Data Engineering Technical Lead

Vanguard; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard in London seeks a Data Engineering Technical Lead to shape data products and drive analytics across business functions. You will guide a data engineering team, collaborate with product managers, analysts, architects, and stakeholders to deliver scalable data solutions in a hybrid environment.

This role blends hands-on development with strategic leadership, focusing on secure, scalable data platforms and AI-enabled tooling to achieve measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise designing and building scalable data pipelines and data products in cloud environments.
• Hands-on with Databricks, Spark, SQL, and Python for data processing.
• Experience developing and optimizing batch and real-time data processing solutions.
• Knowledge of modern data architecture patterns (Kimball, Data Vault, dimensional modelling).
• Experience Infrastructure as Code using Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Experience leading technical delivery teams and mentoring data engineers.
• Strong stakeholder management translating business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Experience implementing data governance, data quality, security, and operational controls.

Responsibilities

• Write ETL processes, design databases, and develop tools for real-time and offline analytics.
• Troubleshoot data integrity and integrate large-scale data from multiple sources for insights.
• Translate business specs into design, write complex programs, and document code.
• Partner with internal clients to understand business needs and design data solutions.
• Lead all phases of solution development and communicate with both clients and junior staff.
• Educate and mentor junior data engineers and contribute to engineering standards.
• Test and implement new releases and coordinate with vendors for production readiness.
• Apply AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity and quality.

Skills

Data pipelines

Databricks

Spark

SQL

Python

Cloud environments

Data products

Lead teams

Stakeholder management

Data governance

CI/CD

Agile

Product delivery

AI-assisted development

AWS

Data mesh

MLOps

Generative AI

Distributed teams

Terraform

CloudFormation

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Job description

The Role

The Data Engineering Technical Lead will play a critical role in shaping and delivering Vanguard Europe's data and analytics capabilities. Working within the Chief Data & Analytics Office (CDAO), this role will lead the technical design, development, and evolution of data products that support business decision-making across Financial Advice Services, Marketing, Operations, Risk, and other key business functions.

Job Title

Data Engineering Technical Lead

The Role

The Data Engineering Technical Lead will play a critical role in shaping and delivering Vanguard Europe's data and analytics capabilities. Working within the Chief Data & Analytics Office (CDAO), this role will lead the technical design, development, and evolution of data products that support business decision-making across Financial Advice Services, Marketing, Operations, Risk, and other key business functions.

Operating in a modern cloud-based environment leveraging Databricks, AWS, and Infrastructure as Code, the successful candidate will lead a team of data engineers while partnering closely with Product Managers, Data Analysts, Architects, and business stakeholders. The role combines deep technical expertise with strong leadership capabilities, ensuring scalable, secure, and high-quality data solutions are delivered that drive measurable business outcomes.

This is an exciting opportunity to influence Vanguard's data strategy, establish engineering best practices, promote AI-enabled software development, and help build a high-performing engineering culture across a growing global team.

In this role you will

• Write ETL (Extract / Transform / Load) processes, designs database systems and, develops tools for real-time and offline analytic processing
• Troubleshoot software and processes for data consistency and integrity. Integrates complex and large scale data from a variety of sources for business partners to generate insight and make decisions.
• Translate business specifications into design specifications and code. Responsible for writing complex programs, ad hoc queries, and reports. Ensures that all code is well structured, includes sufficient documentation, and is easy to maintain and reuse
• Partner with internal clients to gain an expert understanding of business functions and informational needs. Works closely with other technical and data analytics experts across the business to implement data solutions
• Lead all phases of solution development. Explains technical considerations at related meetings, including those with internal clients and less experienced team members
• Assess data quality and tests code thoroughly for accuracy of intended purpose. Provides data analysis guidance and serves as a technical consultant for the client
• Educate and develops junior data engineers on the team while applying quality control to their work. Develops data engineering standards and contributes expertise to other data expert teams across Vanguard
• Test and implement new software releases through regression testing. Identifies issues and engages with vendors to resolve and elevate software into production
• Experience in data analytics, programming, database administration, or data management experience
• Proficient in spec-driven development using AI coding tools such as Claude Code or Codex. Having AI engineering experience will be a plus

What It Takes

Must-Have Skills & Experience

• Deep expertise designing and building scalable data pipelines and data products in cloud environments
• Strong hands-on experience with Databricks, Spark, SQL, and Python
• Experience developing and optimizing batch and real-time data processing solutions
• Strong understanding of modern data architecture patterns, including Kimball, Data Vault, dimensional modelling, and data product design principles
• Experience implementing Infrastructure as Code using tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation
• Experience leading technical delivery teams and mentoring data engineers
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Experience implementing data governance, data quality, security, and operational controls within enterprise platforms
• Strong understanding of software engineering best practices including version control, CI/CD, automated testing, and code review processes
• Experience working in Agile product delivery environments and collaborating across cross-functional teams
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical decision-making and influence architecture direction
• Proficiency using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent tools to improve engineering productivity and quality

Nice-to-Have Skills & Experience

• Experience delivering Financial Services, Wealth Management, Asset Management, or Investment platform data solutions
• Experience working with AWS-native data services and event-driven architectures
• Experience building data products that support analytics, reporting, machine learning, or AI use cases
• Knowledge of MLOps, AI Engineering, Agentic AI, or Generative AI implementation patterns
• Experience leading distributed engineering teams
• Experience establishing engineering standards, reusable frameworks, and community-of-practice initiatives
• Knowledge of data mesh, domain-driven design, and product-centric operating models

Special Factors

• Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position
• This is a hybrid position and would require you to work in the office 3 days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday)
• Please note that we review applications on a rolling basis and may close this role early if there is a high level of interest.

Why Vanguard?

Vanguard is a different kind of investment company. It was founded in the United States in 1975 on a simple but revolutionary idea: that an investment company should manage its funds solely in the interests of its clients.

This is a philosophy that has helped millions of people around the world to achieve their goals with low-cost, uncomplicated investments.

It's what we stand for: value to investors.

Inclusion Statement

Vanguard’s continued commitment to diversity and inclusion is firmly rooted in our culture. Every decision we make to best serve our clients, crew (internally employees are referred to as crew), and communities is guided by one simple statement: “Do the right thing.”

We believe that a critical aspect of doing the right thing requires building diverse, inclusive, and highly effective teams of individuals who are as unique as the clients they serve. We empower our crew to contribute their distinct strengths to achieving Vanguard’s core purpose through our values.

When all crew members feel valued and included, our ability to collaborate and innovate is amplified, and we are united in delivering on Vanguard's core purpose: to take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.