Lead Data Engineer

As a Lead Engineer – Data, you will set the technical direction for OakNorth’s Data function. This pivotal leadership role is embedded within the Data & Analytics function, shaping our approach to scalable data systems, modern engineering practices, and cross-functional collaboration. You’ll partner closely with the Technical Product Manager to translate strategic priorities into data products that empower lending, finance, analytics, and risk teams across the business.

• Lead a squad of 4-6 Engineers.
• Define and lead the technical strategy for the Data Platform and internal data products.
• Guide architectural decisions and system design for robust, scalable, and secure data infrastructure.
• Collaborate closely with stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions.
• Drive technical excellence and standardisation across data practices.
• Mentor and coach engineers across the data function, creating a culture of growth and innovation.
• Work across the full stack when needed, with a primary focus on data systems, orchestration, transformation, and cloud infrastructure.
• Embrace DevOps and continuous delivery – you build it, you run it.
• Lead by example, coding when required while delegating effectively.

• Have 7+ years of experience in data engineering or backend systems, and at least 2+ years in a leadership or technical decision-making role.
• Are deeply experienced with modern data stacks (e.g. DBT, BigQuery, Airflow, Terraform, GCP/AWS).
• Have strong software engineering foundations (Python, SQL, DevOps practices, CI/CD).
• Understand data warehousing, ETL/ELT, orchestration, and real-time/streaming data flows.
• Are outcome-focused: you define success by the business impact you enable.
• Value simplicity, reliability, and automation.
• Enjoy collaborating across disciplines and bring excellent communication skills.
• Care about mentoring others and elevating the standards of your team.
• Are energised by cross-functional product squads and greenfield opportunities.

• We’re pragmatic about our tools. You’ll likely work with:
• Languages: Python, SQL
• Data tools: DBT, BigQuery, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Fivetran, DataHub, Microsoft Fabric
• Orchestration: Airflow, Terraform
• Cloud: GCP, AWS
• Version control & CI/CD: GitHub
• Dashboards & Monitoring: Tableau, Cloud Monitoring

• We expect you to work in these ways, as well as encouraging and enabling these practices from others:
• Collaborate - We work in cross-functional, mission driven, autonomous squads that gel over time. We pair program to work better through shared experience and knowledge.
• Focus on outcomes over outputs - Solving a problem for users that translates to business results is our goal. Measurements focused on that goal help us to understand if we are succeeding.
• Practice continuous improvement - We optimise for feedback now, rather than presume what might be needed in the future and introduce complexity before it will be used. This means we learn faster. We share learnings in blame-free formats, so that we do not repeat things that have failed, but still have confidence to innovate.
• Seek to understand our users - We constantly seek understanding from data and conversations to better serve our users' needs, taking an active part in research to hear from them directly and regularly.
• Embrace and enable continuous deployment - Seamless delivery of changes into an environment without manual intervention is essential for us to ensure that we are highly productive; consider resiliency; and practice security by design.
• Test outside-in, test first - TDD keeps us confident in moving fast and deploying regularly. We want to solve user problems, and so we test with that mindset - writing scenarios first, then considering our solution; coupling tests to behaviour, rather than implementation.
• You build it, you run it ️ - We embrace DevOps culture and end-to-end ownership of products and features. Every engineer, regardless of their role, can lead delivery of features from start to finish.
• Be cloud native ️ - We leverage automation and hosted services to deliver resilient, secure services quickly and consistently.

• This role offers the opportunity to work closely with the team, requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in the office to foster hands-on collaboration and innovation.
• Work-life balance - 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) each year, and enhanced family leave allowances.
• Competitive salary & equity - We want people to have a serious stake in the business.
• Good kit - Your choice of the best laptop, running macOS or Ubuntu.
• Team socials - The opportunity to get to know each other outside of work.
• Company socials - A chance to catch up and meet new colleagues weekly over informal office breakfasts and dinners on OakNorth - or at our free barista bar every day.
• Commuter support - We offer the cycle to work & EV scheme

We’re OakNorth Bank and we embolden entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions, understand their markets, and apply data intelligence to everyday decisions to scale successfully at pace.

Banking should be barrier-free. It’s a belief at our very core, inspired by our entrepreneurial spirit, driven by the unmet financial needs of millions, and delivered by our data-driven tools.

And for those who love helping businesses thrive? Our savings accounts help diversify the high street and create new jobs, all while earning savers some of the highest interest on the market.

But we go beyond finance, to empower our people, encourage professional growth and create an environment where everyone can thrive. We strive to create an inclusive and diverse workplace where people can be themselves and succeed.

Our story

OakNorth Bank was built on the foundations of frustrations with old-school banking. In 2005, when our founders tried to get capital for their data analytics company, the computer said ‘no’. Unfortunately, all major banks in the UK were using the same computer – and it was broken.

Why was it so difficult for a profitable business with impressive cashflow, retained clients, and clear commercial success to get a loan?

The industry was backward-looking and too focused on historic financials, rather than future potential.

So, what if there was a bank, founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs? One that offered a dramatically better borrowing experience for businesses?

No more what ifs, OakNorth Bank exists.

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