Contract Data Engineer
Cork, Ireland Hybrid (2 Days On-Site) €450-€550 Per Day
Overview
A leading multinational organisation is seeking an experienced Contract Data Engineer to join a major cloud data platform transformation programme. Working within a growing platform engineering team, you will help design and build a modern lakehouse architecture that powers real-time analytics, machine learning, and AI-driven products across the business.
This is a hands-on engineering role where you'll be contributing from day one, working alongside analytics engineers, data architects, and ML teams to deliver scalable, production-grade data solutions.
Contract Details
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Location: Cork City Centre (Hybrid - 2 days on-site)
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Contract Length: 6 months initially
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Rate: €450-€550 per day (DOE)
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Start Date: ASAP
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Extension Potential: Strong likelihood of extension
Key Responsibilities
As a Contract Data Engineer, you will:
- Design and develop scalable batch and streaming data pipelines within a cloud-based lakehouse environment
- Build and optimise ELT processes using modern data engineering practices
- Develop transformation layers and data models using dbt and Apache Spark
- Implement real-time data ingestion solutions using Kafka and event-driven architectures
- Deliver robust data quality, observability, monitoring, and alerting capabilities
- Support AI and Machine Learning teams by building feature pipelines and AI-ready data infrastructure
- Contribute to CI/CD processes and Infrastructure-as-Code deployments
- Optimise cloud performance, reliability, and cost efficiency
- Help establish data governance, lineage, and cataloguing standards within a GDPR-compliant environment
Essential Skills & Experience
- 4+ years' commercial experience in Data Engineering
- Expert-level SQL skills
- Strong Python development experience
- Hands-on production experience with Databricks and/or Snowflake
- Experience building large-scale solutions using Apache Spark
- Pipeline orchestration experience using Airflow, Dagster, or similar tools
- Strong experience with dbt for data transformation and modelling
- Cloud platform expertise across AWS or Azure
- Experience with cloud data services such as:
- S3
- ADLS
- Glue
- Synapse
- Lambda
- Azure Functions
- CI/CD and Git-based development workflows
- Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code experience
Desirable Skills
Experience with any of the following would be advantageous:
- Kafka, Kinesis, or Event Hubs
- Data observability tools such as Monte Carlo, Soda, or Great Expectations
- GenAI, LLM workflows, vector databases, or RAG pipelines
- Data governance and cataloguing tools including Unity Catalog, Purview, or Collibra
- FinOps and cloud cost optimisation initiatives
What's on Offer
- Opportunity to work on a large-scale greenfield data platform transformation
- Exposure to cutting-edge cloud, AI, and analytics technologies
- Competitive daily rate contract
- Modern city-centre office with hybrid working flexibility
GCS is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.