ROLE SUMMARY:
We are Petdirect, a fast-growing eCommerce and retail business that's transforming the way New Zealand pet parents shop for their furry family members. As a digital-first company, we embrace technology and AI to work smarter and deliver a seamless customer experience. Proudly NZ-owned and operated, we're a passionate team of PetSters dedicated to helping pets and their people live happier lives. We were also recognised as one of New Zealand's Best Places to Work for 2025 in the medium business category, something we're incredibly proud of and committed to living up to every day.
We are looking for an
Analytics Engineer to own the layer between our raw data and the decisions our business makes with it.
We move quickly, and we build a lot. We're expanding our retail footprint, launching new capability, and changing how we serve pet parents faster than most businesses our size. Every new development brings data we've never modelled before and questions nobody has asked yet. You won't be maintaining someone else's platform - you'll be helping shape what it becomes.
You'll model our data, define what our numbers actually mean, and make sure wherever a question comes from, the answer is the same one and it's the right one. The technical craft matters here, but so does understanding why someone is asking. We’ve found at Petdirect that the best work has always come from sitting down with the team that asked, digging into the why behind the request, and delivering what people actually need rather than just what they asked for.
We've gone all in on AI, and we're further down this road than most. It's not a side project or something bolted on for a few people - it's woven into how we work, from the warehouse floor to the executive team. Everyone here is expected to use AI as part of their role, and we've built the environment to make that possible. This role is critical to making sure our numbers are worth trusting, and that the bar is set high. So we want someone as curious as they are careful. This landscape moves faster than any of us can keep up with alone - we want someone who follows what's changing, tries things, brings ideas back and shows the rest of us what great looks like.
Our Data & Insights team is small, and it punches well above its weight. Over the last two years we've built a modern analytics stack from the ground up, some of it sitting alongside the AI work already underway. But where our business intelligence tools go from here is genuinely open - we haven't predetermined what BI and tooling should look like at Petdirect, so there's real room for you to come in and shape that direction.
This role is a 40-hour-a-week permanent position, based onsite at our Avondale offices, working Monday to Friday.
WHAT YOU'LL DO:
Attitude is key in this role. At our core, we are a values-driven business. We seek individuals who embody our standards: those who stay hungry for excellence while remaining grounded. We value every person and believe in doing what's right. We appreciate those who act like owners and go the extra mile in everything they do. It's the extra 1% that makes a difference.
The key responsibilities of this role include:
Business Partnering & Understanding Needs - Work directly with teams across the business to understand what they're trying to achieve, not just what they've asked you to build.
- Ask the questions that get to the real requirement, including the ones people haven't thought to ask themselves.
- Deliver beyond the brief - the answer people needed, not just the one they requested.
- Build genuine commercial understanding of Petdirect, so your work reflects how the business actually operates.
- Present findings and recommendations in a way that lands, whether that's with a store team leader or the Executive Leadership Team.
Data Modelling & Engineering - Build and maintain our data models in dbt.
- Bring new data sources into our platform as the business grows and model them so they're ready to use, working with our Tech team to improve source data capture and master data consistency.
- Monitor and maintain data flows, resolving issues before they reach the business.
- Make sure our models and transformations produce correct results wherever they're consumed, and trace anything that looks wrong back to its source.
Business Logic & Metric Ownership - Define and maintain our business metrics, and the definitions and context behind them, so a question gets the same right answer whether it's asked through a report, a query or in plain English.
- Own how a metric works and document why, so our definitions hold up as the business changes.
- Be the person the business comes to when a number doesn't look right, and the one who decides how it should work.
Shaping Our AI - Help shape where our AI capability goes next, and how the business gets the most out of it.
- Make sure our data is exposed to AI tooling in a way that's both reliable and useful.
- Build confidence across the business - both in asking questions of our data, and in trusting the answers that come back.
- Keep pace with a fast-moving AI landscape and bring practical ideas back to the team.
Reporting & Analysis - Own the standard reporting the business runs on - daily, weekly and monthly - and make sure it's accurate and on time.
- Build and maintain automated data flows and operational alerting, and take manual reporting off people's desks.
- Maintain our existing Power BI reporting and help us determine where our reporting platform goes long-term.
- Develop new reports, KPIs and dashboards as business needs emerge.
- Investigate the things that don't add up - margin movements, stock issues, unexpected customer behaviour - and work out why.
Systems, Process Management & Other Requirements - Use Petdirect's systems and processes to maintain accuracy, reduce manual touchpoints and support continuous improvement.
- Support cross-functional projects and requests across the wider business, including Merchandise, Marketing, Supply Chain, Customer Care, Retail Operations and the Warehouses.
- Plus any other tasks as reasonably required within the role.
WHO YOU ARE: - Genuinely curious about our customers, their pets, our business, and what's coming next in your field.
- Rigorous. A wrong number bothers you, and you check before you publish.
- Adaptable and comfortable with priorities and tooling that shift quickly.
- Confident making calls and standing behind them as the specialist in your discipline.
- A strong communicator who can talk to anyone at any level without jargon - and who listens well enough to hear the question behind the question.
- Generous with what you know - you document as you go and help others get better with data.
- Pragmatic, choosing the approach that serves the business rather than the most interesting one.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: - 5+ years in business intelligence, analytics or data roles, with hands-on experience across the modelling and transformation side.
- Strong SQL skills. You're comfortable working across a complex schema and writing transformation logic that performs.
- Experience with dbt or similar transformation tooling, and cloud analytical databases.
- Experience with Power BI or other similar business intelligence tools.
- Experience building and maintaining semantic models or metric layers.
- Commercial literacy. You've worked with revenue, margin, cost and customer metrics and understand what they mean, not just how to calculate them.
- A track record of working directly with stakeholders to shape what gets built, and turning a vague request into something genuinely useful.
- Experience with, and enthusiasm for, working alongside AI tooling.
- Advantageous: Python, a background in finance, retail or eCommerce.
OUR STANDARDS: - Seek 1%ers: We embrace continuous learning and strive to improve every day, no matter how small the gain.
- Act with purpose: We are intentional in our decisions and actions, always keeping the customer at the centre.
- Be collaborative: We work as one team - respectfully, openly, and with a shared commitment to success.
- Take responsibility: We own our actions and outcomes, demonstrating accountability at every level.
- Get it right: We hold ourselves to high standards by prioritising quality and accuracy in everything we do.
WHY JOIN PETDIRECT: - Join one of New Zealand's Best Places to Work (medium-sized business award winner for 2025).
- Be part of a future-focused eCommerce and retail business embracing new technology.
- Work in a dynamic, pet-loving, collaborative environment.
- Enjoy regular morning teas, social activities, and plenty of four-legged visitors.
- Access generous staff discounts and opportunities to grow.
ABOUT PETDIRECT:
We are a team of pet enthusiasts dedicated to making life easier for pet parents. Our journey started as an online-only business, but we have now expanded into brick-and-mortar retail, with our first five stores now open and ambitious plans to grow our physical presence across New Zealand.
We pride ourselves on offering exceptional service, high-quality products, and expert advice to help Kiwi pet parents make the best choices for their furry family members. As we expand, our commitment remains the same: to be a trusted partner for pet lovers across the country.
Join us as we continue to build a market-leading eCommerce and retail experience for pet parents in New Zealand.
petdirect.co.nz