Lead data engineer & Team Lead

VML MAP • Toronto, ON

1d • CA$65,000 - CA$115,000

About The Position

WPP is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to lead their Data Engineering practice. This is a hands-on technical expert role responsible for shaping data solutions for brands and mentoring a team of engineers. The role involves setting the vision and standards for data infrastructure, integrations, governance, and orchestration. The position is a technical leadership role that involves building solutions and shaping the practice, but does not include direct people management. The day-to-day activities include collaborating with architects on data pipeline standards, ensuring adoption of modern data stacks, acting as a technical advisor to clients, pioneering emerging capabilities like agentic automation and AI-driven engineering, mentoring engineers through hands-on guidance and code reviews, and collaborating with practice leads and peers to shape practice direction. The role also involves partnering with architects, strategy consultants, and client services teams to deliver integrated solutions.

Requirements

• Extensive years of hands-on data engineering experience building production data pipelines and data warehouses.
• Deep expertise in the modern data stack: dbt, Airflow, Terraform, and cloud data platforms (GCP BigQuery, Snowflake).
• Strong architectural skills with a deep understanding of data modeling, quality, and governance.
• Proficiency in SQL, Python, and modern engineering workflows (Git, CI/CD, testing).
• Proven experience mentoring other engineers and building trust with both technical and non-technical colleagues.
• Commercial awareness and client-facing skills, with an ability to connect technical solutions to strategic business value.
• Practice-building mindset: a track record or genuine interest in developing new service offerings, establishing standards, and contributing to organizational capability development.
• Ownership and drive: comfort taking full accountability for your domain while navigating ambiguity and evolving organizational needs.
• Intellectual curiosity and learning agility: enthusiasm for exploring emerging technologies, testing new approaches, and continuously expanding your technical repertoire.
• Excellent communication skills in English.

Nice To Haves

• Agency or consulting experience is a strong advantage.
• Experience with CRM data platforms (Salesforce Data Cloud, Adobe AEP).
• Familiarity with data governance and privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA).
• Cloud or dbt certifications.
• Experience building data pipelines for AI/LLM applications.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with architects to define standards for data pipelines, transformations, and integrations across cloud platforms (GCP, Snowflake, Azure) and CRM platforms (Salesforce DataCloud, Adobe Experience Platform, etc.), spanning both traditional data engineering and marketing technology ecosystems.
• Ensure correct adoption of modern data stacks using dbt, orchestration tools (Airflow), infrastructure-as-code (Terraform), and ELT/ETL frameworks, with a focus on analytics-ready data models.
• Serve as the final technical escalation resource when projects face complex implementation challenges.
• Act as the trusted technical advisor for clients, providing strategic guidance on their data architecture and identifying opportunities where data infrastructure can drive business value.
• Pioneer emerging capabilities—including agentic automation and AI-driven engineering—while building repeatable solution frameworks and service offerings that reduce time-to-value and enable consistency across client engagements.
• Develop engineers through hands-on mentorship, code reviews, and technical guidance, empowering them to solve complex challenges.
• Work closely with the Global Data Practice Lead and domain practice peers to shape practice direction, standards, and growth.
• Partner with Architects, Strategy Consultants, and client services teams to deliver integrated, winning solutions.

Benefits

• WPP (VML MAP) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics.
• We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed