Principal Data Engineer

The postholder will utilise their exceptional technical skills and experience to provide the highest level of expert technical leadership in Data Engineering to the design, development, implementation and maintenance of integrations and data flows that connect operational systems, enabling the provision of highly capable data for analytics and business intelligence services across Police Scotland and the SPA.

The role will involve designing, developing and implementing innovative, effective, efficient solutions to complex data integration problems, through the novel application of relevant technologies and techniques, in order to deliver secure, responsive, legislatively compliant data services across the organisation.

You will provide exceptional technical leadership to the data engineering team in relation to the control and management of all data systems and services to ensure best performance, and alignment with business requirements. This will include, but not be limited to enterprise data archiving, data platforming, data ETL, data analytics and reporting technologies and associated infrastructure involved in the provision of all data services across the estate.

Currently Police Scotland have guidance in place that allows appropriate roles to be operated on an agile basis.

This is a permanent post which requires MV clearance.

You will work 35 working hours per week, Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm

Educational/Occupational Essential

• A degree in Data Science, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or other STEM-based subject, accompanied by experience in a data engineering or computer science environment. OR

• Where no relevant formal qualifications exist a considerable track record of success within a data engineering or computer science environment.

Personal Qualities Essential

• Experience participating in data science projects involving cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders.

• Experience in leading data science capability building across teams and wider organisations through the construction of robust, scalable integration processes.

• Ability to communicate technical concepts effectively to non-technical stakeholders.

• Experience in re-engineering manual data flows.

• Creativity to solve complex problems.

• Ability to work under pressure and to demanding deadlines.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate, interact and influence at all levels of the organisation.

• Excellent attention to detail

Personal Qualities Desirable

• Experience of Continuous Integration/Continuous Development and Agile frameworks.

• Experience creating/delivering complex technical messages for a variety of readers.

• Proven ability to manage end-to-end enterprise data technologies.

Special Aptitudes Essential

• Expert knowledge of the development and administration of relational and NoSQL database Systems and Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence concepts and best practices.

• Expert in architecting, designing, developing and testing ETL solutions.

• Good working knowledge with data governance principles, data privacy regulations (e.g. GDPR), and data security best practices.

Special Aptitudes Desirable

• Experience with geospatial data preparation and related tools.

• Knowledge and experience of programming languages such as Python, Java, or Scala.

• Good knowledge of machine learning principles and their application in data engineering.

The Digital Division has more than 350 staff across 14 locations, supporting the technological provision, development and transformation of digital services to in excess of 22,000 Police officers and staff across the organisation.

We continue to introduce new technologies and systems to support continuous improvement as a catalyst to new ways of working and creating new options for business functions to improve efficiencies.

The division have delivered more than 10,000 mobile devices to our officers, implemented body worn video for our armed officers, supported the provision of virtual courts, plus progressing through the implementation of a single crime reporting system.

We continue to deliver innovative and enabling technology through the development and implementation of numerous projects which will transform our services for a digital future. We will completely transform our communication platform across the organisation and how the public interact with our contact centres. We will deliver an end-to-end service across the Criminal Justice sector which will collect, manage, and share digital evidence throughout the criminal justice process. We will introduce new technologies and systems to allow us to ensure that Data is at the heart of everything we do and is captured, managed, protected and accessible to the benefit of Police Scotland and its partners.

More than £1.4 million worth of training has been allocated to the Digital Division function in the last few years to ensure our people can continue to develop their skills to align with the future of the division. Digital Division have a range of training options available to staff, these include access to LinkedIn Learning licences, internal training and funded classroom training via our contracted training provider.

Why join us?

• Competitive salary with annual increments
• Full-time or part-time shift patterns
• 28 days annual leave and 6 public holidays
• Local government pension scheme for long-term security
• Ongoing training to develop your skills
• Opportunities for career progression and professional growth
• Comprehensive wellbeing support and dynamic work environment
• Exclusive discounts and savings through our rewards and benefits network

Full details regarding this vacancy can be found in the attached Role Profile.

Applicants must be a British citizen, a member of the EU or other states in the EEA, a Commonwealth citizen or a foreign national free of restrictions.