Lead Data Engineer | London, UK

About Zego

At Zego, we understand that traditional motor insurance holds good drivers back. It's too complicated, too expensive, and it doesn't reflect how well you actually drive. Since 2016, we have been on a mission to change that by offering the lowest priced insurance for good drivers.

From van drivers and gig workers to everyday car drivers, our customers are the driving force behind everything we do. We've sold tens of millions of policies and raised over $200 million in funding. And we're only just getting started.

About the Role

We're looking for a Lead Data Engineer to be a technical authority within our data engineering function, helping to shape and evolve our data platform to meet Zego's ambitious growth.

This is a hands-on technical role- you'll design and build scalable, resilient, and secure data systems, while acting as a mentor and technical guide for other engineers. You'll work closely with peers across Engineering, Data Science, Analytics, and Product to ensure our data infrastructure is efficient, reliable, and future-proof.

While this role doesn't involve direct line management, you'll be expected to foster technical excellence within the team by sharing knowledge, reviewing code, and coaching others.

What you will be doing

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Act as a senior technical reference point for the Data Engineering team.
• Mentor and coach other engineers, helping them grow their technical skills and deliver high-quality work.
• Promote best practices in data engineering, including testing, CI/CD, observability, and infrastructure as code.

Platform & Architecture

• Design, build, and maintain scalable and secure data pipelines, warehouses, and streaming systems.
• Ensure data is modelled and structured to meet the needs of analytics, data science, and operational use cases.
• Contribute to the evolution of our data architecture, ensuring it can support both current and future business needs.

Collaboration & Delivery

• Partner with teams across the business to understand requirements and translate them into robust technical solutions.
• Identify opportunities for optimisation, re-architecture, or tool improvements.
• Contribute to the definition and execution of the technical roadmap for data engineering.

About You

You're a hands-on engineer who thrives on solving complex problems and helping others do their best work. You bring technical depth, a pragmatic mindset, and a collaborative approach to everything you do.

What You Bring:

• Experience: 5+ years as a Data Engineer working on scalable data platforms, ideally in product-led or high-growth environments.

• Technical Skills:
  • Proven expertise in designing, building, and operating ETL/ELT pipelines and large-scale data architectures.
  • Deep hands-on experience with modern data stacks - our tech includes Python, SQL, Snowflake, Apache Iceberg, AWS S3, PostgresDB, Airflow, dbt, and Apache Spark, deployed via AWS, Docker, and Terraform (experience with similar technologies is essential).

• Collaboration: Ability to work effectively with cross-functional stakeholders, translating technical concepts into business value.

• Mentorship: Demonstrated experience in supporting the growth of other engineers through code reviews, pairing, and knowledge sharing.

• Problem-Solving: Pragmatic approach to balancing technical excellence with delivery needs.

Nice to Have:

• Experience building Data Mesh or Lakehouse architectures.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, and real-time streaming technologies (e.g. Kafka, Kinesis).
• Exposure to ML engineering pipelines or MLOps frameworks.

What's it like to work at Zego?

Joining Zego is a career-defining move. People go further here, reaching their full potential to achieve extraordinary things.

We're spread throughout the UK and Europe, and united by our drive to get things done. We're proud of our company and our culture - a friendly and inclusive space where we can lift each other up and celebrate our wins every day.

Together, we're setting the bar higher, delivering exceptional work that makes a difference.

Our people are the most important part of our story, and everyone here plays a role. There's loads of room to learn and grow, and you'll get the freedom to steer your career wherever you want.

You'll work alongside a talented group who embrace each other's differences and aren't afraid of a challenge. We recognise our achievements, learn from our mistakes, and help each other to be the best we can be. Together, we're making insurance matter

How we work

We believe that teams work better when they have time to collaborate and space to get things done. We call it Zego Hybrid. We ask you to spend at least one day a week in our central London office. We think it's a good mix of collaborative face time and flexible home-working, setting us up to achieve the right balance between work and life

Our approach to AI

We believe in the power of AI to meaningfully improve how we work - helping us move faster, think differently, and focus on what matters most. At Zego, we encourage people to stay curious and intentional about how AI is leveraged in their work and teams to drive practical impact every day. This is your chance to do the most meaningful work of your career - and we'll provide you with the tools, support, and freedom to do it well

Benefits

We reward our people well. Join us and you'll get a market-competitive salary, private medical insurance, company share options, generous holiday allowance, and a whole lot of wellbeing benefits. We also offer an annual flexible hybrid working contribution, which you can use to support with your travel to the office or towards your own personal development. And that's just for starters!

There's more to Zego than just a job - Check out our blog for insights, stories, and more.

We're an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status.

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