Principal Data Engineer, Data Technology
HSBC · Guangzhou
Some careers have more impact than others.
If you’re looking for further opportunities to develop your career, take the next step in fulfilling your potential right here at HSBC.
HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world, with operations in 58 countries and territories. We aim to be where the growth is, enabling businesses to thrive and economies to prosper, and, ultimately, helping people to fulfil their hopes and realise their ambitions.
We are currently seeking an experienced professional to join our team in the role of Principal Data Engineer, Data Technology
Department Background: CTO Infrastructure
The Opportunity:
We are looking for an exceptional Principal Engineer to serve as the technical anchor for the Data Technology domain, covering platforms and capabilities including Enterprise Data Assets (EDA), Reference Data, Big Data & Movement, and Data Decisioning engineering.
This role will drive technical strategy, architecture, and engineering excellence across distributed data platforms that are foundational to data democratization, AI enablement, customer insight, and regulatory compliance. The Principal Engineer will provide hands-on leadership in modern data and digital engineering practices, hybrid cloud enablement, event-driven architecture, and platform scalability to ensure enterprise-ready and future-fit data services.
This role is suited for a senior technologist with deep experience in data platform engineering and the ability to influence product and delivery teams across a large, global, matrixed organization
What you’ll do:
- Define and evolve the reference engineering standards for core data provisioning platforms, ensuring alignment to the bank’s Group Data Strategy and Data Future State Architecture.
- Provide deep technical standards and approach leadership across key platforms:
- Enterprise Data Assets (EDA) and APIs for standardized data provisioning
- Reference Data Services for golden source alignment and hierarchy management
- Big Data and Movement technologies for ingestion, streaming, and transformation at scale
- Decisioning Infrastructure including real-time feature stores and orchestration
- Lead peer reviews and ensure platform consistency, reusability, and compliance with enterprise standards.
- Guide development teams in implementing data pipelines, APIs, metadata-driven controls, and automated testing frameworks.
- Champion DevSecOps, CI/CD, and infrastructure-as-code across engineering teams.
- Drive the control transition to using agentic AI coding assistants.
- Lead the technology Developer Experience, enabling the whole of technology to discover, understand and onboard themselves to our services.
- Drive best practices in observability, performance engineering, cost optimization, and scalability in hybrid cloud environments.
- Mentor senior engineers and influence technical delivery across multiple squads and geographies.
- Collaborate with Architecture, Cybersecurity, CDO, and business product owners to align engineering outcomes to strategic objectives.
- Represent the domain in cross-platform technology councils and architecture forums.
What you will need to succeed in the role:
- 15+ years of hands-on experience in data platform engineering, architecture, or software development, preferably in a global financial institution or scaled enterprise.
- Expertise in building large-scale data pipelines, APIs, and event-driven systems using modern frameworks and technologies (e.g., Spring, Kafka, Spark, etc).
- Strong architectural understanding of data mesh, data lakehouse, and real-time, customer-facing operational & analytics platforms.
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS and GCP), containerisation, and IaC tools.
- Deep familiarity with development tooling and automation covering modeling, observability, resilience, and , and governance patterns.
- Strong track record of building reusable platform services that accelerate delivery for data consumers and AI/ML initiatives.
- Experience with enterprise reference data management and integration is highly desirable.
- Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to engage and guide both engineering teams and non-technical stakeholders.
- Cultivates Innovation: Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful
- Strategic Mindset: Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies
- Action Oriented: Taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm
- Builds Effective Teams: Building strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals
- Drives Vision & Purpose: Painting a compelling picture of the vision and strategy that motivates others to action
- Being Resilient: Rebounding from setbacks and adversity when facing difficult situations
- Manages ambiguity and ensures accountability: Operating effectively, even when things are not certain, or the way forward is not clear; holds self and others accountable to meet commitments
- Persuasion & Conviction: Using compelling arguments to gain the support and commitment of others; stepping up to address difficult issues and saying what needs to be said
You’ll achieve more when you join HSBC.
HSBC is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a culture where all employees are valued, respected and opinions count. We take pride in providing a workplace that fosters continuous professional development, flexible working and, opportunities to grow within an inclusive and diverse environment. We encourage applications from all suitably qualified persons irrespective of, but not limited to, their gender or genetic information, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, social status, medical care leave requirements, political affiliation, people with disabilities, color, national origin, veteran status, etc., We consider all applications based on merit and suitability to the role.
Personal data held by the Bank relating to employment applications will be used in accordance with our Privacy Statement, which is available on our website.