Bookouture
Data Engineer
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Who we are and what we do
Bookouture is the UK’s most successful and innovative digital publisher of commercial fiction. We are part of Hachette UK and following fourteen years of market-leading growth have sold over 100 million books to readers worldwide with a further 14 billion Kindle pages read of our titles.
In the role of Data Engineer, reporting to the Data & Analysis Director, you’ll be responsible for designing new data structures from the ground up as well as evolving those already in place - ensuring this data-driven business has robust data systems, with accurate information and reporting available at all times. We’re looking not only for experience with business-critical database design and management, but a confident team player who makes a habit of improving the way things are done, embraces change, and brings creativity to every problem.
What you'll be doing
- Design and build new SQL Server databases from scratch — schema design, tables, views, stored procedures and indexing — to support new business systems and reporting requirements.
- Build ingestion workflows for new data sources from scratch — retailer and platform feeds, advertising and marketing data, third-party APIs, etc — designing and building the end-to-end ingestion process from source to reporting layer with appropriate validation and error handling.
- Analyse and streamline existing on-premise relational databases (SQL Server) and ETL packages (SSIS).
- Build and maintain both API-based and browser-based automations
- Work closely with department heads across the division to support any projects requiring access to our data or collaboration with the Data Department and vice versa
- Maintain and review existing data visualisation dashboards (Tableau Cloud) and develop new reporting streams
- Work with the Publishing Innovation Director to develop data structures suitable for use in machine-learning projects
- Respond to team requests, including troubleshooting issues, generating ad-hoc reports, and building automations for currently manual tasks
- Constantly appraise existing workflows to maximise efficiency and reduce the chance of errors
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Who we are looking for
Experience/Knowledge
- Computer science background with extensive workplace experience of relational databases
- Proficient in relational database schema design and structural planning (essential)
- Significant experience working with SQL Server, writing queries, building stored procedures, and developing data flows (essential)
- Experience working with SSIS packages to manage and improve daily import processes (derived columns, lookups, conditional splits for incremental loads)
- Experience of Microsoft Azure integrations
- Confident and effective user of AI tools for operational projects
- Experience integrating systems via REST APIs and managing data between platforms
- Experience building and optimising automations in Python (data syncs, API integrations, scheduled jobs)
- Experience with data visualisation tools (Tableau, Power BI or similar)
- Experience working with browser-based automation (e.g. Playwright)
Personal Attributes/Skills
- Strong problem-solver who isn't satisfied with a working solution if a better one exists.
- Performance-minded, with a focus on proactively optimising processes for speed and reliability
- Detail-oriented, with a sharp eye for data quality, edge cases, and inconsistencies
- Pro-active and self-directed, able to drive a task from problem to tested solution
- Adaptable and comfortable switching tools, languages, or approaches when the situation calls for it.
- Clear and confident communicator. You will be working often with less technical staff, understanding what is being asked of you and explaining what is and isn’t possible clearly is integral. Consistent updates on projects to stakeholders and teams involved is also key.
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What we offer
Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:
- 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
- Private medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Generous pension schemes
- Rent deposit loans
- 2 community days per year
- Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
- Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Eye care vouchers
- Wide-ranging training library
- Development programmes (including mentoring)
- Up to 70% off book purchases
- A charity bookshelf
- An active range of staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including AgeWise, Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing, Women in Tech and religious networks
- Season ticket loans
- And much more!
The role will be based at our London office, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.
Our commitment
Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.
We want everyone to have the opportunity to perform at their best during our recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, you can let us know at the ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ section of your application. We’ll make sure you’re supported throughout the process.
The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org
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