Principal Data Engineer

Principal Data Engineer Lead the design and delivery of a modern cloud-based data platform, driving engineering standards, architecture, and innovation across a growing data function.

The Opportunity This is a senior technical leadership role responsible for shaping data engineering strategy, architecture, and best practices across multiple product domains.

Working within a modern cloud environment and Data Mesh architecture, you will drive the development of scalable, secure, and high-performing data solutions while mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction.

Key Responsibilities Provide technical leadership across data engineering teams and product domains.<br />Define and implement data platform architecture, standards, and best practices.<br />Design and optimise data ingestion, transformation, quality, security, monitoring, and governance processes.<br />Lead the development of Data Mesh principles, data models, and semantic data layers.<br />Drive automation, CI/CD adoption, and continuous improvement initiatives.<br />Mentor and coach data engineers, promoting engineering excellence.<br />Ensure cross-domain interoperability, scalability, and compliance.<br />Collaborate with architects, platform engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver robust data solutions.About You Extensive experience in cloud-based data engineering and distributed systems.<br />Strong knowledge of Data Mesh, domain-driven design, and data product thinking.<br />Proven ability to lead teams and deliver complex data engineering initiatives.<br />Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.<br />Passionate about engineering quality, innovation, and mentoring others.Essential Skills &amp; Experience 10+ years' experience in Data Engineering.<br />Experience in a Lead or Principal Data Engineering role.<br />Strong cloud data platform expertise, including Google Cloud Platform (GCP).<br />Hands-on experience with BigQuery, Dataflow, Datastream, Data Fusion, Cloud Functions, Dataproc, and Airflow/Composer.<br />Advanced SQL and Python skills.<br />Expertise in data lakes, data warehouses, and modern data architectures.<br />Strong understanding of data governance, lineage, MDM, data privacy, and PII handling.<br />Experience optimising complex queries and large-scale data processing.<br />Proven mentoring, coaching, and leadership capability.<br />Experience working within Agile/Scrum environments and across the full software development lifecycle.This is an excellent opportunity for a senior data engineering leader to play a key role in the evolution of a modern cloud data platform, influencing architectural decisions and helping shape the future of a data-driven organisation.

Sponsorship is not available - applicants must have full right to work in the UK