Principal Data Engineer

Principal Data Engineer Location: London (Hybrid) Contract Type: Contract (Inside IR35) Day Rate: Up to £650 per day Duration: Initial contract through December with potential extension Start Date: ASAPPrincipal Data Engineer | Financial Services Transformation Programme We are seeking an experienced Principal Data Engineer to join a major financial services transformation programme focused on delivering a modern, cloud-based data platform. This is an excellent opportunity for a senior data engineering professional who combines deep technical expertise with strong stakeholder engagement skills. You will play a key role in shaping data solutions, providing technical leadership, and remaining hands-on in the delivery of business-critical data initiatives. Working closely with Data Architects, Product Owners, business stakeholders, and engineering teams, you will help design and implement scalable data platforms, establish engineering best practices, and support the migration of legacy data assets to a modern cloud architecture.Key Responsibilities • Lead the design and delivery of scalable, cloud-native data solutions. • Translate business requirements into practical and effective data engineering solutions. • Provide technical leadership and mentoring to Data Engineers and delivery teams. • Remain hands-on with the design, development, testing, and deployment of data pipelines and data products. • Design and implement modern Lakehouse architectures leveraging Databricks and AWS services. • Establish engineering standards, development frameworks, and data quality controls. • Collaborate with Data Architects to define and implement target-state platform architectures. • Drive legacy-to-cloud migration initiatives and modernisation programmes. • Optimise platform performance, reliability, and operational efficiency. • Participate in architecture reviews, governance forums, and technical design workshops. • Champion engineering excellence and continuous improvement across teams. • Act as a trusted advisor to both technical and business stakeholders.Required ExperienceTechnical Leadership & Delivery • Proven experience as a Principal Data Engineer, Lead Data Engineer, or Senior Data Engineer within large-scale enterprise environments. • Experience delivering complex cloud transformation and data modernisation programmes. • Strong stakeholder management and communication skills. • Ability to influence technical direction while remaining hands-on with delivery. • Experience working across Architecture, Engineering, Product, and Business teams.Data Engineering & Platforms Strong hands-on experience with: • Databricks • Delta Lake • Unity Catalog • dbt • Spark / PySpark • Data pipeline development and optimisation • Lakehouse architectures • ETL/ELT frameworks • Enterprise data platform implementationCloud Technologies (AWS) Experience with: • Amazon S3 • AWS Glue • Apache Airflow • IAM • AWS Lambda (desirable)Data Architecture & Modelling Knowledge and practical experience of: • Data Vault • Kimball methodology • Dimensional modelling • Data warehousing principles • Enterprise data architecture conceptsModernisation & Migration Experience Experience delivering migrations from legacy platforms such as: • Teradata • Hadoop • Oracle • SASPreferred Experience • Financial Services or Banking sector experience. • Experience working within regulated environments. • Large-scale cloud transformation programmes. • Agile delivery methodologies. • Working alongside Data Product Owners and Data Architects. • Data governance and metadata management frameworks. • CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and DevOps practices within data environments.Skills & Attributes • Strong hands-on engineering capability. • Excellent consultative and stakeholder management skills. • Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences. • Comfortable operating across strategic and technical discussions. • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. • Delivery-focused with a commitment to quality and best practice. • Passion for mentoring and developing engineering talent. • Able to thrive in fast-paced transformation programmes.What's on Offer? • Competitive day rate of up to £650 per day. • Opportunity to work on a high-profile financial services transformation programme. • Hybrid working arrangement. • Potential contract extension beyond the initial term. • Significant influence on the design and implementation of a modern enterprise data platform.Apply Now If you are an experienced Principal Data Engineer with expertise in Databricks, dbt, Spark, PySpark, and AWS, and are looking for a role that combines technical leadership with hands-on engineering delivery, we would love to hear from you. Submit your latest CV today for immediate consideration.