Senior Data Engineer
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About the Position
Senior Data Engineer
We are looking for a Senior Data Engineer to join our team. Contact us to receive qualified candidates soon.
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What Sets Us Apart?
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Benefits of Working with Us
- Partner relationships
- Knowledge and experience exchange
- Reports needed for business decisions
- Listening to your needs
20+ people
in the team
6 years
of experience in the market
3000
satisfied clients
Who is a Senior Data Engineer and What Do They Do?
A Senior Data Engineer is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining scalable data pipelines and warehouse architectures that power analytics, reporting, and ML models in an organization.
The demand for this role remains high in the Polish IT market, particularly in banking, e-commerce, fintech, and product companies migrating to the cloud (Azure, GCP, AWS). Recruiting a senior data engineer can be challenging because the candidate must combine programming skills (Python, SQL, Scala) with an understanding of distributed architecture and data governance. Effective headhunting for a senior data engineer requires reaching out to passive candidates – the best specialists rarely apply on their own, and the phrase "senior data engineer job" mainly generates mid-level candidates.
Key Responsibilities of a Senior Data Engineer
The scope of responsibilities includes the full data lifecycle – from acquisition from sources, through transformation, to making it available to analytics and ML teams. Below are the most common tasks in job postings from 2026:
- Designing and maintaining ETL/ELT pipelines in Apache Airflow, dbt, or Dagster
- Building and optimizing data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks)
- Data modeling (Kimball, Data Vault) and designing semantic layers
- Implementing streaming processing (Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming, Flink)
- Optimizing the cost and performance of SQL queries on large datasets
- Implementing data quality, lineage, and observability standards (Great Expectations, Monte Carlo)
- Automating data infrastructure using IaC (Terraform) and CI/CD
- Collaborating with Data Science teams to prepare feature stores and training data
- Mentoring junior and mid-level data engineers and conducting code reviews
- Defining governance, GDPR, and data security policies
Required Skills and Experience
A candidate for the senior position must demonstrate a minimum of 5 years of engineering practice and experience in production projects at a terabyte scale. The table below outlines the expected skills:
| Skill | Required Level | Details |
|---|---|---|
| SQL | Expert | Advanced optimization, window functions, query tuning |
| Python | Advanced | PySpark, pandas, unit tests, clean code |
| Orchestration | Advanced | Airflow, dbt, or Dagster in a production environment |
| Cloud | Advanced | At least one of: Azure, GCP, AWS – data services |
| Big Data | Advanced | Spark, Databricks, distributed processing |
| Streaming | Intermediate | Kafka, event-driven architecture |
| Data Modeling | Advanced | Kimball, Data Vault, star schema |
| IaC / CI/CD | Intermediate | Terraform, GitLab CI, Docker |
| Data Governance | Intermediate | GDPR, lineage, data catalog |
| English | B2+ | Communication in international teams |
Salary and Market Ranges 2026
A Senior Data Engineer in Poland earns between 20,000 to 32,000 PLN gross per month on a B2B contract, with top rates applying to specialists with Databricks and cloud architecture expertise.
- Location – Warsaw and Krakow offer 10-15% higher rates than the remote market
- Industry – fintech and banking pay above the median, the public sector below
- Certifications – Databricks Certified Data Engineer, GCP Professional Data Engineer increase the valuation by 8-12%
- Experience – over 8 years and a tech lead role push the rate towards the upper limit
- Technology stack – expertise in Spark and real-time streaming is rewarded
Standard benefits include a medical package, a training budget of 5,000-10,000 PLN per year, coverage of cloud certification costs, flexible working hours, and fully remote or hybrid work with 1-2 days in the office.
Recruitment Process for Data Experts
Successfully recruiting a data engineer relies on actively reaching out to passive candidates and precise technical verification. Our process includes the following stages:
- Analysis of requirements and ideal candidate profile with the Hiring Manager (1-2 days)
- Direct search and market mapping – identification of 30-50 profiles (5-7 days)
- Competency screening and initial technical verification (4-6 days)
- Presentation of 3-5 recommended candidates with a report (2-3 days)
- Support in the offer process and negotiations until signing (3-5 days)
The total time for completion is usually 3-4 weeks from brief to offer acceptance. For critical roles, we offer a recruitment guarantee – if the candidate leaves during the probation period, we conduct the process again without additional costs.
FAQ – Common Questions About the Senior Data Engineer Position
How Long Does the Recruitment of a Senior Data Engineer Take?
Standardly 3-4 weeks from brief to offer acceptance. For very narrow technological niches (e.g., Flink real-time), the time may extend to 5 weeks due to the limited candidate pool.
How Does a Senior Data Engineer Differ from a Data Scientist?
A Data Engineer builds and maintains infrastructure and pipelines that deliver data, while a Data Scientist uses this data to build statistical and ML models. A Senior Data Engineer often provides a feature store and training data for the Data Science team.
What Cloud Technologies are Most Sought After in 2026?
Databricks and Snowflake dominate in warehouses, and among cloud platforms, there is growing demand for GCP BigQuery and Azure Synapse. Knowledge of dbt and Airflow is practically a market standard.
Is it Worth Hiring a Senior Data Engineer on a B2B or Employment Contract?
In the Polish IT market, B2B contracts dominate for senior roles and allow for higher net salaries. Employment contracts are preferred in banking and regulated sectors due to compliance requirements.
How to Verify a Candidate's Technical Skills?
We recommend a practical task for designing a pipeline, live coding in SQL and Python, and an architectural session with the Hiring Manager. Our screening includes initial verification before presenting the candidate.
Do You Also Recruit Related Technical Roles?
Yes – in addition to data engineers, we recruit QA Automation Engineers, Linux administrators, and SAP MM consultants, allowing us to build complete product and maintenance teams.
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SmartWays Sp. z o.o. - 2026 - all rights reserved.
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About the Company SmartWays Recruitment offers bespoke and scalable recruitment solutions tailored to the evolving needs of businesses across various industries. The company focuses on recruitment within EMEA markets but delivers projects globally. Their services include direct search, contracting, body leasing, executive search, recruitment process outsourcing, and HR on-demand services. Products, Services & Tech Stack Core Solutions: Direct Search Contracting Body Leasing Executive Search Recruitment Process Outsourcing HR on-demand Project Scope & Target Clients Client Base: IT Finance Sales Purchasing Other industries Engineering Scale: Projects for large corporations, small businesses, and start-ups.