OVERVIEW

This is a hybrid role based from home and our offices in either London or Leicester.
Home. There’s no place like it. And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do.
We’re the UK’s number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. The caring and supportive culture we’ve created makes this a place you’ll feel right at home too.
The Site Operations Engineering (SOE) team is a key part of Dunelm’s Digital function, ensuring the reliability, performance, and observability of our data platform and services. We act as the third-line support function responsible for incident response, problem management, and proactive improvements.
We are at the forefront of cloud adoption, being one of the largest adopters of AWS Serverless in Europe. Our Digital and Data teams are constantly evolving to support the growing demands of our business. We are focused on building scalable, high-performance solutions while ensuring reliability, observability, and operational excellence.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU:

• Good experience in a Technical Support, Data Operations, or similar role.
• Strong ability to write and understand complex SQL queries.
• Basic understanding of systems performance metrics (CPU, I/O, RAM, Network stats).
• Experience troubleshooting database connectivity issues(client software, drivers, connectors).
• Good knowledge of Power BI, including debugging and troubleshooting reports.
• Experience with ETL processes in DBT.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to document and explain technical issues clearly.

DESIRABLE SKILLS (NICE TO HAVE):

• Understanding of Data Warehousing fundamentals and concepts.
• Experience with AWS services such as SQS and S3 Buckets.
• Familiarity with Snowflake, DBT (Data Build Tool).
• Familiarity with Qlik for data replication from SAP to Snowflake.
• Experience with MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL, including database administration and performance tuning.
• Exposure to database security best practices.
  (If you are not familiar with these technologies, we will provide structured learning and support to help you gain expertise.)

BEHAVIOURS/VALUES

We are looking for someone who embodies Dunelm’s core values:

• Think customer first– Understand business needs and ensure data solutions meet operational demands.
• Stronger together– Collaborate with multiple teams, ensuring knowledge sharing and effective support.
• Keep it simple– Focus on clear processes, concise documentation, and practical solutions.
• Make a difference– Take initiative, drive improvements, and reduce operational issues.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

Within SOE, the SOE-Data team supports and optimises our Data Platform, Snowflake, ETL processes in DBT, and data pipelines. We work closely with Data Engineers, Business Analysts, and other stakeholders to ensure smooth operations, troubleshoot issues, and enable data-driven decision-making across the company.
Additionally, this role will involve providing guidance in database administration (DBA) tasks, focusing on MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. While we have a third-party DBA support provider (Node4), this role will act as an internal expert, helping other teams improve their understanding of database best practices, security, and performance tuning.
If you enjoy working on high-scale cloud-based data platforms, ensuring smooth operations, and driving continuous improvement across systems rather than just fixing issues, this role offers a great opportunity to grow and make an impact.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Investigate and resolve complex data-related issues, providing in-depth analysis and insights.
• Maintain and improve operational documentation, ensuring knowledge sharing within the team.
• Work with Data Engineers to prioritise and resolve issues, submitting well-documented bug reports.
• Ensure observability and monitoring of key data services to proactively detect and address problems.
• Participate in area-wide reviews, identifying opportunities for continuous improvement rather than just reactive fixes.
• Participate in the on-call rota, responding to incidents efficiently and implementing long-term fixes.
• Support teams in self-service data management, helping improve their understanding of SQL performance tuning and data operations.
• Act as a bridge between business teams and engineering, translating technical issues into actionable insights.
• Learn and contribute to ETL processes in DBT to enhance data transformation and pipeline efficiencies.
• Provide DBA guidance, including database performance tuning, security best practices, backup strategies, and troubleshooting for MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL.
• Support developers and teams in self-service database management to improve efficiency and minimise reliance on third-party DBA support.