Data Engineering Technical Lead

Job Description

Data Engineering Technical Lead needed for a large, well established UK business in Manchester that is investing heavily in its data platform. You will be the person who decides how data engineering is done here, and who makes sure it is done that way.

This is a senior role with no line management. It sits between the architects, who set the direction, and the engineers, who do the build. You take the architecture and turn it into working practice: the rules, the templates and the clearly scoped pieces of work an engineering team can deliver against. Then you check that what comes back is right.

What you’ll be doing

• Owning the engineering standards for the data platform, from first design through to release and support
• Signing off designs and delivered work against the architecture
• Shaping the integrations between the main business systems and the platform, and the approach each one should follow
• Running the release process for data code, so every change is assessed, traceable and ready to be supported
• Taking the technical lead on incidents and recurring problems, then changing the standards so they don’t repeat
• Cutting out duplicated effort and one-off builds that make the platform harder to run
• Advising people across the business on what the platform can do, what it can’t, and where the risks are
• Picking up the hardest engineering yourself when it matters

What you’ll bring

• Senior data engineering or data platform experience in a large or complex organisation
• Hands-on Microsoft Fabric or Databricks experience, backed by strong SQL and Python
• Experience turning architecture into standards and work that engineers can follow
• A sound grasp of version control, automated deployment and controlled release for data
• Experience directing a third-party or offshore engineering team
• Awareness of what keeps a data platform secure, auditable and resilient
• The presence to explain a technical decision to a senior non-technical audience

Nice to have

• Wider Azure data tooling, such as Data Factory or Synapse
• Lakehouse design or a warehouse modernisation
• Time spent in professional services or consulting

If you’re already the technical lead on a data platform, or you’re the engineer everyone else’s designs get run past, I’d like to hear from you. Apply here or message me directly.