Technical Lead - Data Engineering - 6 months | London, UK (Hybrid - 1-2 days/week in office)

Technical Lead - Data Engineering - 6 months | London, UK (Hybrid - 1-2 days/week in office)

We're recruiting for 2x Technical Leads - Data Engineering to drive enterprise data platform strategy for a leading UK retail organisation. This role combines deep technical expertise with leadership responsibilities, leading the design, development, and delivery of modern data solutions using Snowflake, DBT, Airflow, Python, and Azure/AWS - guiding engineering teams, defining best practices, and ensuring successful delivery of scalable, secure, high-performing data platforms.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure data platforms using Snowflake, DBT, Airflow, Python, and Azure/AWS services
• Define technical architecture, coding standards, engineering best practices, and development frameworks for the data engineering team
• Drive adoption of CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar) to automate build, test, deployment, and release management
• Lead development, optimisation, and maintenance of complex ETL/ELT pipelines for large-scale data processing
• Establish DevOps and DataOps practices to improve deployment efficiency, reliability, and operational excellence
• Mentor and coach data engineers through technical guidance, code reviews, architecture reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions
• Collaborate with enterprise architects and business stakeholders to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions

What You Will Ideally Bring:

• Proven experience as a Technical Lead, Lead Data Engineer, or similar leadership role
• Experience leading distributed development teams and delivering large-scale data engineering projects
• Strong stakeholder management and technical decision-making capabilities
• Expert-level Python for data engineering, automation, orchestration, and application development
• Strong experience developing scalable ETL/ELT frameworks using Python and SQL
• Hands-on experience with DBT, Airflow, Snowflake, and cloud-native data services
• Strong experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, or similar)
• Experience with automated testing, code quality checks, release management, and deployment automation
• Extensive experience designing cloud-based data solutions on Azure and/or AWS
• Strong knowledge of cloud security, networking, monitoring, and operational best practices
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and Terragrunt
• Expertise in Data Vault, dimensional modelling, data warehousing, and modern data platform architectures

Contract Details:

• Duration: 6 months (with potential extension)
• Day Rate: £500-525 per day
• Location: London (2 days onsite per week)
• Start Date: ASAP

• Proven experience as a Technical Lead, Lead Data Engineer, or similar leadership role
• Experience leading distributed development teams and delivering large-scale data engineering projects
• Strong stakeholder management and technical decision-making capabilities
• Expert-level Python for data engineering, automation, orchestration, and application development
• Strong experience developing scalable ETL/ELT frameworks using Python and SQL
• Hands-on experience with DBT, Airflow, Snowflake, and cloud-native data services
• Strong experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, or similar)
• Experience with automated testing, code quality checks, release management, and deployment automation
• Extensive experience designing cloud-based data solutions on Azure and/or AWS
• Strong knowledge of cloud security, networking, monitoring, and operational best practices
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and Terragrunt
• Expertise in Data Vault, dimensional modelling, data warehousing, and modern data platform architectures