Data Engineer (R or Python), part-time or full-time

Job description

Maro is an analytics platform showing publishers how their journalism performs wherever it appears, from their own sites and apps to Apple News, MSN and, increasingly, AI platforms. Journalists see what's working against their publication’s priorities and make smarter decisions that better engage their audiences.

We're now excited to grow our team for a new project expanding the product into new areas, and we need a data engineer to build the pipelines that power them.

What you'll do

• Build and maintain ETL pipelines in R or Python, pulling data from video and social platform APIs, data feeds and other sources into our AWS and Postgres stack.
• Normalise metrics that each platform defines differently into one consistent model.
• Champion data quality: pagination and record-count checks, deduplication, consistent time zones, automated tests.
• Turn new methods developed with specialists into production pipelines that run reliably at scale.
• Work directly with our CPO, who built Maro, alongside a small group of specialists and a data engineering partner.

What you'll bring

• 4+ years building production data pipelines, ideally on AWS (EC2, S3, Postgres).
• Strong SQL and either R or Python. Our existing pipelines are in R, so you'll need to be happy working with R code.
• Hands-on experience with third-party APIs: rate limits, pagination, authentication, changing terms.
• A habit of testing and documenting your work so others can pick it up.
• Experience using frontier AI tools (such as Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot) to help with coding and development, and the judgement to review and test what they produce.
• Nice to have: experience with social or media platform data, or with deduplicating and reconciling records across sources.
• Interest in news and media is welcome but not required.

Why join

Our mission is to support a sustainable future for journalism and the wider media ecosystem, by helping news organisations, magazines and other publishers make better-informed decisions that grow engagement and revenue.

We work with some of the world's leading publishing brands, including The Canadian Press, Metro, Hello! Magazine, Australian Associated Press, NTB and Atlantico. Joining us means ambitious R&D with clear success measures, a live product used by newsrooms worldwide, a real journalist user group to test with, and a small team where what you build can really make a difference to the work of journalists and creators across the world.

What we offer

• The possibility of extending the role or making it permanent, if the project succeeds.
• Work from home, choosing your days and hours within the weekly total.
• 28 days' holiday a year including bank holidays, pro rata to your hours.
• Workplace pension with a 3% employer contribution.
• A completion bonus of £1,500 at 3 days a week, rising pro rata with your days, paid at the end of your contract in October 2027.
• A company laptop, set up to our security standards.
• A learning budget of up to £500 for a course or conference.
• Occasional travel to meet the team or our pilot publishers, with expenses covered.
• A straightforward hiring process: a short screening call, a paid take-home task and a final video interview (details below).

How to apply

Email your CV and a few lines on a data pipeline you're proud of to [email protected], with "APPLICATION: Data Engineer" in the subject line, and tell us whether you'd like to work 3, 4 or 5 days a week.

The closing date is 29 November 2026. Questions about the role, including how the days and hours could work for you, are welcome at the same address.

We'll hold short screening calls in the week of 30 November and send shortlisted candidates a paid take-home task (£150, no more than 3 hours). Final interviews are by video with our CEO and CPO in the week of 7 December, and we aim to make offers before Christmas.

You're welcome to use AI tools in the take-home task. Just tell us briefly how you used them.

We'll share more about the project with shortlisted candidates, who'll be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement first.

We welcome applications from people of diverse backgrounds, from people seeking flexible working, and from every part of the UK. Every application is scored against the criteria above by two reviewers. Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK, as we're unable to sponsor visas. If you need any adjustments during the process, just let us know.

We'll use your application only to assess you for this role. We'll keep it for six months after the process closes and then delete it, unless you agree to us keeping it for future roles. Our privacy policy is at maroanalytics.com/privacy-policy.