Data Engineering Chapter Lead

Admiral Group Plc; Cardiff; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

33 days holiday

Up to £3,600 of free shares each year

Job summary

The Data Engineering Chapter Lead in Admiral Money leads the Data Engineering discipline within Admiral Group’s data estate. You will shape standards, guide cross‑team delivery, and scale data pipelines powering analytics, reporting, and data science.

You will coach engineers, set engineering direction, and collaborate with stakeholders to drive reliable, governed data foundations and innovative data solutions across the business.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and building production-grade data pipelines.
• Strong SQL and Python with hands-on cloud experience (AWS preferred).
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers in a team or Chapter model.
• Deep understanding of modern data architecture patterns (ELT, streaming, CDC).
• Strong communicator who can influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Own the Data Engineering Chapter; the skills, standards, growth and ways of working.
• Define engineering best practices, coding standards and quality controls.
• Shape the future technical direction for data pipelines, architecture and ingestion patterns.
• Oversee the design of scalable, secure, reusable pipelines and data services.
• Review architectures and engineering approaches to ensure alignment with enterprise standards.
• Drive improvements to performance, reliability, quality, observability and resilience.
• Work closely with the whole Data & Analytics department and wider business teams.
• Support squads by unblocking technical challenges and providing expert guidance.
• Contribute to strategic decision making around data models, patterns and solution design.
• Lead, mentor and develop a Chapter of analytics platform engineers and specialists.
• Build an open, collaborative culture that fosters continuous improvement.

Skills

Data pipelines

SQL

Python

Leadership

Communication

AWS

ELT

Streaming

CDC

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes

dbt

Airflow

Job description

We are recruiting for aData Engineering Chapter Leadwithin our Data & Analytics team at Admiral Money.

About us

Admiral Money is the dynamic lending arm of Admiral Group, offering personal loans, motor finance, and homeowner loans since 2017. We’re building something special for our customers and are looking for curious, driven individuals ready to learn, take on challenges, and make an impact.

We’re proud to be a certified Great Place to Work for over 25 years, with recognition for Women and Wellbeing. Our inclusive culture empowers everyone to Be You.

Need support during the recruitment process? Just let us know – we’re here to help.

The role

The Data Engineering Chapter Lead is responsible for defining, growing, and leading the Data Engineering discipline within Admiral Money. You will oversee a discipline, including Engineers focused on building, maintaining, and evolving the data ingestion patterns, pipelines and data contracts that delivers data to eventually power analytics, operational reporting, data science, and wider business decision‑making.

The Data Engineering Chapter Lead owns the technical direction, standards and capability for all Data Engineering across Admiral Money. You will guide our engineering excellence, support cross-team delivery, develop our people, and ensure the data foundations are scalable, reliable and governed.

You will set engineering standards, coach engineers, shape platform architecture, and work closely with cross‑functional teams to ensure high quality engineering, consistent patterns and a culture of continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

Leadership & Strategy

• Own the Data Engineering Chapter; the skills, standards, growth and ways of working.
• Define engineering best practices, coding standards and quality controls.
• Shape the future technical direction for data pipelines, architecture and ingestion patterns.

Technical Ownership

• Oversee the design of scalable, secure, reusable pipelines and data services.
• Review architectures and engineering approaches to ensure alignment with enterprise standards.
• Drive improvements to performance, reliability, quality, observability and resilience.

Collaboration & Delivery

• Work closely with the whole Data & Analytics department and wider business teams.
• Support squads by unblocking technical challenges and providing expert guidance.
• Contribute to strategic decision making around data models, patterns and solution design.

People Leadership

• Lead, mentor and develop a Chapter of analytics platform engineers and specialists.
• Build an open, collaborative culture that fosters continuous improvement.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Deep experience designing and building production‑grade data pipelines.
• Strong SQL and Python skills with hands‑on cloud experience (AWS preferred).
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers in a team or Chapter model.
• Deep understanding of modern data architecture patterns (ELT, streaming, CDC).
• Strong communicator who can influence technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Desirable

• Infrastructure‑as‑code (Terraform), Kubernetes, or Go/TypeScript experience.
• Experience in regulated industries.
• Familiarity with dbt, Airflow and event‑driven architectures.

Admiral: Where You Can

We take pride in being a diverse and inclusive business. It's a place where you can Be You, and show up as you are. We’re committed to fostering a people‑first culture where everyone is accepted, supported, and empowered to be brilliant. You can, Grow And Progress at a pace and direction that suits you, Make A Difference for our customers and each other, and Share in Our Future with all colleagues eligible for up to £3,600 of free shares each year after one year of service.

Everyone receives 33 days holiday (including bank holidays) when they join us, increasing the longer you stay with us, up to a maximum of 38 days (including bank holidays). You also have the option to buy or sell up to an additional five days of annual leave.

We’re proud of our people‑first culture. In fact, we've been recognised as a Great Place to Work for Women, a Great Place to Work for Wellbeing, and an overall Great Place to Work for over 25 years! We’re fully committed to making sure your progression is not slowed or halted by barriers related to race, gender, age, sexuality or any of the protected characteristics.

Our fantastic benefits make sure our colleagues have a great work‑life balance; You can view some of our other key benefits here.

As a Disability Confident Leader, for candidates with a disability or long‑term health condition, that opt into the Disability Confident scheme, we’ll invite a fair and proportionate number of applicants that meet the essential requirements of the role to the first stage of our selection process.

If you need any adjustments or support with your application or during the recruitment process, just let us know. Please do email [e-mail] or contact us on 07970136735. This number is dedicated to supporting candidates that require reasonable adjustments or support during the application process.