Mid/Senior Data Engineer - Lounge by Zalando (all genders)

Role: Data Engineer at Lounge by Zalando, working alongside backend engineers and data scientists to build large-scale recommender systems. You will play a key role across the entire ML lifecycle, from designing and implementing robust batch and streaming preprocessing pipelines to enabling efficient model training and distribution for real-time recommender systems. This is an opportunity to build a data product with measurable impact on business outcomes and user experience, with significant input into architectural decisions and implementation of state-of-the-art ML recommender algorithms. Responsibilities: - Design, build, and optimize large-scale ETL, stream, and batch processing pipelines. - Implement and maintain high-throughput/low-latency data stores (e.g., for real-time recommendations). - Implement and improve data governance mechanisms to ensure data quality and reliability. - Accelerate innovation by building and improving ML infrastructure, such as training and evaluation frameworks, experimentation frameworks. - Collaborate with Product Managers, Data Scientists, Engineers, and Analysts across Zalando to create positive customer impact. - Help define team objectives and continuously improve team self-organization. Qualifications: - Strong experience applying software engineering principles to data management systems, proficient in building robust, scalable data infrastructure using high-quality code (not just SQL). - 3+ years of experience in data engineering projects. - Good understanding of distributed data processing mechanisms, able to diagnose and optimize slow-running data pipelines. - Experience with large-scale batch processing and/or stream processing (e.g., Spark, Hadoop, Flink, Storm, Apache Beam, Kafka). - Proficient in either Python or Java. - Strong understanding of distributed databases, especially high-throughput/low-latency data stores (e.g., DynamoDB, Cassandra, or Redis) is highly valued. What We Offer: - Employee shares program - 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Zalando Lounge, discounts from external partners - 2 paid volunteering days a year - 27 days of vacation a year to start - Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement) - Family services, including counseling and support - Health and wellbeing options (including Gympass) - Mental health support and coaching available - Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review