UCL
Principal Data Engineer

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About us
Information Services Division (ISD) is the primary provider of IT services to UCL. We support and enhance learning, teaching, research and administrative processes by providing information- and technology-related services to over 50,000 staff and students of UCL and associated institutions. Our ambition is to be the leading IT services group in the HE sector and we are growing our team's capability in experience/UX, agile development, security, cloud, service management and partnering.
We are modernising our technology foundations, digitising the processes of the university to transform experience for students and staff, and partnering across the university to drive differentiation in UCL education and research. IT Service and Operations manages the infrastructure and data platforms which underpin UCL's central IT services, including data centres, cloud compute and storage platforms, networks, telephony, communications and collaboration and enterprise applications. In addition, IT Service and Operations provides an End-to-end Service Management capability, ensuring UCL's IT services are relevant, responsive and resilient.
About the role
This is a fantastic opportunity to make a significant contribution at a Global University by joining UCL's Information Services Division (ISD) as a Principal Data Engineer. UCL's vision is to transform how the world is understood, how knowledge is created and shared, and the way that global problems are solved.
A carefully managed Data Asset is critical to UCL's vision. The Principal Data Engineer is the key Technical lead in the Data Enabling team and plays an essential role in designing, developing and implementing data flows and Integrations to connect operational systems, data for analytics and business intelligence (BI) systems.
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I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
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Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
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Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
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Working closely with the Platform Owner, architecture and other senior stakeholders to identify and implement solutions to numerous data flows that are strategically aligned.
About you
You will be experienced in Technically leading a Data Enabling / Transformation team in a matrix agile environment. Your track record will be to have delivered exceptional results by working with a wide range of stakeholders, coupled with experience in service management, user experience, and a healthy growth mindset.
You need to have previous in-depth industry knowledge and experience of implementing and supporting Data integration, flows and transformations both on-premise and ideally Cloud (FiveTran, AWS, Azure) in a large scale and complex organisation. You also understand the concepts and principles of data modelling and recognise opportunities for re-use and alignment between services and products.
Technically, you will also require good exposure across Fabric, Copilot studio, data engineering, advanced analytics using data science concepts, API integration, DevOps Ci/CD, data governance and quality.
It is essential that you have good interpersonal skills and are able to persuade and influence stakeholders. You will be skilful at facilitating and enabling team collaboration, have knowledge across both delivery and service and be able to manage conflicting priorities.


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What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:
- 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
- Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme
- Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
- Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
- Immigration loan
- Relocation scheme for certain posts
- On-Site nursery
- On-site gym
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
- Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
Discounted medical insurance Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.
We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people, and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.
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