Junior Data Engineer

WPP Open Intelligence’s Activation team builds the foundational data infrastructure and high-performance edge services that support WPP’s position in the market. Our platform is deeply integrated with leading supply-side partners in the AdTech industry.

Our edge services handle more than 60,000 classification requests per second, while our contextual classification pipelines process 10,000 requests per second. With operations spanning the US and UK and continued expansion across EMEA and APAC, our engineering team builds robust, scalable, reliable, and privacy-conscious systems at global scale.

We are expanding our engineering team as we develop a new generation of privacy-preserving data products, extend our infrastructure across EMEA and APAC, and deepen our integrations with leading supply-side partners.

As a Junior Data Engineer, you will contribute to this next stage of growth while learning from experienced engineers. You will help build reliable data systems that are performant, scalable, and designed with privacy and responsible data use in mind.

• →Develop, test, and review data pipelines and related code using team standards, with guidance from experienced engineers.
• →Work with product managers, analysts, and data scientists to implement well-defined features and improvements.
• →Build and maintain data-quality checks, documentation, and basic governance practices.
• →Support investigations into pipeline failures, data inconsistencies, and operational issues, contributing fixes with mentorship.
• →Build familiarity with the data platform, tooling, and codebase through hands-on development, feedback, and code reviews.
• →Ask questions, share learnings, and contribute ideas that improve team practices, data quality, and reliability.

You will work closely with data engineers, software engineers, product managers, analysts, and data scientists. You will report to a Lead Engineer and collaborate with colleagues supporting WPP Open Intelligence’s growing global infrastructure.

• Early-career experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, software development with a data focus, or a related internship, graduate role, course, personal project, bootcamp, or open-source contribution.
• Practical experience working with data in at least one programming language such as Python, Go, or Scala.
• A basic understanding of software engineering fundamentals, algorithms, data structures, and data processing.
• Familiarity with Git, testing, or basic CI/CD workflows—or the motivation to develop these skills.
• Exposure to a cloud platform such as GCP, AWS, or Azure, or a strong interest in learning cloud practices in a production environment.
• Clear communication skills, including the confidence to explain your work, ask questions, and seek support when needed.
• Curiosity about data quality, privacy, reliability, and continuous learning.
• You do not need to be an expert in every technology listed in this advert. We value strong fundamentals, a willingness to learn, and the ability to apply new concepts thoughtfully.

• Familiarity with Spark or another distributed data-processing framework.
• Experience with SQL, batch processing, or stream processing.
• Exposure to Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, or other infrastructure and deployment tools.
• Experience contributing to a monorepo or large shared codebase.
• Familiarity with AdTech, MarTech, data privacy, or responsible handling of sensitive data.
• Side projects, coursework, bootcamp work, or open-source contributions involving data pipelines or software development.

Who you are: