Head of Data Engineering & Governance (AI)

Location: UK, Manchester — Icon office, WA15 0AF

Company

hirify.global is a global e-commerce group operating beauty and sports nutrition businesses, including LOOKFANTASTIC, Myprotein, ESPA, Perricone MD, and Cult Beauty.

What you will do

• Set the vision and roadmap for data engineering, governance, and reporting across hirify.global PLC.
• Define and evolve Customer, Commercial, and Operations data domains for analytics, data science, and AI use cases.
• Lead the Engineering team in building and maintaining data pipelines, domain datasets, and platform architecture on GCP and BigQuery.
• Establish engineering standards covering version control, testing, error handling, and documentation.
• Build the data governance framework covering quality, metadata, definitions, mastering, and lineage.
• Own consistent business performance reporting, lead the Tableau estate, and develop Engineering, Governance, and Reporting leaders.

Requirements

• Significant data engineering, data platform, or data leadership experience, typically 8+ years, including at least 3 years at senior or head-of level.
• Deep hands-on experience building and scaling data platforms with GCP and BigQuery.
• Experience across multiple data domains and a proven record of evolving business data architecture.
• Strong understanding of data quality, metadata management, mastering, lineage, and governance principles.
• Experience working with a technology partner or platform team and demonstrated use of AI in data engineering.
• Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills, including influencing Director and C-suite stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience in e-commerce, retail, or consumer goods.
• Familiarity with Dataform, dbt, or equivalent transformation frameworks.
• Experience with data cataloguing or governance tools such as Collibra, Alation, or DataHub.
• Exposure to ML/AI platform requirements and data foundations for data science and personalisation.

Culture & Benefits

• Bespoke development programmes and continued upskilling through an external training partnership.
• 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays, birthday leave, enhanced parental pay, compassionate leave, and volunteer leave.
• Access to an in-house GP, 24/7 Bupa Employee Assistance Programme, on-site gym, and physiotherapy.
• Salary sacrifice savings on personal technology, a subsidised bus pass, staff discounts, and an on-site staff shop.
• Inclusive workplace with reasonable adjustments available during the recruitment process.

Hiring process

• Applications are typically reviewed within 14 days.
• Reasonable adjustments can be requested if invited to interview.