Lead Data Engineer

This role is for a senior, hands-on data engineer whose day-to-day work revolves around designing, building and scaling production-grade data platforms in the cloud, not just writing ad hoc pipelines or maintaining legacy systems.

If you've spent years turning raw, messy data into something reliable, performant and genuinely useful and you want more influence over how platforms are built, not just tickets you're given, keep reading.

The role

This business is investing heavily in its data engineering capability to support growth across the UK, Europe and beyond. That means:

Large, complex, real-world datasets Senior stakeholders who actually use the outputs A need for robust, scalable cloud-based data platforms, not proofs of concept

As the Lead Data Engineer, you'll be the technical lead for the data engineering function: shaping standards, architecture and delivery while remaining deeply hands-on.

This is not a "step away from code" role: you are the lead developer.

What you'll be doing

Your focus will be on designing, building and owning cloud-native data engineering solutions, including:

Leading the development of an enterprise-scale databricks platform using modern data engineering tools and frameworks Building ingestion, transformation and validation pipelines across cloud data sources, APIs and operational systems Translating data architecture into executable build plans alongside the Data Architect Optimising data pipelines and processing workloads for performance, reliability and cost Embedding data quality, validation and monitoring throughout the platform Operating within a CI/CD-driven engineering environment, including version control, automated deployment and infrastructure as code Working with cloud services across Azure (you'll need to have experience with Azure, AWS or GCP) Coaching and technically leading a small team of Data Engineers

You'll work closely with product owners, analysts and senior business stakeholders, turning data into insight that genuinely influences decisions.

You must bring strong, commercial data engineering experience, including: Hands-on experience building and operating cloud-based data platforms in production Strong programming skills (Python, SQL and/or Spark-based frameworks) ETL / ELT pipeline design at scale Experience with modern data orchestration and workflow tools Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform or similar) CI/CD practices and DevOps-style delivery Experience working in regulated or complex environments is a bonus, not a blocker, Data engineering is core to the business, not an afterthought You influence architecture, standards and tooling You're trusted to make technical decisions You still write code, a lot of it The platform is being built for the long term, not rushed out Private healthcare for you and your family Company pension scheme Flexible benefits (gym membership, tech, health assessments and more) Access to an online wellbeing centre Discounts with a wide range of retailers 25 days' holiday plus bank holidays, increasing with service, with buy/sell options Electric Vehicle / Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle scheme

We're a global organisation operating in nine countries, supporting over 9,000 SMEs worldwide. Following the completion of a 1bn securitisation deal, we're increasing our lending to UK businesses at a time when support really matters and this role plays a vital part in making that happen. If data engineering is already at the heart of what you do and you want a role where your technical judgement actually matters, this is worth a conversation.