Staff Data Engineer | | Up to/day |

Staff Data Engineer | Contract | Up to £1,300/day | Inside IR35

Location: Hybrid – London (3 days per week on-site)

Rate: Up to £1,300/day

Contract: Initial 6 months

IR35: Inside IR35

We’re supporting a major UK financial services organisation through a significant programme of data engineering modernisation and transformation.

We’re looking for a genuinely Staff-level Data Engineer who combines deep hands-on engineering capability with the technical leadership to challenge existing approaches, shape solutions and raise engineering standards across multiple teams.

This is not a hands-off architecture role. You’ll be expected to shape the thinking, design the solution and get into the code to prove and deliver it.

The role

You’ll work across a major modernisation of the organisation’s data estate, including the transformation and migration of large-scale data pipelines, development of new data products and adoption of modern, AI-assisted engineering practices.

Responsibilities will include:

Providing Staff-level technical leadership across complex data engineering initiatives

Remaining deeply hands-on with Python, PySpark and Spark

Modernising and migrating large-scale data pipelines across AWS

Designing and challenging approaches across AWS Glue, Airflow and associated technologies

Shaping scalable data architectures, frameworks and engineering patterns

Supporting the development of new data products and reusable capabilities

Championing AI-assisted development to improve engineering quality and delivery speed

Raising engineering standards and capability across multiple teamsWhat we're looking for

Deep hands-on Python/PySpark and Apache Spark expertise

Strong AWS data engineering, particularly AWS Glue

Strong Apache Airflow experience

Experience delivering complex data transformation or modernisation programmes

Strong software engineering fundamentals

Experience operating at Staff, Principal or Senior Lead Engineer level

Ability to independently challenge thinking and shape technical solutions

Genuine desire to remain hands-on with code

Experience incorporating AI-assisted development tools into engineering workflows

Snowflake experience would be beneficialThe sweet spot is someone who can operate across both technical strategy and hands-on delivery — setting the engineering direction while still being capable of building and proving the solution