Staff Data Engineer | Contract | Up to £1,300/day | Inside IR35

Staff Data Engineer | Contract | Up to £1,300/day | Inside IR35 Location: Hybrid – London (3 days per week on-site)<br />Rate: Up to £1,300/day<br />Contract: Initial 6 months<br />IR35:

Inside IR35 We’re supporting a major UK financial services organisation through a significant programme of data engineering modernisation and transformation.

We’re looking for a genuinely Staff-level Data Engineer who combines deep hands-on engineering capability with the technical leadership to challenge existing approaches, shape solutions and raise engineering standards across multiple teams. This is not a hands-off architecture role.

You’ll be expected to shape the thinking, design the solution and get into the code to prove and deliver it.

The role You’ll work across a major modernisation of the organisation’s data estate, including the transformation and migration of large-scale data pipelines, development of new data products and adoption of modern, AI-assisted engineering practices. Responsibilities will include:

Providing Staff-level technical leadership across complex data engineering initiatives<br />Remaining deeply hands-on with Python, PySpark and Spark<br />Modernising and migrating large-scale data pipelines across AWS<br />Designing and challenging approaches across AWS Glue, Airflow and associated technologies<br />Shaping scalable data architectures, frameworks and engineering patterns<br />Supporting the development of new data products and reusable capabilities<br />Championing AI-assisted development to improve engineering quality and delivery speed<br />Raising engineering standards and capability across multiple teamsWhat we're looking for<br />Deep hands-on Python/PySpark and Apache Spark expertise<br />Strong AWS data engineering, particularly AWS Glue<br />Strong Apache Airflow experience<br />Experience delivering complex data transformation or modernisation programmes<br />Strong software engineering fundamentals<br />Experience operating at Staff, Principal or Senior Lead Engineer level<br />Ability to independently challenge thinking and shape technical solutions<br />Genuine desire to remain hands-on with code<br />Experience incorporating AI-assisted development tools into engineering workflows<br />Snowflake experience would be beneficialThe sweet spot is someone who can operate across both technical strategy and hands-on delivery — setting the engineering direction while still being capable of building and proving the solution