Level

WPP

Senior Data Engineer

AI in this role

vertex-ai

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. 

We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. 
 
We work with the world's most valuable brands and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise.
 
Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow. 
 
For more information, visit WPP.com.
 

About Open Intelligence:

Open Intelligence (OI) is one of WPP’s most strategic bets — a data and AI initiative at the intersection of machine learning, advertising technology, and audience insight, built to power the next generation of media intelligence. OI operates at real scale, running across the US and UK and expanding rapidly across EMEA and APAC.

Our Copenhagen team has ~50 people, including 14+ data scientists and a strong engineering group. We’re flat, high-trust and fast-moving: strong opinions loosely held, teamwork over ego, aim high and have fun.

Why we're hiring:

Open Intelligence is accelerating the development of its core AI capabilities, and we are strengthening our applied-AI and engineering group in Copenhagen. We need a Senior Engineer who can bridge the gap between AI experimentation and production software engineering — taking cutting-edge model research, multimodal embeddings, and agentic tools, and turning them into scalable, robust, and well-architected components that power products across WPP globally.

We are looking for a Senior Engineer who cares about architecture and code quality as much as the AI. You write code others can build on, reason confidently about system design, and enjoy taking something experimental and making it robust. You hold a high bar but stay pragmatic — you ship incrementally and get value out early. 

We lean toward an engineering-minded profile, but a strongly technical data scientist or ML engineer with the same instincts is very welcome.

 

What you'll be doing:

  • Build and evolve the embedding spaces from off-the-shelf multimodal models.
  • Build the MCP server and the agent/UI on top of it.
  • Write high-quality, tested, well-architected code that others can build on.
  • Work closely with data scientists and engineers across OI, turning experimental work into robust components.
  • Contribute to technical direction and help raise the bar on design and quality. 

 

Who you'll be working with:

You’ll join a small, sharp team working at the embedding and applied-AI layer of OI. We work fluidly across a few closely-collaborating teams, so exact ownership flexes — but this is what the team is building right now: 

  • Embedding spaces — using off-the-shelf multimodal models (text, image, video) to build well-designed, well-distributed embedding spaces that serve several downstream use cases. Not models trained from scratch — carefully engineered spaces that make the rest of OI’s AI work.
  • An MCP server — the tool layer that exposes these capabilities to agents and applications.
  • A chat agent + UI on top — turning those capabilities into something people can use and be impressed by. 

It’s a team-centric setup: the team grows and delivers together, and the remit evolves as OI does. The work spans clean architecture, high-quality code, and applied AI.

 

What you'll need:

  • 5+ years in software or ML engineering, with a strong track record of well-designed, well-tested systems. 
  • Strong Python, and cloud experience (ideally GCP — Vertex AI, Cloud Run, BigQuery). 
  • Comfort with modern AI building blocks: embeddings and vector search, LLM tooling and agents (MCP a plus). 
  • Solid architecture and system-design instincts; clean, testable code as a default. 
  • A strong communicator who works well across engineering and data science. 

Success attributes 

  • You untangle ambiguity rather than being intimidated by it. 
  • Pragmatic perfectionist: high standards, incremental delivery. 
  • Low ego, high trust; you make the people around you better. 
  • Thrive in a fast-paced, flat, entrepreneurial environment. 

 

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

 

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

#LI-Hybrid 

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

Please read our Privacy Notice (https://www.wpp.com/en/careers/wpp-privacy-policy-for-recruitment) for more information on how we process the information you provide.

How we rate this

Senior Data Engineer at WPP rates 86 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Prepare for this job

A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Vertex AI

Questions you could be asked

  1. What's a project where you used Vertex AI hands-on?
  2. How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
  3. Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: Vertex AI. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them — a tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
  • Lead with what you built, trained or shipped — this role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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