Lead Data Engineer
6 days ago
Bristol
Lead Data Engineer | Senior Manager Up to £85,000 | Plus credible benefits Location | Bristol, UK | Hybrid with on-site requirements We're recruiting on behalf of a leading strategy, operations and digital consultancy dedicated to driving the performance of their clients. This is a people-first business that prides itself on genuine delivery, not just strategy decks, but hands-on implementation that creates lasting value. This is a standout leadership opportunity for an experienced Lead Data Engineer who wants to own technical direction, lead multi-disciplinary teams, and work across client delivery, internal product development, and cutting-edge data platform challenges. What You'll Be Doing • Providing technical leadership across multiple client engagements and internal product initiatives, setting direction and assuring quality for all data engineering deliverables, • Leading the architecture and design of scalable, secure, and cost-effective data platforms and pipelines, batch, streaming, API, event-driven, and unstructured, • Owning end-to-end delivery governance for data engineering workstreams, including planning, estimating, budgeting, mobilisation, and RAID management, • Defining and enforcing data engineering standards covering coding, testing, CI/CD, observability, and documentation — including design and code reviews, • Partnering with client stakeholders to understand their data maturity, information governance requirements, and security constraints, translating those into robust roadmaps and delivery plans, • Leading multi-disciplinary teams (data engineers, platform engineers, analysts, and data scientists) in an Agile delivery model (Discovery – Alpha – Beta – Live) aligned to GDS/DDAT standards, • Driving platform reliability and performance, including monitoring, alerting, and incident response, • Getting hands-on when it counts - complex pipeline development, optimisation, troubleshooting, and secure integration design, • Coaching and mentoring data engineering practitioners and building communities of practice and reusable assets, • Supporting business development activity including shaping proposals, thought leadership, and capability planning, • Providing people leadership to direct reports, including objective setting, performance reviews, and development planning What We're Looking For • Demonstrable expertise in data engineering, including designing and building robust pipelines for streamed, batched, and on-demand data sources, • Must-have: hands-on experience with Databricks and Delta Lake, • Cloud platform expertise - Azure-centric, with strong knowledge of Azure Data Factory and related Azure data services, • Strong SQL and data modelling skills, • Solid understanding of API-based integrations and SaaS platform connectivity, • Proven experience leading complex data engineering workstreams end-to-end — planning, governance, risk management, and delivery assurance, • Demonstrable leadership experience, including line management and coaching of data engineering practitioners and multi-disciplinary teams, • Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences at senior levels, • A growth mindset and genuine intellectual curiosity — energised by challenge and continuous learning, • Must be eligible for UK Security Clearance (SC level) Why This Role? ✔️ Lead data engineering delivery across a genuinely varied, complex portfolio ✔️ Contribute to both client delivery and internal proprietary platform development ✔️ Join a team of subject matter experts in a people-first culture ✔️ Real career progression with direct exposure to senior leadership ✔️ Hybrid working with flexibility across home, office, and client sites If you're a Lead Data Engineer with a passion for technical leadership and client-side delivery, please don't hesitate to apply! Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications, not all applicants will receive feedback