Data Engineer (Grade E2)
Application Deadline: 26 November 2025
Department: Corporate Services
Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Edinburgh - Hybrid
Compensation: E2 Grade £38,055 - £44,817. Civil Service Pension. Flexible Working Hours. Hybrid Working.
Description
At Scottish Funding Council, we’re embarking on an exciting digital transformation to redefine how we use data to drive innovation and deliver exceptional value to our customers. Central to this journey is the creation of the Azure-based data ecosystem, enabling us to unlock the full potential of our data through transformative and intelligent solutions.
Our Data Engineering team plays a pivotal role in this mission. We manage the entire data lifecycle—from integrating diverse data sources and optimizing storage and processing pipelines to delivering actionable insights—while ensuring compliance with company standards and data protection regulations.
As a Data Engineer, you will be a part of this dynamic team, driving innovation and engineering excellence. You’ll work closely with teams across the organisation, including Analytics and Cloud Engineering, to cultivate a data-driven culture and lead initiatives that turn data into a powerful tool for transformation.
This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of post-16 education in Scotland. By delivering innovative, data-driven solutions, you will enable institutions, and policymakers to make informed decisions, enhance learning outcomes, and create opportunities that empower students to thrive in an increasingly data‑centric world.
Virtual interviews will take place week commencing 1 December 2025.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide technical guidance and advice to help in the design and development of data solutions for data modelling and warehousing, data integration, and analytics.
- Implement and optimise data pipelines to connect operational systems and data for analytics, data science and business processes.
- Design and develop scalable data ingestion frameworks to transform a wide variety of datasets.
- Research, analyse and help implement technical approaches for solving complex development and integration problems, supporting the build out of a strategy and roadmap.
- Working with other areas of SFC and our partners, identify and build data products that will aid with robust data integrations, analysis, goal setting and tracking with insights.
- Support the development of product roadmaps.
- Provide appropriate advice and guidance to internal and external stakeholders.
The above list is not exhaustive, and the job holder may be required to undertake such duties commensurate with their grade or that may reasonably be required of them.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
It is important through your CV / Cover Letter that you give evidence of proven experience of each of the following essential criteria:
- Operational experience on ETL pipeline development and handling different types of data sources.
- Strong experience in Python and SQL for data ingestion and data transformation.
- Good Knowledge with Git for version control and CI/CD.
- Experience with cloud platforms preferably Azure.
- Good team player who will work well with colleagues.
- Effective oral and written communication skills.
- Degree level education (SCQF level 9) or equivalent experience, preferably in a subject with a substantial technical content such as Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics.
Desirable Criteria
- Exposure to Azure utilising some of the following: Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, Azure DevOps and PowerBI.
- Azure Data Engineer Associate certification or higher OR Azure AI Engineer Associate certification or higher.
Terms and Benefits
Normal full-time hours of work are 35 per week. We will consider flexible working arrangements. A flexi-time system is in operation.
Annual leave entitlement of 26.5 days pro‑rota, rising to 30 days pro‑rota after 2 years’ continuous service. Public and privilege holiday entitlement of 13 days pro‑rota.
A flexible approach to hybrid working, giving you flexibility to work from home anywhere in the UK for some of the time while also maintaining regular in‑person contact with colleagues.
Annual pay review: approved within the framework of the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy and negotiated with our recognised trade union, Unite. Salaries are reviewed annually in April for employees who commence employment prior to 1 October in the preceding year.
Eligibility to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme. With its low member contribution rates and generous employer contributions, this gives you a secure, inflation‑proof pension for life with no investment uncertainty. Details of contribution rates together with further details of the pension benefits are available on the Civil Service Pensions website. There is also the option of a Partnership pension account.
Support for continuous professional development: as a part of SFC, we are dedicated to providing comprehensive support for continuous learning and professional development. Civil Service‑Learning curriculum has thoughtfully designed to cater to various learning preferences, allowing employees to engage in a manner that best suits their. All our educational resources are conveniently accessible through the CSL website.
Support for health and wellbeing, including generous occupational sick pay, free access to confidential advice and support through our 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme, Special Leave (paid and unpaid), a contribution to learning outside work through our Lifelong Learning Fund, free winter flu vaccination, and access to occupational health support.
We provide support to SFC employees with Volunteering Days.
Support for travel to and from work, including a salary sacrifice cycle loan scheme, cycle storage and shower facilities, an interest‑free loan for bus or rail season tickets and free office car parking for employees on a first‑come basis.
Although most salaried roles are advertised as full time positions (35 hours a week), we are happy to discuss part‑time or compressed hours to suit a candidate’s circumstances. We also operate a flexible working scheme to work around a candidate's other commitments such as caring responsibilities. We will consider secondment applications for most salaried fixed‑term or temporary positions and in many cases also for salaried permanent positions. If you are interested in applying on a secondment basis and this option is not explicitly mentioned in the job advert, please contact for further information.
