Lead Data Engineer

Intellectual Property Office UK
Newport
3 days ago
Create job alert
Apply before 11:55pm on Monday 30th March 2026

The IPO is a modern organisation which depends on its IT services to operate and innovate effectively. To provide up to date services to our customers both nationally and internationally systems need to be developed, improved and maintained.


You will work within a multi-disciplined team using several technologies to build enterprise grade services as well as mentoring and coaching team members. You will be expected to be proactive and take accountability for the teams assigned deliverables. The role will also require the investigation, diagnosis and fix of any system issues.


A Lead Data Engineer is expected to contribute to the technical strategy for the department. Formal line management duties also form the key duties of this role.



  • Inspire best practice for data engineering products and services within your teams and across the organisation.
  • Lead the further development of data engineering capability by providing technical leadership and career development for your teams and across the organisation.
  • Work with other senior team members to advise on, identify, plan, develop and deliver data engineering services.
  • Work with Data Architects to help define Data Models, Structures and Solutions for complex systems.

Working Style

This role will be carried out in line with IPO Hybrid working arrangements where staff are currently expected to spend at least 20% of their time working onsite from one of our offices. This role is based in our Newport Office.


The requirement for attendance at an office location can vary by role so we would encourage candidates to discuss working arrangements with the recruiting manager to agree a reasonable balance between working from home and the office.


Main duties consist of but are not limited to:

A Lead Data Engineer is expected to contribute to the technical strategy for the department. Formal line management duties also form the key duties of this role.


A Lead Data Engineer leads the data engineering team to deliver robust data engineering services for the IPO. At this level, you will:



  • Inspire best practice for data engineering products and services within your teams and across the organisation.
  • Lead the further development of data engineering capability by providing technical leadership and career development for your teams and across the organisation.
  • Work with other senior team members to advise on, identify, plan, develop and deliver data engineering services.
  • Supporting the large-scale programmes of work, leading on providing guidance and assurance for data engineering work delivered by the project teams.
  • Leading the development of a world class Data Engineering capability for the IPO.
  • Working closely with IPO project teams and 3rd parties, leading solutions that ensure that data pipelines work effectively and efficiently.
  • Understanding data pipeline problems and new requirements, leading the delivery of solutions appropriate to business and technical needs.
  • Providing key influence on behalf of the CDO across groups, projects, and products.
  • Formulate tactical plans that facilitate the data engineering aspects of the data strategy roadmap.
  • Work with the Transformation Programme and Data Management Team to prioritise enhancements, develop and execute plans that utilise the current toolkit and the skills of the team to deliver these.
  • Empower and lead Data Engineers responsible for architecting IPO data pipelines, owning the data engineering roadmap.
  • Engage with senior stakeholders regularly to build relationships and understand the high-level transformation drivers of key IPO user groups to ensure prioritisation and design decisions are made in line with business priorities.
  • Providing strategic influence across groups, projects, and products to implement cost effective technology solutions to solve complex business problems.

Behavioural

  • Supporting the vision for the organisation’s use of data in line with the IPO’s corporate goals and vision.
  • Understanding yourself to be a leader (and the impact of your behaviour on others in a project team focused on results)
  • Work alongside the Head of Digital Engineering to support staff, provide guidance and facilitate issue resolution on a day to day basis
  • Day-to-day line management activities such as 1-2-1s and development of IDPs
  • Support in the recruitment of permanent and contract technical specialists for delivery
  • Engaging Stakeholders (for mutually beneficial collaborative relationships outside of the team)
  • Share knowledge and expertise with your wider team, becoming a role model within the organisation, champion our culture of learning, development, cross-company collaboration and teamwork
  • Work across several multi-disciplinary teams to deliver highly focused and successful digital services
  • Provide project / delivery management support when required
  • Effective management and delegation of tasks within the team
  • Applies “progress over perfection” principle
  • Take full responsibility for decisions and deliveries
  • Maintain inner composure, recovering quickly from setbacks and learning from the experience
  • Highly driven and inspires others to make continual progress

Personal and Team Development

  • Drive your own training and self-development, keeping skills up to date and learning new skills
  • Take responsibility for ensuring that the team test and build activities follow agreed governance and processes
  • Promote and display the IPO and Civil Service Values
  • Guides more junior members in their personal development
  • Coach and mentor colleagues
  • Continuously improves technical knowledge and stays abreast of latest trends

Person specification

  • Experience of Azure Data Factory (ADF), Data Bricks, Python and other data tooling
  • Experience of cleansing, preparing and formatting data sets.
  • Extensive Experience of Azure SQL or other databases
  • Evidence an ability to design, code, test, correct and document complex data pipeline scripts.
  • Extensive experience of extracting, transforming and loading data sets for example using SSIS packages
  • Awareness of designing scalable solutions and future-proof data services.
  • Has been a key player in delivering technical solutions as part of large projects
  • Experienced with modern delivery models such as Scrum and other Agile
  • Advocate of DevOps principles
  • Experience with Azure DevOps

How to Apply

Click the 'Apply now' button and complete the application form by providing the following:



  • Your CV
  • Upload an anonymised copy of your current CV. Please remove all identifying markers such as name, title, education institution etc.

Make sure it clearly shows how you meet the essential criteria listed in the Person Specification.


If you require job-specific information, please contact Dominic Read


E-mail:


Telephone:


Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:



  • Leadership
  • Developing Self and Others
  • Working Together
  • Changing and Improving

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:



  • Via a presentation and Technical questions during the interview. The presentation will be included in the scoring for technical.

Alongside your salary of £66,162, Intellectual Property Office contributes £19,167 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.



  • Unlimited Pluralsight video learning access
  • Access to Microsoft’s ESI training suite
  • Hybrid working with no core hours
  • Substantial support for career progression
  • 25 days annual leave moving to 30 days in annual increments
  • You will also get 8 days public leave and 1 day privilege leave


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