Senior/Staff Data Engineer
fonoa · London, United Kingdom ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Staff
- Category
- Data engineering
- Experience
- 5+ years
fonoa · London, United Kingdom ·
Fonoa is the Tax Operating System for autonomous tax. AI that tracks every rule, acts on every obligation, and proves every decision, built on modular infrastructure.
Fonoa’s modules cover the full indirect tax lifecycle: tax ID validation, real-time tax determination, e-invoicing, and returns. All on one shared data model and integration, with one audit trail. Each added capability makes the others stronger.
Agents monitor obligations, populate returns, catch anomalies and assemble audit packs in seconds. The system does the work. Humans make the calls. That’s autonomous tax.
We operate across 120+ countries, with clients going live in weeks, if not days.
Trusted by Canva, Netflix, Spotify, Uber, Zoom and Booking.com. Rated 4.5/5 stars and a High Performer on G2 and 4.6/5 stars on Gartner Peer Insights.
Find out more:
Engineering is central to how we build the business. We focus on solving real customer problems, not just shipping features. We work in small, high-trust teams, with full ownership across the lifecycle, from design to production and beyond.
We value:
Ownership – engineers own what they build end-to-end
Simplicity – we break down complex problems into clear solutions
Thinking Big - we innovate with modern technologies (LLMs, AI Agents, etc.) to solve meaningful problems
Quality – scalable, maintainable systems are non-negotiable
Speed & iteration – we ship fast, learn, and improve continuously
Collaboration – we win as a team, not as individuals
As Fonoa continues to scale globally, we are looking for a Data Engineer to help us bootstrap an internal data platform from the ground up. Working closely with the Infrastructure team, you will play a foundational role in unlocking the value hidden across our different systems and make data accessible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders in a seamless way.
This is not a role where you'll walk into a mature data stack with well-defined requirements. We have data spread across multiple systems and services, and we need someone who can help us experiment, iterate, and discover how to best add value to the business and our products through data. You'll be exploring what's possible, building the first versions of pipelines and tooling, and shaping the direction of data engineering at Fonoa.
This is a highly collaborative, hands-on role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, brings curiosity and proactivity, and is energised by the challenge of building something from scratch rather than maintaining something that already exists.
What Will You Do
Data Platform Foundations
Design, build, and iterate on the foundational data infrastructure that will become Fonoa's internal data platform
Evaluate and select appropriate tools and technologies based on our needs, scale, and team capabilities
Establish patterns and best practices for data modelling, cataloguing, and documentation, and data governance and quality standards early on
Data Integration & Access
Connect and consolidate data from multiple internal systems and services into a unified, queryable layer
Build interfaces and tooling that enable non-technical users (including Product, Finance, Operations) to consume data independently
Ensure data quality, consistency, and reliability across sources through validation and monitoring
Exploration & Value Discovery
Partner with stakeholders across the business to understand their data needs and identify high-impact opportunities
Prototype dashboards, reports, and data products to test hypotheses about where data can drive decisions
Help define what "data-driven" looks like at Fonoa and shape the roadmap accordingly
Collaboration & Enablement
Work closely with the Infrastructure team on cloud resources, networking, and security considerations for data workloads
Partner with Finance, Operations, and Product to understand their reporting and analytical needs, and translate those into reliable, queryable data products
Share knowledge and advocate for data engineering best practices across the organisation
What We Are Looking For
5+ years of experience in a Data Engineering or similar role (Analytics Engineering, Backend Engineering with heavy data work)
Solid proficiency in SQL and at least one programming language (Python, Scala, or similar)
Experience building and maintaining ETL/ELT pipelines and working with data warehousing or lakehouse architectures
Hands-on experience with modern data stack tooling — particularly a columnar warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar), a transformation layer (dbt or equivalent), and an ingestion/CDC tool (Airbyte, Fivetran, or similar)
Familiarity with cloud platforms (GCP preferred) and their data services
Experience with workflow orchestration tools
Strong communication skills and the ability to work with non-technical stakeholders and translate their needs into data solutions
Comfort with ambiguity and an ability to make pragmatic decisions with incomplete information
Prior experience bootstrapping a data platform or data function from scratch
Bonus Points If You Have
Experience with data visualisation and BI tools (Metabase, Looker, Superset, or similar)
Background working in a product-oriented SaaS company
Experience working with financial or operational data (revenue, billing, reconciliation)
Exposure to infrastructure-as-code and DevOps practices
What Success Looks Like
A first iteration of an internal data platform is running, consolidating data from key systems into a reliable, queryable layer
Non-technical stakeholders can access and explore data relevant to their work without needing engineering support for every question
Clear patterns and documentation exist for how data is ingested, transformed, and consumed
You have identified and delivered at least one high-impact data use case that demonstrably adds value to the business or product
For engineers, API design and structure are an important part of evaluating a role. You can explore our API and how we build products here:
We use these technologies today, but we don’t hire for specific tools. We care about engineers who can understand problems, make good technical decisions, and choose the right tools for the job.
Backend: Node.js, Go
Frontend: React, TypeScript
Infrastructure: GCP, k8s, Terraform, Postgres
Note:
If you don’t think you have the full experience we’re looking for, but you could be a fit and are willing to learn, do apply anyway! We are building a diverse and inclusive team.
As part of the recruitment process at Fonoa, we process your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants. This notice explains how and why your data is collected and used, and how you can contact us if you have any concerns.