HeadFirst B.V.
Senior Growth Systems Engineer
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Senior Growth Systems Engineer
Location: Hoofddorp / Hybrid / Full-time Contract: Permanent
Equip yourself to build the activation layer behind our growth stack—where data, activation, and systems come together.
Are you at your best where databricks, activation, and systems intersect? Do you leverage warehouse data to create usable audiences, reliable activation flows, and scalable growth tooling? At HeadFirst Group, we're constructing a new Growth Tech function from scratch in our Product team, in search of a Senior Growth Systems Engineer to champion the activation layer in this ambition. This role isn’t about campaign marketing or traditional marketing automation—it’s a technical activation focus encompassing audience orchestration, identity resolution, reverse ETL, and systems integral to growth execution across our marketplaces and 20+ brands.
About the Role
As a Senior Growth Systems Engineer, you’ll design and grow the activation layer of our Growth Tech ecosystem. Key areas include:
- Developing audience activation pipelines from Databricks to downstream channels
- Enhancing identity resolution across platforms like Striive and ProUnity
- Managing event and consent flows from CMP to warehouse to activation
- Reviewing AI-generated activation outputs for quality assurance
Reporting to the Director Growth Tech, you’ll contribute to the broader strategy, architecture, and roadmap, ensuring the activation layer is optimized daily while working closely with Product, Data Engineering, Commercial, and Marketing teams.
Responsibilities
- Build and refine audience activation flows from Databricks into Hightouch and associated platforms
- Translate business needs into scalable audience logic, traits, and sync structures
- Optimize identity resolution across diverse techniques like profile stitching and customer matching
- Define and enhance event taxonomy, consent flows, and data readiness for activation
- Evaluate and improve AI-generated audience drafts, campaign inputs, and reporting outputs
- Boost activation speed, quality, and reliability worldwide and across brands
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Requirements
We seek an individual with hands-on expertise in technical activation, MarTech, CDP, or growth systems:
- Hands-on experience in building/managing production reverse ETL or warehouse-to-channel flows (examples: Hightouch, Census)
- Strong grasp of SQL for debugging audience definitions, data logic, and activation flows
- Deep understanding of audiences, traits, events, and sync logic at the system level
- Experience in:
- Identity resolution / profile stitching / customer matching
- Consent flows coordinating between CMP, warehouse, and activation systems
- AI tool utilization with ability to critically assess outputs for production-readiness
- Preferred tech stack: Databricks, dbt, Hightouch, OneTrust, or multi-brand activation environments
This role is not for:
- Campaign managers or generalist digital marketers
- Traditional marketing automation specialists (primarily focused on tools like HubSpot or Marketo)
- Those expecting a light vendor demo responsibility role
- Anyone rigid in perception (e.g., viewing AI as either competition or a "magic ×10 button")
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Additional Considerations
Helpful (but not essential) Experience
✅ Reverse-ETL with warehouse-native CDP; multi-brand/market activation; headless CMS in production experience ✅ Familiarity working with AI agents in production workflows (not limited to prompting AI tools) 🇳🇱 Dutch expertise is a bonus, not compulsory
Benefits
- Base salary: €85,000 - €115,000 (dependent on experience)
- Business travel: No mobility budget or lease car provided
- Contract type: Full-time permanent
- Vacation: 27 days annually with option to purchase more
- Pension: 8.33% holiday allowance + premium-free pension scheme
- Hours & location: Flexible work hours and hybrid/office in Hoofddorp
- Learning & mentorship: Access to HeadFirst Academy for internal expertise growth
Further motivation: You will be the first dedicated activation hire in a strategically vital function.
Next Steps
Interested? Apply with your CV and a brief note. Highlight concrete accountabilities such as:
🔹 A reverse ETL flow project you led 🔹 An audience activation setup you managed 🔹 Identity resolution decisions implemented 🔹 Improvement in AI-generated outputs prior to production deployment
Application Ambition
Be prepared to provide examples demonstrating your ability to translate raw data into scalable, technically sound activation strategies. Your success will hinge on balancing intuition and technical precision.
Brand & Culture
HeadFirst Group envisions a future built on data and experience. If your passion aligns with technology-driven growth across diverse brands, let’s connect.
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