About Nova Vet FamilyNova Vet Family is a growing veterinary technology scale-up, discovering and building digital tools that support clinical excellence and operational performance in veterinary practices. We are internalising our data platform as a critical next step in our growth.About the RoleWe are hiring a Senior Data Engineer to lead the migration of our core PostgreSQL database from an external vendor into our own AWS EU infrastructure, and to establish the foundations of our in-house data platform.This is a hands-on senior individual contributor role and our first in-house data hire. It is explicitly designed as a stepping stone into a future data leadership position once the technical foundations are in place.You will work closely day-to-day with product leadership and report into senior management.Key ResponsibilitiesOwn and execute a zero-downtime PostgreSQL migration end-to-end from an external vendor to AWS, with comprehensive data validation and rollback strategies (target delivery: 36 months)Design and operate production-grade AWS infrastructure (RDS PostgreSQL, S3, IAM, monitoring and alerting) with security and reliability built in from day oneBuild and maintain reliable data ingestion pipelines using Python and SQLImplement data quality checks, automated monitoring, and basic lineage trackingDesign backup and recovery strategies, including restore testing, and maintain clear operational runbooksOptimise database performance and AWS costs without compromising reliabilityEstablish foundational data governance practices suitable for sensitive/clinical data, with strong GDPR awareness and EU data residency considerationsAs the first data engineer and future Dead Lead, set standards and best practices that will scaleRequired Qualifications35 years of hands-on PostgreSQL experience, including query optimisation, backup/restore, and performance tuningStrong experience with AWS core services, especially RDS, S3, IAM, and CloudWatchSolid Python and SQL skillsExperience working in GDPR-aware environmentsProficiency with Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions preferred)Comfortable documenting and tracking technical decisions (Confluence, Jira)Comfortable communicating and working with non-technical stakeholders and external vendorsStrongly PreferredExperience with AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) or change data capture tools (Debezium)DevOps/SRE background with focus on observability and reliability engineeringExperience with healthcare or clinical dataData governance or data stewardship experienceWhat We OfferHigh-ownership, high-impact role in a growing scale-up in an exciting and fast-changing market. Work on critical infrastructure that powers veterinary healthcare technology. You'll have autonomy to make architectural decisions, work with modern cloud-native tools, and directly impact system reliability and performance.Autonomy to shape core data infrastructureClear progression into data leadershipCompetitive compensation and benefits (shared during process)Interview ProcessShortlisted candidates will be asked to walk through practical technical scenarios similar to the challenges of this role.
