Lead Data Engineer

About the role

The Lead Data Engineer will drive the design, development, and optimisation of cloud‑based data platforms that power analytics and business intelligence across Group Digital. This senior technical leader will set engineering standards, ensure data security and performance, and mentor a team of data engineers.

Key responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain scalable data lakes, data pipelines and cloud‑native data platforms on Google Cloud.
• Develop robust ETL/ELT processes using SQL and Python to integrate data from multiple sources.
• Optimise data models, storage architectures and processing frameworks for performance, reliability and cost efficiency.
• Establish and enforce coding standards, documentation, and data governance practices.
• Collaborate with BI, product, marketing and other stakeholders to translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Monitor data quality, integrity, security and compliance, implementing validation and governance controls.
• Troubleshoot complex platform issues to minimise business disruption.
• Mentor and guide data engineers, fostering knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, IT, Software Engineering or a related field; advanced degree or cloud certifications are a plus.
• Minimum 7 years of progressive experience in data engineering and enterprise‑scale data platform development.
• Proven track record designing and implementing cloud‑native data solutions, preferably on GCP.
• Experience leading technical initiatives and mentoring engineering teams.

Required skills

• SQL
• Python
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or equivalent cloud services
• ETL/ELT pipeline development
• Data modeling and architecture for data lakes/warehouses
• Cloud data engineering best practices