Lead Data Engineer

Lead Data Engineer (Contract) Location: London (2 days onsite per week) Day Rate: £500-£550 Per day (Outside IR35) Duration: 6-month contract Start: ASAP Overview We are looking for a Lead Data Engineer to join a high-performing team delivering advanced data platforms that support financial institutions in tackling fraud and financial crime. In this role, you will help design and evolve a modern Databricks + AWS lakehouse architecture, enabling analytics, machine learning, and investigative teams to generate actionable insights from large-scale datasets. This is a hands-on leadership position focused on building robust, scalable, and governed data solutions using modern cloud technologies. The Role • Own the end-to-end design, build, optimisation, and support of scalable Spark / PySpark data pipelines (batch and streaming) • Define and implement lakehouse architecture standards (medallion model: bronze, silver, gold), including governance, lineage, and data quality controls • Design and manage secure data ingestion frameworks (e.g. Apache NiFi, APIs, SFTP/FTPS) for internal and external data sources • Architect and maintain secure AWS-based data infrastructure (S3, IAM, KMS, Glue, Lake Formation, Lambda, Step Functions, CloudWatch, etc.) • Implement orchestration using tools such as Airflow, Databricks Workflows, and Step Functions • Champion data quality, observability, and reliability (SLAs, monitoring, alerting, reconciliation) • Drive CI/CD best practices for data platforms (infrastructure as code, automated testing, versioning, environment promotion) • Mentor engineers on distributed data processing, performance optimisation, and cost efficiency • Collaborate with data science, product, and compliance teams to translate requirements into scalable data solutions Required Skills & Experience • Strong experience as a Senior or Lead Data Engineer with ownership of end-to-end data solutions • Expertise in Databricks, PySpark / Spark, SQL, and Python • Proven experience building and optimising large-scale data pipelines in production environments • Strong knowledge of cloud data architectures, particularly within AWS • Experience designing scalable data models and reusable frameworks • Hands-on experience with orchestration tools such as Airflow or similar • Solid understanding of data governance, lineage, and compliance requirements • Experience with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code (e.g. Terraform, CloudFormation) • Strong communication skills with the ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams What We’re Looking For • A hands-on technical leader who can design, build, and deliver solutions independently • Someone comfortable working with high-volume, high-throughput data systems • Strong problem-solving skills and a pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset • Experience mentoring engineers and setting engineering standards and best practices • Ability to balance technical excellence with delivery timelines