Data Operation Engineer

Data Operation Engineer

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. We have been building the world's most valuable brands for 50 years and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise. Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.

Why we're hiring:

WPP Media is embarking on a transformative data journey through Databridge - our internal data integration framework - designed to unify our fragmented global data landscape. We are moving from isolated, market-specific implementations to a standardized, scalable, cloud-agnostic, and AI-ready data platform built on a modern tech stack: dbt, Databricks, Python (dlthub), and GitHub Actions.

As a Data Operations Engineer, you will be a foundational member of our new Data Integration & Operations team in Chennai. You will be the bridge between development and production, ensuring data pipelines are delivered reliably, consistently, and securely across global markets.

This is a hands-on technical role focused on operationalizing, automating, and monitoring data workflows. You will implement CI/CD for data pipelines, enforce data quality standards, manage production deployments, respond to incidents, and continuously improve data delivery.

What you'll be doing:

• CI/CD Implementation & Automation
  • Build and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines for data workflows using GitHub Actions and Databricks Asset Bundles
  • Implement automated testing gates including code quality checks, data quality validation, and pre-commit hooks
  • Configure and manage multiple environments with proper isolation and access controls
  • Automate deployment processes ensuring repeatable, zero-touch releases
• Data Pipeline Operations & Monitoring
  • Monitor daily execution of Databricks Jobs/Workflows, tracking pipeline health, data quality, and SLA compliance
  • Set up comprehensive alerting and notifications for failures, SLA breaches, and cost anomalies
  • Use monitoring dashboards to proactively identify and resolve issues
  • Perform regular health checks on production data products
• Data Quality & Governance
  • Enforce platform-wide data quality standards by creating reusable test macros and validation patterns
  • Review Data Engineer code for proper test coverage, documentation, and adherence to standards
  • Support Databricks Unity Catalog integration for metadata management, lineage tracking, and access control
• Production Deployment & Incident Management
  • Own production deployment workflows and manage Databricks Jobs configurations
  • Maintain version-controlled job definitions in Git for Infrastructure as Code
  • Act as first responder for production incidents, performing triage and root cause analysis
  • Use operational runbooks to diagnose and resolve common issues
  • Escalate to Data Engineers or DevOps when needed and document incidents with detailed RCA
  • Participate in on-call rotation for operational coverage
• Documentation & Continuous Improvement
  • Create and maintain operational runbooks detailing schedules, troubleshooting steps, escalation paths, and recovery procedures
  • Document standards, guidelines, and workflows in Confluence
  • Contribute to the Central Data Solution Repository with reusable templates and patterns
  • Analyze incident trends and participate in retrospectives to drive platform optimization

What you'll need:

• Experience
  • 5+ years of hands-on experience in data operations, data engineering, or platform engineering
  • Proven track record supporting production data pipelines and operational workflows
• Technical Expertise
  • Databricks Platform:
    • Practical experience with Databricks SQL Warehouses, Jobs/Workflows, and CLI
    • Understanding of Unity Catalog for governance, access control, and lineage
    • Knowledge of Delta Lake and performance tuning
    • Familiarity with Databricks Asset Bundles for Infrastructure as Code

• Data Transformation Pipeline - Operational Proficiency:
  • Strong working knowledge of SQL-based transformation frameworks for operational purposes (e.g., dbt, Dataform, SQLMesh, or orchestrated transformation pipelines)
  • Understanding transformation project structure, dependency management, testing frameworks, and documentation standards
  • Reading and understanding SQL transformations for validation and troubleshooting
  • Running transformation commands/workflows for CI/CD and production operations
  • CI/CD integration, environment management, and automated deployment
  • Troubleshooting production transformation pipeline issues using logs and error messages
  • Production experience with data quality testing and validation at scale

• CI/CD & Automation:
  • Proficiency with GitHub Actions including workflows, secrets management, and environment configuration
  • Understanding of Git workflows and code review processes
  • Familiarity with pre-commit hooks, linting, and automated testing
  • Basic knowledge of Infrastructure as Code principles

• Python & SQL:
  • Proficient in Python for scripting and automation (experience with dlthub is a plus)
  • Strong SQL skills for data validation and troubleshooting
  • Ability to read and understand complex data transformation logic

• Cloud & Operational Skills:
  • Solid understanding of core cloud services in Azure and/or GCP
  • Experience with production monitoring, alerting, and incident response
  • Understanding of SLA management and operational metrics
  • Strong problem-solving skills for diagnosing distributed system issues
  • Excellent communication and documentation skills
  • Detail-oriented with commitment to operational excellence

• Preferred Skills:
  • Production operational experience with dbt Core (our primary transformation framework) including project structure, models, tests, macros, and CLI operations
  • Understanding of FinOps practices for cloud cost optimization
  • Exposure to Power BI or similar BI tools
  • Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure as Code tools
  • Familiarity with Confluence and Jira

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures for our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can