Head of Data Engineering

Head of Data Engineering

Our long-standing financial services client is seeking a Head of Data Engineering to lead a high-performing team responsible for delivering a complex data transformation.

Looking for a true greenfield challenge? This is your chance to shape a transformation from the ground up, build cutting-edge data solutions, and lead a high-performing team that’s driving change across the business.

To succeed in this role, you’ll bring hands-on experience owning and delivering Azure-based data platforms (Databricks, Synapse), alongside strong technical capability in designing and implementing data ingestion pipelines (ETL/ELT) and introducing event-driven architectures (Kafka) to support scalable, real-time solutions.

Our client offers a competitive salary of £120,000–£140,000, plus 40% bonus, 40% LTIP, £7.5k car allowance, and a comprehensive benefits package. The role is hybrid, based in Wolverhampton or Chatham.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing Data Engineering team, setting the vision, priorities, and best practices.
• Oversee the design, build, and optimisation of data ingestion, processing, and storage pipelines.
• Embed strong governance, documentation, and lifecycle management standards across the function.
• Partner with IT, architecture, and business stakeholders to ensure secure, scalable cloud configurations.
• Champion innovation, exploring new tools, technologies, and approaches to enhance capability and efficiency.

Core Requirements

• Proven leadership experience managing a Data Engineering function of ~40 engineers (SQL and Azure).
• Recent, hands-on experience implementing event-driven architecture using Kafka (essential).
• Extensive background in regulated industries (finance or banking preferred).
• Strong experience in large-scale data engineering projects, designing and developing ETL pipelines and leading cloud migration initiatives.
• Expertise in data migration from SQL Server to Azure Cloud Services.