Lead Data Engineer

The Role

As a Lead Data Engineer, you will play a key role in building and enhancing a secure, scalable data platform for a high-profile government programme. You will work with both batch and real-time data, leveraging modern cloud technologies and frameworks.

This role involves ingesting data from multiple sources, transforming it into the correct formats, ensuring alignment with defined data models and enabling reliable access for downstream users.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test and document data pipelines aligned to business requirements
• Perform logical and physical database design
• Enhance data platform capabilities to address evolving data and analytics challenges
• Analyse data workflows and identify opportunities for optimisation and improvement
• Ensure consistency between data models and overall architecture, including entity definitions and relationships
• Conduct root cause analysis on data issues to support business decision-making and continuous improvement

Skills and Experience

Essential

• Experience building data pipelines using modern data processing frameworks
• Familiarity with Agile or rapid application development methodologies
• Strong understanding of data modelling and different data structures, including when to apply them
• Hands-on experience with public cloud platforms, ideally including services such as compute, storage, serverless and data processing tools
• Experience configuring and tuning relational and NoSQL databases, including query optimisation
• Proficiency in programming or scripting languages such as Python
• Experience working with Test Driven Development practices and supporting tools

Desirable

• Familiarity with CI tools such as Jenkins or Drone
• Knowledge of configuration management tools such as Ansible or Packer
• Experience using Infrastructure as Code tools, for example Terraform
• Working knowledge of Linux and Windows environments

Ways of Working

The organisation promotes a collaborative and delivery-focused culture. Team members are encouraged to take ownership, experiment, solve complex problems and support each other in achieving shared goals. Open, timely communication and accountability are key values.