Lead Data Engineer

Forward Role Recruitment
Manchester
1 day ago
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Lead Data Engineer– Manchester (hybrid) - up to £80K DOE

We are working with a fast-growing fintech business in Manchester who are looking for a Lead Data Engineer. They have new PE investment behind them and a major transformation programme underway. This is one of the strongest data leadership opportunities in the Northwest right now!


If you are a data engineering leader who has worked at scale, knows their way around modern cloud platforms, and wants to shape something rather than just run it, read on…


THE ROLE PURPOSE

This is a hands-on leadership role sitting at the centre of a significant data platform transformation. You will be running the data engineering squad, responsible for delivering the data infrastructure, pipelines, and reporting capabilities the wider business depends on.


The platform is evolving. The business is moving away from traditional batch processing toward a real-time, event-driven architecture and you will be leading that technical journey while keeping everything running reliably in the meantime. It is not a steady-state role there is a real mandate for change, proper investment to back it up, and a new Data Director coming in who wants to build something impressive.


WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU

  • Up to £80,000 DOE
  • Hybrid working, 2 days per week in Manchester City Centre, the rest remote
  • 27 days holiday plus bank holidays, your birthday off, enhanced parental leave from day one, income protection for up to 5 years, life assurance at 3x salary, health cash plan, virtual GP and therapy access, gym discounts, cycle to work, free food and a Friday bar + much more.
  • A genuine leadership seat at the table during a period of real transformation
  • The chance to modernise a data platform from the ground up, event streaming, cloud‑native, AI‑ready
  • A newly centralised data function with a clear path upward as it grows
  • Working in a business where data is taken seriously at the most senior level
  • Strong, collaborative team culture with real investment in people

KEY SKILLS

  • Line management and team leadership
  • Real-time and event-driven data platforms
  • Strong SQL and T‑SQL
  • SQL Server
  • ETL/ELT pipelines, SSIS, Matillion or similar
  • Infrastructure as Code awareness, Terraform or similar

Useful but not essential:

  • Lakehouse or cloud-native data platform architecture experience
  • Data lakes, object storage, and large-scale analytical processing
  • ML or advanced analytics exposure
  • AWS security, networking and access control
  • GDPR and data governance awareness

DAY TO DAY

No two days will look the same, but broadly you can expect to be:



  • Leading and developing your data engineering squad performance conversations, career development, day-to-day support
  • Getting hands-on across pipelines, cloud infrastructure, transformation layers, and reporting
  • Driving the migration toward real-time, event-driven data processing
  • Keeping existing SQL Server environments stable and performant while the modern platform is built out
  • Working closely with stakeholders across the business to understand requirements and deliver solutions
  • Embedding good engineering practices CI/CD, IaC, Agile where they are not already in place
  • Mentoring colleagues and helping to grow capability across the team

WHY IT'S AN EXCITING TIME TO JOIN

The business has just received significant investment and with that has come a genuine appetite to do things properly. The data, analytics and insights functions previously operated separately are being brought together for the first time under a single Data Director. That means you would be joining at the moment the foundation is being laid, not after the decisions have already been made.


There is a signed-off transformation programme, a technical roadmap that includes real-time streaming, AI-readiness and a move toward a modern cloud platform, and senior leadership that genuinely values what the data team delivers. The appetite is there. The budget is there. Now they need the right leader.


HOW TO APPLY

This one is moving quickly so please do not sit on it. APPLY NOW with your CV or email


*Please note the role cannot offer sponsorship and is not suitable for those on short term visas*


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