Data Engineering Manager (Travel)

TL;DR

Data Engineering Manager (Travel): Leading and growing the data engineering capability to build reliable, scalable data products with an accent on event-driven cloud architectures and modern data platforms. Focus on mentoring a talented team, modernizing data ingestion and processing, and ensuring high-quality, observable data pipelines for analytics and AI-driven innovation.

Location: Must be based in or able to commute to Manchester, UK (Hybrid: 2 days per week in the Aeroworks office).

Company

hirify.global is one of the UK's largest online package holiday specialists, dedicated to creating the ultimate holiday experience through proprietary technology and entrepreneurial spirit.

What you will do

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of data engineers to deliver high-quality, scalable data solutions.
• Shape the strategy for event-driven and traditional data ingestion, processing, and modeling.
• Design and evolve the data platform, focusing on orchestration, observability, lineage, and governance.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Analytics teams to translate business needs into maintainable data products.
• Define and improve engineering standards for testing, monitoring, and deployment.
• Foster a culture of technical curiosity and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Experience building, operating, or leading cloud-based data platforms and production-grade workflows.
• Proficiency with modern cloud data tools such as Databricks, BigQuery, or Spark.
• Strong understanding of event-driven/streaming data patterns and traditional operational data environments.
• Proven ability to design reliable, observable, and well-tested data products.
• Experience coaching and supporting engineers in their professional development.
• Must be able to work from the Manchester office 2 days per week.

Nice to have

• Experience with lakehouse architecture or medallion-style workflows.
• Knowledge of data governance, lineage, and data quality frameworks.
• Experience using AI tools for engineering productivity and automation.
• Background in transitioning teams from legacy batch patterns to real-time cloud-native approaches.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive salary and Beach Perks package.
• 25 days holiday plus birthday off and extra leave for package holidays.
• Access to Learnerbly learning platform and professional development support.
• Enhanced family-friendly leave policies and health plans.
• Onsite subsidised coffee shop and The Sandbox bar.
• Flexible working hours with core hours between 10am - 4pm.

Hiring process

• Multiple stage interview process.
• Includes an in-person interview at the Aeroworks office in Manchester.