Quick Overview
Job Description
Lead Data Engineer
Location: Fully Remote (UK)
Salary: 75,000 - 85,000
Contract: Permanent, Full-Time
We're partnering with an established UK organisation to appoint a Lead Data Engineer as part of the continued development of its data engineering capability.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an experienced Data Engineer who wants genuine ownership of modern data engineering solutions. You'll play a key role in shaping technical direction, improving engineering standards and designing scalable data platforms and pipelines that support reporting, analytics and wider business requirements.
The role is genuinely hands-on, so we're looking for someone with strong commercial production experience across technologies including Databricks, Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Python and SQL.
You'll work closely with technical and non-technical stakeholders, provide technical leadership and mentoring to other engineers, and remain heavily involved in the technology and delivery.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design, development and optimisation of scalable data pipelines and cloud-based data platforms
- Take technical ownership of data engineering solutions and contribute to longer-term platform strategy
- Work hands-on with Databricks and Snowflake to build, optimise and maintain production data solutions
- Develop and maintain robust data transformation frameworks using dbt
- Design and manage data orchestration workflows using Apache Airflow, Azure Data Factory or similar
- Write, optimise and troubleshoot complex SQL, ensuring data solutions are efficient, reliable and scalable
- Drive improvements in data quality, performance, monitoring and engineering standards
- Make informed technical and architectural decisions around data platforms, pipelines and tooling
- Lead data engineering projects from initial requirements through to deployment and ongoing optimisation
- Provide technical leadership, mentoring and guidance to other Data Engineers
- Work closely with business and technical stakeholders to translate requirements into effective data solutions
- Identify opportunities to improve automation, scalability and the overall data engineering approach
Required Experience
- 5+ years' commercial experience within Data Engineering or a closely related role
- Proven experience providing technical leadership to Data Engineers within a modern data environment
- Strong, confident SQL skills, including writing, optimising and troubleshooting complex queries
- Strong Python skills for data engineering and production data pipelines
- Significant hands-on commercial experience with Databricks in a production environment
- Strong hands-on experience with dbt, including developing and maintaining transformation models and frameworks
- Proven experience with data orchestration tools such as Apache Airflow, Azure Data Factory or equivalent
- Strong experience with Snowflake, ideally alongside Databricks and dbt
- Strong understanding of modern ETL/ELT, data modelling, data warehousing and data quality principles
- Experience designing, building and maintaining scalable cloud-based data platforms and pipelines
- Experience contributing to data architecture and technical design decisions
- Strong understanding of Data Engineering best practice, with the ability to establish standards and improve existing approaches
- Experience working across a modern data stack including Databricks, Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Python and SQL
- Excellent problem-solving, communication and stakeholder management skills
What's on Offer
- Fully remote working within the UK
- 75,000 - 85,000 salary
- Comprehensive benefits package
- Genuine ownership of data engineering architecture and delivery
- Opportunity to influence technical direction and engineering standards
- Exposure to modern cloud technologies and complex data projects
- Flexible working environment
- Excellent opportunities for professional development and progression
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Lead Data Engineer who wants to combine hands-on engineering with genuine technical leadership. You'll have the opportunity to influence architecture, establish best practice and take real ownership of data engineering solutions while remaining close to the technology.