Director, Data Engineering

This position is posted by Jobgether on behalf of a partner company. We are currently looking for a Director, Data Engineering in the United Kingdom.

Join a mission-driven, global SaaS organization operating at scale across multiple regions and product lines, where data is a critical foundation for innovation and decision-making. This role sits at the heart of a modern data transformation journey, responsible for building and leading a high-performing data engineering function in a complex, multi-system environment shaped by acquisitions and rapid growth. You will define the architecture, standards, and engineering practices that ensure trusted, scalable, and high-quality data across the business. Working closely with analytics, architecture, and governance teams, you will shape a modern lakehouse ecosystem that powers key business and product decisions. This is a highly impactful leadership role combining hands-on engineering, strategic ownership, and team development. If you are passionate about building robust data platforms and leading engineering excellence, this role offers significant scope and influence.

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of data engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, technical excellence, and collaboration.
• Own the design, development, and evolution of a Databricks-based data lakehouse architecture, including Delta Lake and Unity Catalog.
• Contribute hands-on to the development of data pipelines, integrations, and core platform components.
• Define and enforce engineering standards across ingestion, transformation, CI/CD, testing, documentation, and observability.
• Design and maintain scalable data ingestion frameworks to support multiple systems, including M&A-driven integrations.
• Oversee and optimize transformation processes using dbt or equivalent frameworks, ensuring performance and reliability.
• Partner with analytics and data governance teams to implement data contracts, modeling standards, and downstream usability.
• Embed data quality, lineage, and monitoring practices into all engineering workflows.
• Ensure operational excellence, including incident management, SLA adherence, and system reliability.
• Collaborate with leadership on hiring strategy, team scaling, and long-term engineering roadmap planning.

Requirements:

• 3+ years of experience in data engineering, including at least 2+ years in a leadership or senior technical role.
• Strong hands-on experience with Databricks, including Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and Spark.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for building scalable and reliable data pipelines.
• Experience with dbt or similar data transformation frameworks.
• Strong background in building and maintaining large-scale data pipelines using tools such as Airflow, Fivetran, or equivalent.
• Deep understanding of data modelling, data warehousing, and modern lakehouse architectures.
• Experience working in complex environments such as M&A integrations, multi-system landscapes, or platform migrations.
• Strong knowledge of engineering best practices including CI/CD, testing, documentation, and observability.
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate technical concepts into business impact.
• Proven ability to balance hands-on engineering work with leadership and stakeholder management responsibilities.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary with performance-based bonus opportunities.
• Fully flexible working arrangements within a remote or hybrid setup in the United Kingdom.
• Comprehensive health, wellness, and employee support programs.
• Generous flexible time off and paid leave policies.
• Strong career development opportunities through structured learning and training programs.
• Opportunity to shape a modern enterprise data platform at scale.
• Collaborative, innovative, and mission-driven international environment.
• High-impact leadership role with significant ownership of data strategy and engineering standards.
• Exposure to complex, large-scale data challenges across multiple products and acquisitions.
• Inclusive workplace committed to equal opportunity and professional growth.