Senior Data Engineer

Senior Data Engineer (Contract)

Location: UK (Remote / Hybrid)

Contract Type: Contract (Outside IR35)

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Data Engineer (Contract) to support the delivery of secure, business-critical data platforms within high-assurance, regulated environments. The role focuses on designing and implementing resilient data pipelines and integration services that enable controlled data sharing across complex, multi-domain systems, while maintaining strong standards of security, governance, and compliance.

The successful contractor will operate at a senior technical level, contributing to platform design, assuring engineering quality, and supporting delivery in environments where data integrity, availability, and access control are essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain secure, scalable data pipelines and integration services
• Engineer data solutions that support controlled data access across complex domains
• Develop production-grade code aligned with secure-by-design principles
• Model complex datasets to support interoperability and governed access
• Integrate data from diverse sources, including legacy and operational systems
• Implement fine-grained access controls, data classification, and governance mechanisms
• Support deployment and operation of data services across cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments
• Collaborate with architects, security specialists, and delivery teams
• Contribute to design reviews and technical decision-making
• Ensure performance, resilience, and observability of data platforms
• Produce and maintain clear technical documentation

Required Skills & Experience

• Extensive experience operating as a Senior Data Engineer on complex, enterprise-scale platforms
• Strong programming capability in Python
• Commercial experience with Java and/or Scala
• Advanced SQL and strong data modelling skills
• Proven experience designing and operating ETL / ELT pipelines at scale
• Solid understanding of distributed systems and data platform architecture
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Experience with containerisation and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices

Experience in Regulated Environments

• Experience delivering data solutions in regulated or high-assurance settings
• Understanding of security-focused architectures such as least-privilege access
• Experience implementing data governance, classification, and policy-driven access controls
• Comfortable operating in environments with formal assurance, audit, and compliance requirements
• Able to handle sensitive information in line with contractual and organisational standards

Desirable Experience

• Knowledge of semantic data, knowledge graphs, or graph databases
• Experience with RDF, SPARQL, or ontology-based data models
• Familiarity with controlled or cross-domain data sharing patterns
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g. Terraform, CloudFormation)
• Exposure to open-source data platforms or frameworks

Contractor Profile

• Able to deliver independently with minimal supervision
• Comfortable working within structured delivery frameworks
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Clear communicator with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Pragmatic, delivery-focused, and quality-driven

Additional Information

Due to the nature of the work, candidates must be eligible to pass background and suitability checks as part of the engagement.