunities.
• Participation in a growing business with access to numerous other benefits.