Senior/Lead Data Engineer

Catalyst
Newcastle upon Tyne
3 days ago
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Our client is a successful tech scale-up, a cash-generative SME currently at c.£10m turnover and c.80 staff, looking to double in size in the next five years under the guidance of its experienced, highly charismatic and driven CEO, supported by a first-class senior leadership team. We are looking to strengthen the company’s Data capability, working closely with a world-class CTO who leads a high-performing technology function, by appointing a new Senior/Lead Data Engineer.

As Senior/Lead Data Engineer you’ll take ownership of a strategically critical data-warehouse build, working hands-on to shape, implement and evolve a modern AWS-based data platform. You’ll act as the internal technical lead for a major project currently in discovery with an external provider, guiding technology choices, ensuring high-quality delivery and preparing the business for knowledge transfer and long-term ownership. Reporting directly to the CTO, you’ll also help define and grow the internal data engineering function over time, setting standards, mentoring colleagues and ensuring the platform scales with the company’s ambitions.

Your responsibilities as Senior/Lead Data Engineer will include:

• Leading the build of a new cloud-based data warehouse, working hands-on with AWS technologies and modern data-engineering tooling (e.g. Snowflake, Redshift or equivalent)

• Acting as the internal technical owner for the outsourced data-warehouse project, ensuring alignment between business needs, architectural decisions and delivery outcomes

• Evaluating and selecting appropriate technologies, tools and patterns to support a scalable, secure and high-performing data platform

• Managing knowledge-transfer activity from the external provider, embedding best practice and ensuring the business can confidently own and extend the platform

• Designing and implementing robust data pipelines, modelling approaches and integration patterns to support analytics, reporting and operational use cases

• Establishing engineering standards, documentation and processes to support long-term maintainability and future team growth

• Providing guidance, coaching and leadership to colleagues as the function expands, fostering a positive, collaborative and delivery-focused culture

• Working closely with product, engineering, finance and operational stakeholders to understand data needs, prioritise work and ensure timely delivery

As Senior/Lead Data Engineer you’ll need:

• Strong commercial experience as a Data Engineer, Senior Data Engineer or Lead Data Engineer, ideally gained in a fast-paced, growing technology-driven business

• Hands-on expertise with AWS data services and modern data-warehouse technologies (e.g. Snowflake, Redshift, Glue, Lambda, S3, Step Functions)

• Proven experience designing and building scalable data pipelines, data models and ETL/ELT processes

• Strong understanding of data architecture, cloud engineering principles, security, governance and best-practice engineering standards

• Ability to self-manage, take ownership of complex technical work and operate confidently as the internal lead on a major data-platform build

• Experience collaborating with external suppliers or delivery partners, ensuring quality, alignment and successful handover

• Excellent communication, problem-solving and stakeholder-management skills

• A positive, pragmatic approach, balancing strategic thinking with hands-on delivery

Rewards and Benefits:

• Highly negotiable salary, likely between £50,000 and £100,000 (plus benefits) with potential stretch to c.£130,000 for exceptional candidates

• To secure maximum pay/rewards, you must possess all outlined experience, skills, knowledge and qualifications

• Full-time, permanent role based in Newcastle upon Tyne with excellent hybrid and flexible working

• Free parking

• On-site health facilities, staff events and discounts, training and more

Please note: High levels of interest mean we will only contact you if your application is shortlisted and this will happen within five working days. You must also be eligible to work in the UK. Immediate or near-term availability (within two months) is strongly preferred.

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