Principal Data Engineer

Principal Data Engineer

Lead the design and delivery of a modern cloud-based data platform, driving engineering standards, architecture, and innovation across a growing data function.

The Opportunity

This is a senior technical leadership role responsible for shaping data engineering strategy, architecture, and best practices across multiple product domains. Working within a modern cloud environment and Data Mesh architecture, you will drive the development of scalable, secure, and high-performing data solutions while mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across data engineering teams and product domains.
• Define and implement data platform architecture, standards, and best practices.
• Design and optimise data ingestion, transformation, quality, security, monitoring, and governance processes.
• Lead the development of Data Mesh principles, data models, and semantic data layers.
• Drive automation, CI/CD adoption, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Mentor and coach data engineers, promoting engineering excellence.
• Ensure cross-domain interoperability, scalability, and compliance.
• Collaborate with architects, platform engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver robust data solutions.

About You

• Extensive experience in cloud-based data engineering and distributed systems.
• Strong knowledge of Data Mesh, domain-driven design, and data product thinking.
• Proven ability to lead teams and deliver complex data engineering initiatives.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Passionate about engineering quality, innovation, and mentoring others.

Essential Skills & Experience

• 10+ years' experience in Data Engineering.
• Experience in a Lead or Principal Data Engineering role.
• Strong cloud data platform expertise, including Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Hands-on experience with BigQuery, Dataflow, Datastream, Data Fusion, Cloud Functions, Dataproc, and Airflow/Composer.
• Advanced SQL and Python skills.
• Expertise in data lakes, data warehouses, and modern data architectures.
• Strong understanding of data governance, lineage, MDM, data privacy, and PII handling.
• Experience optimising complex queries and large-scale data processing.
• Proven mentoring, coaching, and leadership capability.
• Experience working within Agile/Scrum environments and across the full software development lifecycle.

This is an excellent opportunity for a senior data engineering leader to play a key role in the evolution of a modern cloud data platform, influencing architectural decisions and helping shape the future of a data-driven organisation.

Sponsorship is not available - applicants must have full right to work in the UK