Data Engineer - RDF / SparQL

🚀 Senior Data Engineer (Contract – Outside IR35) 📍 UK-Based | Remote / Hybrid | Defence, Government & High-Assurance Environments ⏳ Contract | Outside IR35 🔍 The Opportunity Are you a Senior Data Engineer who thrives in high-assurance, mission-critical environments? This is a chance to shape secure, resilient data platforms that sit at the heart of national defence, government, and regulated-sector programmes. You’ll engineer robust data pipelines, cross-domain integrations, and secure-by-design platforms that enable controlled data sharing across complex multi-classification ecosystems. If you’re motivated by meaningful impact, technical depth, and delivering quality at scale—this contract is for you. 🛠️ What You’ll Be Doing • Designing and building secure, scalable data pipelines and integration services • Engineering data solutions for cross-domain and multi‑classification environments • Writing production-grade Python, plus Java/Scala where needed • Modelling complex datasets to enable controlled, interoperable data access • Integrating data from diverse and sometimes legacy operational systems • Implementing fine-grained access controls, classification rules & governance frameworks • Deploying data services across cloud, hybrid, and on‑prem environments • Working closely with architects, security engineers, and delivery teams • Contributing to design reviews, technical assurance, and architectural decisions • Ensuring platforms are resilient, observable, and high-performing • Producing high-quality technical docs for a range of stakeholders 🧠 What You’ll Bring Core Technical Skills • Strong commercial experience as a Senior Data Engineer • Excellent Python engineering capability • Commercial Java and/or Scala • Advanced SQL + strong data modelling • Expertise in large-scale ETL/ELT pipelines • Solid understanding of distributed systems • Experience across AWS, Azure, or GCP • Knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, containerisation & orchestration • Familiarity with CI/CD and modern DevOps practices 🔐 Security, Defence & Government Experience • Experience building data solutions in secure/regulated environments • Understanding of zero-trust architecture & least-privilege models • Implementing data classification & policy-driven governance • Working with systems subject to formal assurance, audit & compliance • Comfortable handling sensitive or protected information ⭐ Nice to Have • Knowledge of semantic data, knowledge graphs or graph DBs • Experience with RDF, SPARQL, ontologies • Familiarity with cross-domain data flow patterns • Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation) • Exposure to open-source data frameworks 👤 The Ideal Contractor • Operates independently with minimal oversight • Pragmatic, delivery-driven, and quality-focused • Excellent communication across technical & non-technical stakeholders • Strong analytical and problem-solving approach • Comfortable within structured delivery frameworks 🔒 Security Clearance Candidates must be eligible for UK Security Clearance. Some roles may require undergoing formal vetting during engagement. 💬 Ready to Make an Impact? If you're a Senior Data Engineer who wants to work on meaningful, technically challenging projects that genuinely matter, this contract offers real depth, autonomy, and high-level engineering work. If you want, I can also create: ✅ A punchier, shorter LinkedIn version ✅ A cinematic/military-style version ✅ A more corporate employer-brand version ✅ A version optimised for search (SEO) ✅ An outreach message version for direct candidate sourcing