Lead Data Engineer

Position Summary: The Lead Data Engineer is responsible for leading the design, development, implementation, and optimization of scalable cloud-based data platforms and engineering solutions that enable analytics, business intelligence, and data-driven decision-making across Group Digital. The role provides technical leadership, establishes engineering best practices, ensures the delivery of secure and high-performance data solutions, and supports the continuous evolution of the organization’s data ecosystem. Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities: Lead the design, development, implementation, and optimization of scalable cloud-based data platforms, data lakes, and data pipelines supporting Group Digital initiatives.Design, build, and maintain robust ETL/ELT pipelines using SQL, Python, and modern cloud technologies to integrate data from multiple internal and external sources.Develop and optimize data models, storage architectures, and processing frameworks to ensure high performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.Establish and enforce data engineering standards, coding best practices, documentation, and governance across the data engineering function.Collaborate with Business Intelligence, Product, Technology, Commercial, Marketing, and Content teams to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.Ensure data quality, integrity, security, and compliance through monitoring, validation, and governance processes.Support the development of analytics, reporting, dashboards, and self-service BI capabilities by delivering reliable and trusted datasets.Optimize cloud infrastructure, database performance, and processing workloads to improve system availability and operational efficiency.Troubleshoot and resolve complex data platform issues, ensuring minimal disruption to business operations.Mentor and provide technical guidance to Data Engineers, promoting knowledge sharing and continuous capability development.Provide technical leadership across the Data Engineering function by driving engineering best practices, mentoring engineers, and guiding technical decisions across Group Digital.Work closely with cross-functional stakeholders, vendors, and technology partners to deliver data engineering initiatives aligned with business priorities.Contribute to Agile delivery by participating in sprint planning, backlog refinement, code reviews, testing, deployment, and continuous improvement activities.Ensure adherence to enterprise data governance, security, architecture, and compliance standards. Job Requirements and Qualifications: Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, or a related field.A master’s degree or relevant cloud certifications (e.g., Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect) is an advantage.Experience: Minimum 7+ years of progressive experience in Data Engineering, Data Platform Development, or related disciplines.Proven experience designing and implementing enterprise-scale data platforms and cloud-native data solutions.Experience leading technical initiatives and mentoring engineering teams.Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or equivalent cloud technologies.