JD Sports Fashion
Head of Data Engineering
Bury
Posted 28 days ago
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Head of Data Engineering
We are seeking a visionary, delivery-focused Head of Data Engineering to lead the transformation of JD’s enterprise data engineering capabilities. Reporting to the Group Director of Data & AI, you will shape a modern, scalable, and secure data estate that accelerates analytics, AI, and digital innovation across the Group.
This role is based out of our Bury office, with the expectation that the successful candidate will be in the office 4 days a week, leading a Data Engineering function of 15+ within the wider Data & AI organisation. You will:
- Shape strategic direction, capability, standards, and operational excellence of data engineering across the group
- Drive the evolution of our enterprise data engineering capabilities across cloud and legacy environments.
Your remit spans cloud platform engineering, pipeline automation, real-time data processing, curation, and enablement of business intelligence, data science, and AI teams. You will:
- Set the vision for the future of our data infrastructure, ensuring scalability, resilience, security, commercial impact, and alignment to the Group’s strategic objectives
- Manage a highly skilled team of data engineers
- Partner with senior stakeholders across technology and business functions to ensure our data foundation unlocks measurable value.
Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Vision
- Define and own the long-term data engineering strategy and roadmap, driving modernisation, standardisation, and cloud-first best practices
- Lead the migration from legacy data systems to modern, scalable cloud platforms, ensuring scalability and cost-optimised cloud services
- Identify new technologies, patterns, and methodologies (e.g., streaming, ML/AI enablement, data lineage, orchestration) to advance capabilities
- Champion engineering excellence, governance, data quality, and enterprise-grade reliability across all teams and pipelines
Leadership & People Development
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of data engineering professionals
- Set clear expectations, foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement
- Establish role pathways for professional growth, skills development plans, and a culture of adaptability and consistency
- Drive strong engineering culture, collaboration, and accountability across the team
- Manage team capacity, resourcing, and prioritisation to meet business demands effectively
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Platform & Engineering Delivery
- Oversee the design, build, and optimisation of cloud-based data pipelines, datasets, and infrastructure, supporting analytics, reporting, and AI products
- Ensure data engineering teams deliver reliable and efficient pipelines for ingestion, transformation, enrichment, and curation of large-scale data
- Establish and enforce engineering standards across CI/CD, version control, data modelling, documentation, observability, and code quality
- Ensure the creation of trusted, governed data models and consumption layers for downstream stakeholders
Stakeholder Collaboration & Influence
- Build trusted relationships with senior business leaders, functioning as a strategic partner to enable data-driven decision-making
- Work with senior stakeholders to align priorities with data engineering capabilities and ensure they enable commercial, operational, and strategic outcomes
- Partner closely with Data Science, BI, Product, Cloud Infrastructure, Security, and Architecture teams to deliver integrated and scalable solutions
- Communicate complex technical concepts clearly and frame engineering decisions in terms of business impact
Governance, Security & Compliance
- Ensure data platforms meet regulatory, security, and compliance requirements, including secure pipeline design, access control, and data lineage
- Embed strong governance practices across metadata, cataloguing, quality, and monitoring
- Define and maintain data engineering standards, documentation, and policies to ensure consistency, adherence, and long-term maintainability
Role Objectives & KPIs
- Deliver a scalable, modern, and cost-efficient enterprise data platform
- Reduce cloud spend and cost-to-serve through optimisation and engineering standards
- Improve the reliability, performance, and availability of mission-critical data pipelines
- Increase data quality, consistency, and usability across priority domains
- Strengthen engineering capability and maturity via talent development and best-practice standards
- Enhance productivity and engagement among Data Engineering teams
- Ensure on-time delivery of strategic data initiatives supporting analytics, AI, and digital transformation goals
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Skills and Experience
Essential
- Significant senior-level experience in Data Engineering leadership roles (e.g. Head, Director, or equivalent) within fast-paced, complex organisations
- At least five years’ experience managing and developing high-performing Data Engineering teams
- Deep expertise in cloud data engineering (particularly GCP), pipelines, orchestration, and distributed data processing
- Strong background in SQL, Python, CI/CD, and software engineering best practices
- Experience in designing and scaling data platforms, data models, and ingestion frameworks for both structured and unstructured data sources
- Understanding and experience with ML/AI enablement, data curation strategies, and metadata/lineage tooling
- Proven ability to drive organisational change, modernise technology stacks, and embed best practices
- Demonstrated ability to train, coach, and mentor technical teams, improving delivery excellence and capability
- Proficiency in simplifying complexity, ensuring technical rigor balances business value and cost efficiency
- Effective communicator able to connect with and influence senior stakeholders from diverse business and technology domains
- Provides authoritative guidance to drive successful partnerships
- Experience in large-scale, multi-brand, or global enterprises—retail experience is advantageous
- Demonstrated ability to learn and adopt new technologies, particularly emerging AI/ML capabilities
- Strategic leadership and strong people development skills
- Ability to foster disciplines in data-driven decision-making across the organisation
Benefits
We recognize our colleagues’ dedication in contributing to JD Sports’ success and as a result, we provide numerous benefits, including:
- Staff Discount on JD Group brands and partner brands
- Personal development opportunities at work to learn and grow
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Skills
Data Engineering
Cloud Platforms
Pipeline Automation
Real-Time Data Processing
Data Quality
SQL
Python
CI/CD
Software Engineering
Machine Learning
Data Curation
Stakeholder Management
Governance
Security
Compliance
Team Leadership
Location