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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Head of Data - **Company:** Club L London - **Location:** Stretford, UK - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** £77,846.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Airflow, Data Analysis, BigQuery, Cloud Database, Continuous Integration, Data Governance, Data Infrastructure, Database Queries, Database Testing, Entity Framework, MongoDB, NoSQL, Power BI, DataOps, Shopify, SQL Databases, Workflow Management Systems, Scripting, Application Enhancement Tool, Data Strategy, Git, Data Layers, Git Flow, Data Analytics, Data Delivery, Software Version Control, Database Tools and Utilities - **Published:** August 27, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.adzuna.co.uk/jobs/details/5857188538 ## About the Role * 5+ years in data and analytics, with several years leading or building data teams, ideally within retail, e-commerce, or high-traffic digital environments. * Proven data leadership - setting strategy, owning a platform, and growing team capability - while remaining technically credible and hands-on when needed. * Strong SQL skills, with a track record of modular, well-structured transformations. * Deep experience with dbt (models, tests, documentation, packages, incremental materialisation, and the semantic layer). * Experience with BigQuery or other cloud data warehouses, including performance and cost optimisation. * Strong grasp of data modelling techniques (dimensional modelling, star schemas, wide analytics tables). * Solid understanding of Git-based workflows and CI/CD for analytics code. * Experience with BI tools (Power BI preferred) and how governed data models serve downstream reporting. * Familiarity with orchestration tools (Airflow, Prefect, or Dagster) and event-driven pipeline patterns. * A genuine interest in mentoring and coaching, and building analytics engineering practice across a team. * Comfortable working cross-functionally with analysts, developers, and senior business stakeholders. Nice To Have * Awareness of how AI and LLM-based tools interact with structured data and semantic layers, and experience enabling natural-language query tools. * Experience with Python for data utilities, scripting, or lightweight services. * Experience with MongoDB or other NoSQL sources as upstream inputs. * Exposure to data observability platforms. * Experience across multi-brand, multi-market, or multi-entity data estates. * Familiarity with the wider GCP ecosystem and modern e-commerce data sources (e.g. Shopify, marketing, and CDP platforms). * Experience owning data governance and privacy in a regulated (UK GDPR) context. ## Description We are looking for a Head of Data to own our data strategy, platform, and team, and to turn our data estate into trusted, self-serve insight that powers decisions across the business. Reporting to the CTO and partnering closely with the development team, you'll lead the Data function - currently our Analytics Engineer and Data Analysts - and own everything that happens once data lands in the warehouse: transforming, modelling, testing, documenting, and serving it as governed, reliable datasets. This is a hands-on-when-it-counts leadership role. You'll set the direction for our modern data stack (BigQuery, dbt, and a governed semantic layer), raise the bar on data quality and governance, and structure the platform so both people and AI-powered tools can self-serve trusted answers at scale. You'll grow the team's capability, own the relationship with data stakeholders across the business, and make data a dependable foundation for reporting, analytics, and merchandising intelligence., Data Strategy & Leadership * Own and evolve the data strategy, roadmap, and operating model, aligning it with commercial and technology priorities. * Lead the Data function, setting direction, standards, and priorities across analytics engineering and analysis. * Own the data budget, tooling estate, and vendor relationships, driving value and consolidation. * Report on data delivery, adoption, and impact to the CTO and wider leadership. Data Platform & Engineering * Own the transformation and semantic layers of the data stack, directing the design and maintenance of dbt models across staging, intermediate, and mart layers within BigQuery. * Define and govern a dbt Semantic Layer - a single source of truth for core metrics (revenue, churn, LTV, and more) consumed consistently across BI tools and AI assistants. * Manage the data platform as code - Git-based version control, CI/CD pipelines, environment management, and pull-request workflows. * Optimise BigQuery for performance and cost through incremental models, partitioning, clustering, and efficient materialisation strategies. * Partner with the development team, who own extraction and loading, to evolve pipelines from schedule-based to event-driven orchestration, so transformations run when upstream data is ready. Analytics, BI & Insight * Ensure the business has clean, governed, well-modelled datasets powering Power BI dashboards and self-serve analytics. * Establish consistent, trusted metric definitions so reporting is reliable and comparable across teams. * Direct the Data Analysts in delivering high-value analysis and insight, from trading and merchandising through to marketing and operations. * Champion a self-serve culture, reducing reliance on ad-hoc requests and putting trusted data in the hands of decision-makers. Data Quality, Governance & Documentation * Implement robust data testing and quality frameworks using dbt tests, custom assertions, and automated alerting to catch issues before they reach stakeholders. * Own comprehensive documentation and lineage, ensuring every model, column, and metric is described, discoverable, and traceable back to source. * Establish data contracts with upstream teams, aligning on schema changes, source-system updates, and clean handoffs. * Own data governance, access, and compliance for the estate, working with security and privacy stakeholders as needed. AI-Powered & Advanced Analytics * Structure the semantic layer so AI and LLM-based tools can reliably translate natural-language questions into correct, governed queries. * Support the adoption of AI-powered analytics and natural-language query tools, safely and with the right guardrails. * Identify and lead advanced analytics opportunities - forecasting, segmentation, and merchandising intelligence - that drive commercial value. Team Leadership & Capability Building * Lead, mentor, and grow the Data team, building a culture of analytics engineering across analysts and engineers. * Upskill the team in dbt, SQL best practice, data modelling, and Git-based workflows. * Own resourcing, hiring, objectives, and development, and grow the next layer of data talent. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Management * Work closely with the development team on data contracts, schema changes, and orchestration. * Partner with e-commerce, merchandising, marketing, finance, and operations to understand needs and deliver data that moves the business. * Communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences, translating data into decisions. ## Related Videos - [From Messy Queries to Scalable Systems - How Data Engineering actually works](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100203-from-messy-queries-to-scalable-systems-how-data-engineering-actually-works) - [Data Science in Retail](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/586-data-science-in-retail) - [Leveraging Real time data in FSIs](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/806-leveraging-real-time-data-in-fsis) - [How a Small Team Shrank a Microsoft Monorepo by 94%](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1236-how-a-small-team-shrank-a-microsoft-monorepo-by-94) - [Enjoying SQL data pipelines with dbt](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/823-enjoying-sql-data-pipelines-with-dbt) - [AI Model Management Life Circles: ML Ops For Generative AI Models From Research to Deployment](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1152-ai-model-management-life-circles-ml-ops-for-generative-ai-models-from-research-to-deployment) ## Related Articles - [Data Engineer Salary UK](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/253-data-engineer-salary-uk) - [Data Analyst Salary in the UK](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/278-data-analyst-salary-in-the-uk) - [Making Data Warehouses Fast: A Developer’s Story](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/107-making-data-warehouses-fast-a-developer-s-story) - [Coffee with Developers - Maria Apazoglou - Making AI understandable for all in production](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/475-coffee-with-developers-maria-apazoglou-making-ai-understandable-for-all-in-production) - [Graph and AI Trends 2026: Why Is AI Running but Not Yet Delivering?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/680-graph-and-ai-trends-2026-why-is-ai-running-but-not-yet-delivering) - [Best Companies to work for in London: Top 25 Companies in 2023](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/187-best-companies-to-work-for-in-london-top-25-companies-in-2023)