Head of Data Engineering

Head of Data Engineering

Our long-standing financial services client is seeking a Head of Data Engineering to lead a high-performing team responsible for delivering a complex data transformation.

Looking for a true greenfield challenge? This is your chance to shape a transformation from the ground up, build cutting-edge data solutions, and lead a high-performing team that’s driving change across the business.

To succeed in this role, you’ll bring hands-on experience owning and delivering Azure-based data platforms (Databricks, Synapse), alongside strong technical capability in designing and implementing data ingestion pipelines (ETL/ELT) and introducing event-driven architectures (Kafka) to support scalable, real-time solutions.

Our client offers a competitive salary of £120,000–£140,000, plus 40% bonus, 40% LTIP, £7.5k car allowance, and a comprehensive benefits package. The role is hybrid, based in Wolverhampton or Chatham.

Key Responsibilities

Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing Data Engineering team, setting the vision, priorities, and best practices.
Oversee the design, build, and optimisation of data ingestion, processing, and storage pipelines.
Embed strong governance, documentation, and lifecycle management standards across the function.
Partner with IT, architecture, and business stakeholders to ensure secure, scalable cloud configurations.
Champion innovation, exploring new tools, technologies, and approaches to enhance capability and efficiency.Core Requirements

Proven leadership experience managing a Data Engineering function of ~40 engineers (SQL and Azure).
Recent, hands-on experience implementing event-driven architecture using Kafka (essential).
Extensive background in regulated industries (finance or banking preferred).
Strong experience in large-scale data engineering projects, designing and developing ETL pipelines and leading cloud migration initiatives.
Expertise in data migration from SQL Server to Azure Cloud Services