Senior Web Scraping Specialist

Summary

Join our team as a highly skilled Web Scraping Specialist! You will design, implement, and maintain web scraping processes to gather data from various online sources. This crucial role involves collecting data for competitor analysis and other business intelligence purposes. You will lead and provide expertise in scraping e-commerce marketplaces at scale, identify relevant data sources, and develop effective web scraping strategies. Data extraction, cleansing, validation, monitoring, and maintenance are key responsibilities. Compliance with legal and ethical considerations is essential.

Requirements

• Have proven experience of 5+ years as a Web Scraping Specialist or similar role, with a track record of successful web scraping projects
• Have expertise in handling dynamic content, user-agent rotation, bypass CAPTCHAs, rate limits, and utilization of proxy services
• Have knowledge on browser fingerprinting
• Have leadership experience
• Be proficient in programming languages commonly used for web scraping, such as Python, BeautifulSoup, Scrapy, or Selenium
• Have strong knowledge of HTML, CSS, XPath, and other web technologies relevant to web scraping and Coding
• Have knowledge and experience in best of class data storage and retrieval of large volume of scraped data
• Understand web scraping best practices, including handling dynamic content, user-agent rotation, and IP address management
• Have attention to detail and the ability to handle and process large volumes of data accurately
• Be familiar with data cleansing techniques and data validation processes
• Have good communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams
• Have knowledge of web scraping ethics, legal considerations, and compliance with website terms of service
• Have strong problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to changing web environments

Responsibilities

• Lead and provide expertise in scraping at scale e-commerce marketplaces
• Identify relevant websites and online sources from which data needs to be scraped. Collaborate with the team to understand data requirements and objectives
• Develop and implement effective web scraping strategies to extract data from targeted websites. This includes selecting appropriate tools, libraries, or frameworks for the task
• Create and maintain web scraping scripts or programs to extract the required data. Ensure the code is optimized, reliable, and can handle changes in the website's structure
• Cleanse and validate the collected data to eliminate errors, inconsistencies, and duplicates. Ensure data integrity and accuracy throughout the process
• Continuously monitor and maintain the web scraping processes. Address any issues that arise due to website changes, data format modifications, or anti-scraping mechanisms
• Optimize web scraping procedures for efficiency and scalability, especially when dealing with a large volume of data or multiple data sources
• Stay up-to-date with legal and ethical considerations related to web scraping, including website terms of service, copyright, and privacy regulations
• Maintain detailed documentation of web scraping processes, data sources, and methodologies. Create clear and concise instructions for others to follow
• Collaborate with other teams such as data analysts, developers, and business stakeholders to understand data requirements and deliver insights effectively
• Implement security measures to ensure the confidentiality and protection of sensitive data throughout the scraping process

Preferred Qualifications

• Have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Technology, or related fields
• Have experience with cloud-based solutions and distributed web scraping systems
• Be familiar with APIs and data extraction from non-public sources
• Have knowledge of machine learning techniques for data extraction and natural language processing
• Have prior experience in handling large-scale data projects and working with big data frameworks
• Understand various data formats such as JSON, XML, CSV, etc
• Have experience with version control systems like Git