Smartly is looking for a (Senior) Manager, Data Platform to lead the next stage of our data platform evolution. This role will lead two complementary squads - Data Engineering & Data Analytics - under one shared vision, while keeping each squad’s mission and operating model distinct.

The focus is on building the foundations of Smartly’s data platform, strengthening data engineering practices, and modelling. You will help make trusted, scalable, and self-serve data a reality across the company, while staying close enough to the work to set the bar for quality, insight, and execution.

In this role, you will

• Lead both squads, aligning them around a common data platform vision while preserving their distinct responsibilities and ways of working.
• Own the development and evolution of the data platform, including data warehouses, pipelines, transformation layers, data models, semantic foundations, and core reporting assets.
• Drive the platform toward stronger engineering excellence, with a focus on automation, governance, data contracts, lineage, observability, alerting, reliability, and scalable platform operations.
• Guide the team toward stronger modelling, building enriched, reusable, and trusted data assets, enabling self-serve data capabilities, and enabling teams across Product, Commercial, and other functions.
• Define and prioritise the data platform roadmap, turning recurring support requests and operational pain points into durable platform improvements and better data products.
• Stay hands-on enough with data, modelling, and insight work to guide decisions, unblock teams, and demonstrate what high-quality work looks like in practice.
• Establish and uphold high standards for data quality, validation, freshness, availability, and correctness, including clear ownership and response protocols for issues.
• Coach and grow the teams across modelling, validation, testing, communication, and business understanding.
• Promote a data-informed culture by replacing fragmented and static reporting with consistent, trusted, and reusable data assets and live reporting.

What we are looking for

• Strong technical foundations in data engineering, data warehousing, data modelling, and analytics.
• Experience building or scaling a modern data platform in a product, SaaS, or similarly data-intensive environment.
• Ability to credibly lead discussions on topics such as data pipelines, warehouse design, modelling, reliability, governance, and real-time or near-real-time data flows.
• Track record of leading cross-functional or multidisciplinary teams, ideally spanning both platform and analytics work.
• Strong product and business orientation, with the ability to translate ambiguous needs into scalable data solutions and clear priorities.
• Hands-on experience with modern data tooling and ways of working; familiarity with tools such as BigQuery, dbt, orchestration frameworks, semantic layers, and observability tooling is a strong plus.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to present data and insights clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfort working in an environment with ambiguity, evolving priorities, and significant room to shape the future state.
• A builder mindset, high ownership, and a pragmatic approach to creating structure while moving fast.
• Advanced education in a relevant field is a plus, but equivalent practical experience is equally valuable.
• Ability and willingness to work from our Helsinki office three days a week

What we offer you: 

• Inclusive Culture: Join a team of over 800 Smartlies representing more than 60 nationalities across 24 locations in 13 countries, we foster a culture built on trust, transparency, and open feedback.
• Global Impact: Be part of a company making a global impact, directly influencing our customers and business growth.
• Wellbeing Focus: Enjoy generous healthcare packages, mental health services, and a healthy work-life balance with paid holidays and family leave.
• Total Rewards: Benefit from equity options, performance-based rewards, competitive compensation, and ample career development opportunities.
• Hybrid Workplace: We work in a hybrid model, balancing office and remote work, with the option to work abroad for up to 30 days.

Smartly is committed to being a great place for growth-minded individuals to thrive. Explore more in our Culture Handbook!

We are looking for a Staff Engineer to join team Aqueduct, a team building our data platform for powering large-scale cross-platform advertising. Our ideal candidate is a seasoned professional who has experience in designing, implementing and managing data platforms and pipelines that are scalable, reliable and efficient.

For our customers, ensuring their data is available and composable can:

• unlock the potential of creative automation with image and video templates
• power agentic workflows that utilise the data
• allow analysis of the relationship between product data and ad performance.

Being able to sync our customers’ product data across multiple advertising channels consistently and with minimal delays ensures that:

• the ads consumers see have the latest information
• products that are out of stock are not advertised
• regulatory requirements are met

The team currently has a backend written in Ruby on Rails, and we own small parts of the frontend written in TypeScript and React. We’re moving our data systems from Ruby to a language and architecture better suited for the workload and capable of scaling with our growth. We're looking for an expert to lead the build and design of this new platform using the right tools for the job.

Projects you get to work with

• Design and build a large scale data storage and processing system that needs to process billions of records per day
• Drive the long term architecture and engineering excellence inside the team by coaching and mentoring other engineers
• Collaborate with stakeholders from across the organization: engineering, product and business
• Define and monitor SLAs, and follow SRE best practices to ensure the stability and availability of the system
• Build APIs for internal and external consumers of the data
• Affect the ROI for billions of dollars in ad spend

What We Are Looking For

• 8+ years of industry experience
• Strong programming skills (e.g., Python, Scala and/or Java)
• Deep experience with data processing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Flink, Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, ClickHouse)
• Familiarity with streaming systems (e.g Kafka, Kinesis)
• Expertise in SQL and some RDBMS (PostgreSQL, Citus, etc.)
• Experience with orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Argo)
• Experience with data governance tools (e.g., OpenMetadata, GreatExpectations, Apache Atlas, dbt)
• Solid understanding of distributed systems and cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)
• Proven track record of designing large-scale data systems
• Experience in technical leadership and mentoring other engineers
• Experience with Ruby on Rails is considered a plus
• Ability to work in a hybrid capacity from our Helsinki office 3 days a week 

What We Offer You

At Smartly, we offer a place where you can advance your career. Here, you'll find:

An Inclusive Global Culture: Join a team of over 750 Smartlies, representing more than 60 nationalities across 24 locations in 13 countries. We cultivate a culture built on trust, transparency, and open feedback, where diverse perspectives are valued and encouraged.

Global Impact: Contribute to a company making a global impact, directly influencing our customers' success and business growth.

Focus on Wellbeing: We prioritize your health with healthcare packages, mental health services, and a commitment to work-life balance through paid holidays and family leave.

Comprehensive Rewards: Benefit from equity options, performance-based rewards, competitive compensation, and career development opportunities.

Flexible Hybrid Workplace: Experience a hybrid work model, balancing office collaboration with remote work, and the option to work abroad for up to 30 days annually.

Smartly is committed to being a great place for growth-minded individuals to thrive. Explore more in our Culture Handbook!

Apply Now and Build Your Future with Smartly!

Curious what it’s like to work at Smartly? Visit our Careers page to see how we grow, collaborate, and make impact together

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