Head of Data & AI

This is a hands-on build role, not a strategy-and-oversight one. Our client is investing in a modern data platform on Microsoft Azure Fabric, and they need someone who wants to still be in the tooling: designing, building and writing pipelines personally, not just directing others.

You’ll take ownership of the data function end to end: ingestion, lakehouse/warehouse, through to analytics and AI-ready data, using the full Fabric toolset (Data Factory, OneLake, Lakehouse/Warehouse, Notebooks, Power BI Direct Lake). You’ll report directly to the CIO and inherit an existing data engineer as your first direct report, with scope to grow the team as the platform matures.

What you’ll be doing:

?Designing and building a modern data platform in Azure Fabric, from ingestion through to a governed lakehouse/warehouse and on to analytics and AI enablement

?Implementing medallion architecture (bronze/silver/gold) as the core data model

?Setting technical direction as the senior technical owner of the data function

?Working closely with the CIO and business stakeholders to translate requirements into a scalable, governed platform

?Enabling downstream analytics and AI/ML use cases as the platform matures

?Leading and growing a small data engineering team over time

?Proven hands-on experience building modern cloud data platforms end to end; ingestion through to analytics/AI consumption, not just overseeing others doing it

?Strong Azure data engineering background: Data Factory, Synapse and/or Fabric, with solid SQL and pipeline/ETL-ELT fundamentals

?Direct experience implementing medallion or equivalent layered lakehouse architecture

?Comfortable being the most senior technical person in the room while still writing pipelines and making architectural decisions personally

?Some experience leading, mentoring or growing a data engineering team

?Strong stakeholder communication; confident with both technical and non-technical audiences

Nice to have:

?Production experience specifically in Microsoft Fabric

?Power BI, particularly Direct Lake mode

?Python/PySpark

?Data governance or security experience

?Experience enabling AI/ML workloads from a data platform, not just BI