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Lead Data Engineer
Hybrid: Leeds / London / Sheffield / SC Cleared or SC Eligible Required
Job Summary
This is a senior technical leadership role at the heart of one of the most significant data transformation programmes in UK government. You will join a strategic engagement delivering a cloud-native data lakehouse on Microsoft Azure Fabric, supporting data-driven decision making for over 22 million citizens.
As a Lead Data Engineer (internally Manager-grade), you will provide technical leadership across the data engineering function, setting engineering standards, defining design patterns, and ensuring the successful delivery of complex Azure Fabric data solutions. You will act as the bridge between Architecture and Engineering teams, leading engineers through delivery while maintaining quality, governance, and operational excellence.
You will play a key role through private beta, public beta, and full platform operationalisation, helping establish a scalable and sustainable data engineering capability.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and mentor a team of Data Engineers, establishing engineering standards, coding practices, and delivery quality across the Azure Fabric platform.
- Design, build, and oversee the delivery of complex, high-volume data pipelines using Microsoft Fabric (Data Factory, Dataflows Gen2, Fabric Notebooks) and Azure Data Factory.
- Own the design and implementation of Silver and Gold lakehouse layers using Delta Lake, OneLake, Apache Spark, and Fabric-native capabilities.
- Define and implement data transformation frameworks using PySpark, Python, SQL, and Fabric Notebooks, ensuring scalability, performance, and maintainability.
- Drive data governance, metadata management, lineage, and data quality standards using Microsoft Purview.
- Conduct architecture reviews, code reviews, and engineering assurance activities across the programme.
- Collaborate closely with Technical Architects, Infrastructure Engineers, DevOps teams, and Delivery Leads to support CI/CD automation and platform maturity.
- Represent Data Engineering in governance forums, including Digital Design Authority reviews, security assessments, and programme assurance activities.
- Support knowledge transfer, documentation, and capability building activities to enable long-term client ownership and operational support.
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Essential Requirements
- Extensive experience delivering large-scale Data Engineering solutions on Microsoft Azure.
- Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric, including:
- Lakehouses
- Data Pipelines
- Dataflows Gen2
- Fabric Notebooks
- OneLake architecture
- Strong experience designing and delivering data lakehouse solutions using Delta Lake, Apache Spark, and Medallion (Bronze/Silver/Gold) architecture.
- Expert-level proficiency in PySpark, Python, and SQL for large-scale data transformation and engineering.
- Strong experience with Azure Data Factory for orchestration and complex data integration patterns.
- Strong experience with Microsoft Purview for governance, cataloguing, lineage, and data quality management.
- Strong experience with Azure DevOps, Git-based source control, CI/CD pipelines, and engineering best practices.
- Experience leading Data Engineering teams and mentoring engineers across multiple levels.
- Strong understanding of Azure data security, including RBAC, Managed Identities, and Key Vault integration.
- Ability to operate effectively in complex stakeholder environments and provide technical leadership across programme teams.
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Nice to Have Skills
- Experience leading teams within multi-supplier public sector delivery programmes.
- Experience migrating Azure Synapse Analytics workloads to Microsoft Fabric.
- Experience with Databricks or equivalent distributed data processing platforms.
- Knowledge of real-time and streaming data solutions using Azure Event Hubs or Fabric Real-Time Analytics.
- Experience working within UK Government environments handling OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE data.
- Understanding of DDaT frameworks, GDS standards, and government assurance processes.
- Existing SC Clearance.
Leadership Competencies
- Proven technical leadership and decision-making capability.
- Ability to establish and uphold engineering standards across teams.
- Strong coaching and mentoring approach with a focus on capability development.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Commitment to knowledge sharing, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Qualifications
- Degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience).
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate (DP-203) – strongly preferred.
- Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (DP-600) – desirable.
- Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) – desirable.
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