Data Integration Technical Lead (FTC)

The FA; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent sports association in Greater London is seeking a Data Integration Technical Lead to supervise data integration engineers and ensure successful delivery of applications. The role involves leadership, technical development, and collaboration across teams to facilitate innovation. Ideal candidates will have significant experience with C#, Azure technologies, and Agile methodologies, along with a commitment to creating a high-performing team culture. The position offers a competitive salary and benefits reflecting the commitment to professional growth.

Benefits

Access to event day tickets at Wembley Stadium

Free lunches at Wembley Stadium

Free private medical cover

Contributory pension scheme

25 days annual leave plus additional days

Qualifications

• Proven development experience using C# (.NET Core) and ASP.NET.
• Experience maintaining MS SQL Server databases with change tracking.
• Skilled in message-based integration and working with Azure Data Factory.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing, cross-functional team.
• Collaborate with architects and engineers to meet delivery goals.
• Monitor team health and ensure contributors are growing.

Skills

C# Development

ASP.NET

JavaScript

T-SQL

Azure Data Factory

Agile/Scrum

Microservices Architecture

Education

Technical Educational Background

Tools

Azure Service Bus

Entity Framework

Dapper

Sonar

Job description

Overview

Have the digital world at your feet

As a Data Integration Technical Lead at the FA, you will lead the data integration engineers within your Pod (Team/Value stream). This is a technical leadership and developer role responsible for the end-to-end development of a suite of FA applications, primarily within a Microsoft-based technology stack. You will be the central point for all integration development activities, including development, establishing coding standards, implementing quality assurance processes, and overseeing the work of developers. The ideal candidate will wear multiple hats—architect, delivery manager, data integration engineer, quality assurance, mentor, problem solver, and collaborative team member—ensuring technical excellence and alignment with business goals.

The role is a 12-month Fixed-Term Contract based at Wembley Stadium.

What will you be doing?

• Collaborate with solution architects, application architects and data engineers to develop solutions meeting delivery goals
• Identify and capture work that needs to be done, including dependencies external to the team
• Onboard new team members and manage the impact of leavers
• Monitor team health and psychological safety; ensure contributors are growing
• Lead and develop a high-performing, cross-functional team with mentoring and coaching
• Establish and champion team norms and engineering standards
• Contribute to technical discussions and architecture decisions to guide quality and scalability
• Support agile delivery practices and continuous improvement
• Enable robust DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipeline management and Kubernetes deployments
• Promote a data-driven culture by defining and tracking key performance and delivery metrics
• Drive innovation and continuous improvement, adapting processes to enhance efficiency
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align on priorities, maintain a clear technical roadmap, and ensure transparency
• Monitor changes to existing code to ensure quality and compliance with FA development standards
• Optimise the developer experience to improve productivity
• Ensure production services are monitored and observed to spot issues early
• Provide constructive feedback to accelerate engineers’ development
• Assess team capability and skill sets, identifying training and development needs
• Assist Product Owners to break down requirements into programming tasks and provide estimates
• Communicate delivery progress and impact of changes to the Delivery Manager
• Ensure product quality is built into the development lifecycle, not left to QA
• Encourage agile practices, TDD, BDD, and paired programming
• Ensure user stories flow efficiently and remove impediments
• Keep abreast of technology developments and engage with developer communities
• Execute additional tasks to meet FA priorities
• Comply with all policies to maintain health and safety standards

What are we looking for?

Essential for the role

Technical & Experience

• Development experience using C# (.NET Core), ASP.NET, JavaScript, T-SQL
• Experience designing, developing and maintaining MS SQL Server databases with change tracking / CDC
• Message-based integration – Azure Service Bus
• Working with Azure Data Factory
• Experience with Dependency Injection & IoC frameworks
• Experience with ORM Frameworks: Entity Framework, Dapper
• Experience in building and consuming web services using micro-services architecture with REST APIs
• Experience in keeping multiple applications in sync – real time/batch processing
• Experience leading teams of technical specialists through to successful delivery
• Experience providing technical leadership and oversight with offshore/third-party delivery teams
• Experience with unit testing, TDD and BDD
• Experience with SAST and SCA tools (e.g., Sonar)
• Experience with design and development of multi-tier architectures
• Knowledge of common software design patterns
• Working knowledge of Agile/Scrum

Delivery Planning

• Experience with agile estimating techniques for large initiatives to user stories
• Experience working with delivery management and product disciplines to produce quarterly plans and longer-term roadmaps

Beneficial to have

• Technical educational background
• Microsoft Software Development Certifications
• Experience developing and supporting high-volume public-facing web applications
• Experience with Sitecore
• Typescript, Angular, React/Vue frameworks
• Experience working in a sport-related environment

What's in it for you?

We are committed to ensuring everyone can flourish in their roles. The FA offers unique office spaces at Wembley Stadium and an Elite Performance Centre at St. George's Park. We provide a competitive salary and opportunities to develop, along with a range of benefits outlined below.

• Access to event day tickets at Wembley Stadium and regular internal events
• Free lunches at Wembley Stadium and St. George's Park
• Free private medical cover
• Contributory pension scheme
• Additional 'Thank You' days, volunteering days and 25 days annual leave (based on full-time contract)
• Hybrid working model with flexibility

For more information on working at The FA, please visit our FA Careers page: https://www.thefa.com/about-football-association/careers

Currently, we operate a hybrid model with part of the week at the contractual location and some days remote. The location and model may be adjusted in future. The contractual location is listed on the FA Careers page.

We are a diverse workplace and an equal opportunities employer. If you have any recruitment or interview process requirements, please mention them in your application. As part of our safety commitments, a DBS check may be required depending on the role and government guidance.