Merck KGaA Posted August 14, 2026

Lead Data Engineer / Architect (all genders)

Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia FULL_TIME
Data & Digital

Merck KGaA is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Your role:

We are seeking a highly skilled Lead Data Engineer / Data Architect with a strong developer background to design, build, and operate our Security Data Platform. This role will focus on end-to-end data management, design and architect analyzation, ingestion, normalization, storage, processing, and serving the solutions. The primary emphasis will be on Security Data and Observability Data, serving as the foundation for fraud and threat detection, detection engineering, and response through different types algorithms and machine learning approaches. Additionally, the platform will provide observability for the entire application landscape, facilitating troubleshooting and reporting.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead a team of engineers and developers in the implementation of the Data Platform.

Design and architect data ingestion, normalization, storage, processing, and serving solutions.

Ensure the Data Platform supports observability across the application landscape.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to gather requirements and deliver effective data solutions.

Monitor and optimize platform performance, scalability, and security.

 

Who you are:

Bachelor's or master’s degree in computer science, Data Engineering, or a related field.

Demonstrated experience in designing and implementing large-scale data platforms. (Expertise in programming languages such as Java and Python is a plus)

Proven experience with Kubernetes for container orchestration.

Strong knowledge of Apache Kafka for real-time data streaming and experience with Apache Flink for stream processing.

Experience with analytical databases (e.g. OLAP) and Massively Parallel Processing MPP architectures, especially in the context of optimization and performance tuning

Familiarity with lakehouse architectures (e.g. Apache Iceberg)  - Experience with MLOps and ML model delivery pipelines

Knowledge of Elasticsearch to support migration to alternative solutions

Excellent leadership and team management skills, Project Management skills is a plus

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced environment.

Hands-on experience in projects using or applying machine learning

Our Tech Stack

Kubernetes, Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Java, Python, TypeScript, Postgres, Apache Doris, Grafana.

Job Evaluation: Expert 3

Department: EF-DS-TITJ Identity & Access Management

Job details

Seniority
Not listed
Function
Data & Digital
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Data & Digital role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 279 comparable Data & Digital roles across 43 biopharma companies.

279Comparable roles tracked
265Currently active
43Companies hiring similar roles
19Countries represented

Salary context

59 of 279 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Data Engineer, PDS&T CMC · AbbVie $65,500/yr – $125,500/yr
Peer group range $95,500 – $339,950 (median $198,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 279 comparable roles

India102
United States79
France19
Spain18
United Kingdom11
Switzerland7

+ 13 more countries

Seniority mix

151 of 279 peers have a known seniority level

Senior53
Manager28
Associate Director20
Director15
Principal15
Executive/VP8
Associate8
Senior Director4

Therapeutic area mix

6 of 279 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Immunology3
Oncology2
Ophthalmology1

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The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

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Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

25%
Agentic AI Data Engineer - CMC Data Integration
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
25%
Executive Director of Applied AI
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
25%
Expert - Data Steward
Novartis · Hyderabad (Office), India · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
25%
AI Scientist – AI-Driven Target Identification
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.