Lead Data Engineer

This role will be based in National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) team. NDQIS is a national service for policing that uses rule based to improve the quality, consistency and comparability of police recorded crime data submitted to the Home Office.

As a Lead Data Engineer, you will be responsible for designing, delivering and supporting high-quality end-to-end data solutions that enable effective data-driven decision making. Working across the full delivery lifecycle, you will translate complex business requirements into robust, scalable and secure data pipelines, ensuring compliance with Home Office data quality, governance and security standards.

You will lead the design and implementation of complex data integrations and text analysis methodologies, ETL processes and automated workflows, bringing together information from multiple internal and external sources. Working closely with technical and business stakeholders, you will ensure solutions are reliable, resilient and aligned with organisational objectives.

You will shape and implement the data engineering vision and roadmap, promoting best practice, innovation and continuous improvement. Driving automation and championing data quality, you will ensure solutions remain maintainable, cost-effective and scalable. You will build strong relationships across technical and non-technical communities, influencing decision-making and ensuring services align with organisational priorities and user needs.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. Applicants can raise any queries to the email address at the bottom of the advert.

Watch this short video to hear from members of Home Office Digital talking about the projects they work on and their experience of working here: Working for Home Office Digital., Lead Data Engineers deliver the data engineering vision for the organisation as set by the Principal Data Engineer. As a Lead Data Engineer, you will focus on designing and implementing numerous complex data flows to connect operational systems, data for analytics and BI systems.

You will identify and deliver new data sources and develop ETL processes, collaborate with the Data Acquisition, Analytics and Infrastructure teams to deliver the data strategy through the design and implementation of technology systems.

You will lead the data management and data engineering services and analytical projects, working collaboratively with other teams to acquire and ingest new data sources. You will also work with the Principal Data Engineer, Data Architects, Database Administrators, Technical Architects, Solution Architects and Data Analytics team to set the enterprise data strategy and standards and agree implementation and governance., * Managing data sources to improve data quality and conform them for analysis, developing processes to balance data availability, capacity and data archiving, while continually improving processes and efficiency in the acquisition and ingestion of data.

• Developing, maintaining and supporting data workflows, pipelines, ETL processes and end-to-end data solutions covering requirements review, data profiling and source system analysis, design, coding, testing, deployment and documentation of complex and large-scale data products, while working collaboratively with the analytics team to ensure the reliability, usability and integrity of critical datasets.
• Exercising key stakeholder management skills in order to manage expectations, listen and interpret business needs, communicate progress and facilitate difficult conversations, while building a ‘service culture’ around data.
• Keeping abreast of best practice in industry and government, ensuring data solutions comply with data privacy and information security requirements, working closely with relevant specialists.
• Managing the performance of suppliers and the data engineering team to improve capability, as well as creating the roadmap which balances immediate user needs with long-term investment, evaluation and selection of software products to build data engineering capability, contributing to the re-platforming of data analytics systems and the refresh of tooling.
• Line management, coaching and professional development of the team, where required.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis. However, compressed hours are available., The allowance values are set by the Home Office, subject to remaining in a qualifying role. This allowance is non-contractual, subject to an annual review and could be withdrawn at any time.

For both new entrants and existing civil servants, the total compensation offer is a combination of base salary and, if applicable, a capability-based allowance. The pay ranges for this role are National: £62,732 - £69,006 and London: £66,732 - £73,406. New entrants to the Civil Service will start on the pay range minimum. For existing civil servants, our policies on level transfer and promotion will apply.

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes., * UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

• Effectively leading and managing teams, leading and delivering technical products and projects in data analysis, solution design and end user reporting.
• Translating natural-language data quality rules into automated, testable and documented pipeline logic, applying modern programming languages and data analysis techniques (particularly Python and related libraries, regex and NLP), alongside qualitative and quantitative analysis, API integration, and JSON/CSV manipulation.
• Advising and leading the use of best practice IT programming and automation techniques and tools e.g. Git, Github, CI/CD pipelines & Python based automation.
• Leading the use of Cloud Data technologies, solutions and future Cloud Data Strategies g. AWS, EC2, VPC, RDS, IAM, R53, Lambda, Cloudwatch, AD & Docker.
• Working with stakeholders to gather requirements and deliver findings, presenting complex ideas and recommendations that inform decisions in a clear way to technical and non-technical audiences and senior customers.
• Using tools such as industry standard ETL tools, network databases and scheduling and orchestration tools g. SQL, Linux, bash scripts, PostgreSQL, Apache Derby, AWS Glue & Step Functions.
• Familiarity with data visualisation tools (e.g. Power BI), and emerging tools such as LLMs.
• Data engineering in the context of AI, Machine Learning, or automation-enabled products or services.

SFIA capability framework

Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) version 8 is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all levels in the Home Office. This is a link to the capability framework: All skills A - Z English (sfia-online.org).

We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.

The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Use the SFIA Levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each technical skills listed below.

• Innovation (INOV) – Level 3
• Methods and Tools (METL) – Level 4
• Data Management (DATM) – Level 4
• Data Modelling and Design (DTAN) – Level 4
• Database Design (DBDS) – Level 3
• Data Engineering (DENG) – Level 4, We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Innovation (INOV) – Level 3
• Methods and Tools (METL) – Level 4
• Data Management (DATM) – Level 4
• Data Modelling and Design (DTAN) – Level 4
• Database Design (DBDS) – Level 3
• Data Engineering (DENG) – Level 4, This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills., Candidates reaching the required standard will then be invited to attend an interview. The interview will assess your Technical Skills (SFIA Framework) and Behaviours using technical and behaviour-based questions.

At the beginning of the interview, you will be required to deliver a presentation. The presentation topic will be provided prior to you 48 hours, as part of your invitation to interview before your interview.

If you are invited to an interview, you will be required to bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks. Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents., For meaningful security checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. Learn more on our website. Security Checks - Home Office Careers.

Please note that this role requires Security Check (SC) clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years.

However, in exceptional circumstances security clearance applications for candidates who have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years may be considered. Failure to meet this residency requirement will result in your security clearance application being rejected., We are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visas as we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License., Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

£62,732 New entrants to the Civil Service will start their role on the salary band minimum £62,732 for National roles or £66,732 for London roles. You may be eligible for an additional non-pensionable allowance, pending a Capability and Skills Assessment, with a value of up to £17,668. A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% GBP, Alongside your salary of £62,732, Home Office contributes £18,173 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

Why work for us…

Find out more information at: Benefits - Home Office Careers, but some of the primary ones are:

• A Civil Service Pension with employer contribution rates of at least 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.

• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.

• 8 days of public holidays, plus 1 additional privilege day.

• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office.