Master Data & Automation Specialist

We're Happy Socks - a fashion brand built on the idea that clothing (and work) should make you smile. We design and sell bold, colorful products through our own stores, our website, and wholesale partners across the globe. Behind the scenes, our tech team keeps that whole engine running smoothly, and product data is the fuel: get it right, and a sock goes from design sketch to a customer's doorstep without anyone lifting a finger to fix a sync error along the way.

We're hiring a Master Data & Automation Specialist to own that fuel line. This is a hands-on role: you're not writing tickets for someone else to build the fix, you're building it yourself - using tools like n8n, AI-assisted checks, and good old-fashioned data modeling - so that the data flowing between our PLM, ERP, PIM, EDI, and sales channels gets closer to "correct" on the first pass, every time.

Role Overview

You'll be the domain owner for master data at Happy Socks: how it's modeled, how it's governed, and how it flows between systems. You'll work closely with our Lead Developer, who owns the underlying systems and architecture - your job is to decide how master data should behave on top of that foundation, and then build the automation that makes it behave that way. That means you don't wait to be handed a broken process - if a manual workaround has quietly calcified into "how we've always done it" and it's costing hours every week, you're the one who notices, says so, and fixes it. You'll also stay the go-to person for Design, Buying, Production, Logistics, and Sales whenever data needs a human judgment call - the edge cases, the GS1 exceptions, the "this doesn't fit the rule" moments that no automation should quietly guess at.

Reporting to our Head of Tech, you'll have real ownership over how this role evolves - including the license to automate yourself out of the repetitive parts of the job.

Key Responsibilities

• Own master data quality, end to end. Be the point of accountability for product data accuracy and completeness as it moves from Design and Buying through PLM, ERP, and PIM, out to EDI and every sales channel (E-com, Wholesale, Retail, Marketplaces). That ownership covers the process itself, not just the output - a technically correct result produced by an eight-step manual dance is still a problem you own.

• Hunt down and simplify bloated processes. If a workflow has accumulated far more steps than it needs, or just takes too long to run, that's yours to sniff out and fix - not route around. Faster and simpler is the goal, not just "eventually correct."

• Build the automation, don't just request it. Replace manual, repetitive audits and checks with automated and AI-assisted validation that learns from historical correction patterns - you're writing the n8n workflows and light scripts yourself, not handing a spec to a developer.

• Design self-healing data flows. When sync errors or translation issues crop up, build detection and correction into the system rather than fixing the same class of error by hand every time. Reserve your own troubleshooting time for the genuinely novel failures.

• Stay the cross-functional gatekeeper. Work directly with Design, Buying, Production, Logistics, and Sales to enforce data standards and keep the human judgment calls - automation shouldn't be making the decision alone.

• Handle GS1 standards. Manage GTIN/EAN generation and partner compliance, automating the routine generation work and keeping human oversight on the edge cases.

• Participate in Agile Tech Operations. Join daily standups, triage the support board, and help prioritize master-data and integration issues.

• Contribute domain expertise to architecture decisions. You won't own enterprise architecture - that sits with our Lead Developer - but your read on how master data should work will shape it.

What You'll Bring

• 4+ years managing master data, data governance, or product data pipelines in retail or consumer goods.

• Hands-on experience with PLM, ERP, PIM, or EDI systems.

• Comfort configuring automation tools (e.g. n8n, Zapier, or similar) and prompting/tuning AI tools for practical, repeatable use - you don't need a software engineering background, but you do need to have actually built something, not just requested it.

• Strong data instincts: you can spot the pattern behind a mess of inconsistent SKUs and design a fix that prevents it from recurring, not just clean up the current batch.

• A low tolerance for bad process. You're bothered by a clunky workaround that's become "just how it's done" - and you take the initiative to flag it and fix it, rather than waiting to be asked.

• Working knowledge of GS1 standards (GTINs, EANs, barcodes) - or the ability to pick this up fast.

• Comfortable being the diplomatic-but-firm gatekeeper: someone non-technical teams trust to enforce a standard without feeling steamrolled.

• Advanced Excel/spreadsheet proficiency and general technical troubleshooting comfort.

• Fluency in English, our official business language.

Nice to Have

• Basic SQL or scripting experience.

• Prior exposure to n8n specifically, or a comparable workflow-automation platform (Make, Zapier, Power Automate).

• Experience with Agile ceremonies and ticketing tools like Asana.