Tech Lead - Data Analytics & Data Engineering (AWS) - SC+NPPV3

Posted January 28, 2026 £550 - £600 per day London Contract Tech Lead – Data Analytics & Data Engineering (AWS) – Central Government (Contract) Duration: 1 April 2026 – 30 November 2026 Rate: Up to £600 per day IR35 Status: Outside IR35 Location: Hybrid / Client site as required Clearance: SC and NPPV3 (both essential) Sector: UK Central Government We are seeking an experienced Tech Lead – Data Analytics & Data Engineering to support a central government programme delivering secure, scalable AWS-based data platforms within a highly regulated environment. This engagement is Outside IR35, operating on a project-based delivery model with a clear focus on outcomes rather than headcount substitution. The role is hands-on and delivery-focused, combining technical leadership with deep engineering expertise, working closely with delivery leadership, architects, and senior stakeholders to shape and deliver incremental value across a modern data platform. The Role As Tech Lead, you will take ownership of the technical direction and delivery of a small multi-disciplinary team, spanning data engineering, analytics engineering, and DevOps. You will be accountable for solution design, engineering standards, and delivery assurance across an AWS data platform using S3, Glue, and Redshift. Key Responsibilities Providing hands-on technical leadership and mentoring to a small delivery team Designing and delivering data ingestion, transformation, and storage patterns using S3, AWS Glue, and Redshift Owning data architecture decisions, including data modelling, partitioning strategies, and performance optimisation Defining and enforcing engineering standards across code quality, testing, CI/CD, IaC, and observability Building and optimising ELT/ETL pipelines using Glue (PySpark), Lambda, Step Functions, and event-driven patterns Championing security-by-design in collaboration with security and assurance teams (IAM, KMS, encryption, auditability) Implementing CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code using Terraform or CloudFormation About You Essential experience: Active SC and NPPV3 clearance (both required) Proven experience as a Tech Lead or Lead Data Engineer across data analytics and data engineering domains Strong hands-on experience with: Amazon S3 (data lake patterns, partitioning, lifecycle management) AWS Glue (Jobs, Crawlers, PySpark, orchestration) Amazon Redshift (data modelling, performance tuning, WLM, Spectrum) Advanced Python (PySpark) and SQL skills Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code Proven ability to engage senior stakeholders and clearly communicate technical trade-offs Experience working in Agile delivery environments Nice to Have: Experience with AWS Lake Formation, Lambda, Step Functions, Athena, EMR, DataBrew Familiarity with data quality, lineage, or observability tooling Knowledge of GDS ways of working and public sector delivery frameworks Experience with privacy-by-design, data retention, and FOIA considerations Exposure to dbt, Redshift RA3, or AQUA acceleration Reasonable Adjustments: Respect and equality are core values to us. We are proud of the diverse and inclusive community we have built, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and perspectives. Our success is driven by our people, united by the spirit of partnership to deliver the best resourcing solutions for our clients. If you need any help or adjustments during the recruitment process for any reason, please let us know when you apply or talk to the recruiters directly so we can support you.