Data Engineer

PLS Solicitors; Altrincham; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare plan

25 days annual leave + bank holidays

Death in service

Employee assistance programme (EAP)

Job summary

PLS Solicitors is seeking a proactive Data Engineer to own the data foundation behind our AI platforms. You will design and run end-to-end data pipelines, improve the data warehouse, and support new platform builds while ensuring data quality and security.

This role reports to the Head of Development in a hybrid setup with in-office presence required two days per week. You will work closely with the AI Developer and wider tech team to deliver reliable data foundations, governance, and repeatable

Qualifications

• Hands-on Data Engineer with ownership focus and 4–6+ years of experience.

Responsibilities

• Deliver and own data strategy and pipelines for AI and reporting.
• Design secure, least-privilege data access patterns.
• Build and maintain datasets for AI, including versioned pipelines and evaluation data.
• Replace legacy warehouse with modern pipelines and reporting.
• Ensure data quality, lineage, and compliance across systems.
• Document pipelines and datasets for future reuse.
• Stay current with data engineering tooling and practices.

Skills

Strong SQL

Python

Production data pipelines

Azure

Databricks / Spark

Ownership / accountability

Security & data quality

Communication skills

Tools

SQL Server

Azure SQL

OpenEdge

Azure Service Bus

Job description

Location: Altrincham, WA14 5UW – hybrid (minimum 2 days p/w in office)after initial office based onboarding period

Hours: Full-time, Mon-Fri, 9:00-17:00

Start date: ASAP (flexible and open to longer notice periods)

About PLS Solicitors

PLS Solicitors is a well-established and growing law firm with a strong reputation within the conveyancing industry and significant ongoing investment in technology, AI, and platform modernisation.

We are building an AI centre of excellence internally whilst re-architecting parts of our technology estate away from legacy systems towards a modern technology platform on Azure. As part of this growth, we’re now looking for a Data Engineer to take ownership of the data foundation behind our AI, reporting and future technology platforms.

Why this role is different

This is a newly created role, giving you the opportunity to take ownership of an area that hasn’t previously had a dedicated Data Engineer. Data sits at the heart of our AI products, reporting and wider technology transformation, and you’ll play a key role in making sure it is reliable, secure and fit for the future.

The overall data strategy is already defined by our IT Director. Your role is to run with it – turning the strategy into working pipelines and platforms, owning the data engineering estate day-to-day and helping refine it as our technology develops.

You’ll report to our Head of Development, working closely with our AI Developer and colleagues across the wider technology team. You’ll have plenty to get your teeth into from day one, from improving our existing data warehouse and reporting environment to building the new data foundations behind our AI strategy. We’re looking for someone who wants genuine ownership and responsibility, and who wants to see the tangible impact of their work.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Deliver our data strategy: how we extract case data from our case management estate, where it lands, and what the target data platform looks like are questions the strategy answers. Your job is to run with the strategy, build what it describes, and support and refine it as the estate evolves.
• Design least-privilege, read-only access patterns and query workloads that never put load on the live production system the firm depends on.
• Build and maintain the datasets our AI work depends on, including taking our golden dataset of completed matters from a manual exercise to a versioned, access-controlled, anonymised and repeatable pipeline, along with the evaluation data that tells us whether our AI is getting better.
• Replace a legacy management information warehouse built on stored procedures with modern, documented pipelines and reporting that is trusted throughout the business.
• Support the data needs of new platform builds and integrations as our legacy estate is replaced.
• Monitor data quality, lineage, retention and pseudonymisation to a standard that stands up in a regulated firm handling sensitive client data.
• Maintain documentation so your pipelines and datasets are well understood and can be built upon by others.
• Stay current with data engineering tooling and practice, identifying opportunities to improve how we manage and move data

What We’re Looking For:

We're looking for an experienced, hands‑on Data Engineer who enjoys ownership rather than simply being given tickets to complete. We'd expect you to have around 4-6+ years of genuine hands‑on Data Engineering experience, although we’re much more interested in what you’ve actually owned and delivered than the number of years on your CV.

• Strong SQL – genuinely comfortable with complex queries, performance tuning, data modelling and stored procedures, with the judgement to understand the impact of querying production systems
• Python for data pipeline and automation work
• Experience owning production data pipelines end‑to‑end: built them, monitored them, fixed them when they broke
• Experience working with SQL Server, Azure SQL or similar production database environments
• Genuine sense of ownership and accountability – when something goes wrong with a data pipeline or data integrity issue, you’re the person who wants to understand why and fix it
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and taking ownership of loosely defined problems
• Strong communication skills and the confidence to work with both technical colleagues and non‑technical stakeholders
• An understanding of the importance of security, data quality and responsible handling of confidential information
• Experience working with cloud data technologies – Azure experience would be beneficial, but we’re open to candidates with transferable experience from other cloud platforms
• Progress OpenEdge experience
• Databricks, Spark or PySpark experience
• Experience feeding data into AI systems, including RAG pipelines, vector stores, embedding workflows, or using Azure AI Foundry or similar AI/data platforms
• Event‑driven pipelines and Azure Service Bus or similar messaging technologies
• Experience within legal, professional services or another regulated environment
• Experience using AI‑assisted development tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot or similar

What You’ll Get in Return:

• A newly created role with genuine ownership – you’ll be the first dedicated Data Engineer at PLS and will have the opportunity to shape how we build and manage data
• A key role in our AI strategy, working alongside our AI Developer and technology leadership team as we build out our AI capability
• The opportunity to make a visible impact – you’ll be solving real data problems that are already affecting how our technology and reporting work today
• A modern, collaborative environment withstrong backing from the CEO and COO,where ideas are heard and hierarchy doesn’t get in the way of good thinking
• Join a growing, tech‑driven law firm with a genuine focus on innovation.
• Long‑term development opportunities including study support options (employer-funded after 12- months).
• 25 days AL + Bank Holidays, with buy/carry over options
• Employee benefits: death in service, healthcare plan, EAP, counselling, and salary sacrifice
• Extras: free conveyancing, mortgage advice, staff discounts

Successful candidates will be contacted from 23rd September

Important information for candidates and agencies: The only way to apply for a role at PLS Solicitors is directly through our careers site, via this advert, or by contacting our Talent Acquisition team.

Recruitment agencies are not authorised to submit candidates to PLS Solicitors unless they have been specifically engaged by us for that vacancy. Any unsolicited CVs or candidate details will not be accepted and no fees will be payable.

Candidates should be cautious of any agency claiming to have submitted them for a role at PLS Solicitors without their direct application. If you are unsure whether your application has been received, please contact our Talent Acquisition team directly.