Data Platform Lead

Sanderson; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson is seeking a Data Platform Lead to own the evolution of our data platform, unlocking data value across the business and laying foundations for advanced analytics and AI-driven innovation.

You will lead delivery with the Head of Data, engineering teams and stakeholders, balancing technical delivery with people management to shape technology strategy and team development. Cardiff-based fintech environment with growth and impact.

Qualifications

• Strong leadership and hands-on data engineering expertise.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Experience balancing new delivery, operations, governance and cost.
• Proven ability to design and operate production-grade data pipelines.
• Knowledge of data governance, lineage and AI-ready data foundations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery and evolution of the data platform.
• Own and maintain the data platform roadmap.
• Design, build and maintain scalable data pipelines and models.
• Establish engineering best practices for code quality, testing and deployment.
• Ensure platform services are secure, reliable, and cost-effective.
• Enable analytics by providing trusted data assets and governance.
• Establish AI-ready data foundations with governance and lineage.
• Collaborate with analytics, product and engineering teams.
• Escalate complex data engineering challenges and incidents.
• Line manage and mentor a team of three Data Engineers.

Skills

Technical leadership

Stakeholder management

Data engineering

SQL proficiency

Cloud platforms

CI/CD tooling

Data governance

Mentoring

Data pipelines

Regulated industries

Security controls

Production troubleshooting

Tools

Databricks

Snowflake

BigQuery

AWS

Azure

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Data Platform Lead to join a fast-growing fintech organisation that combines the agility of a startup with the backing of a well-established enterprise business. In this key leadership role, you'll own the evolution of the data platform, helping to unlock the value of data across the organisation and laying the foundations for advanced analytics and AI-driven innovation.

Working closely with the Head of Data, engineering teams, analytics professionals and business stakeholders, you will lead the delivery, reliability and continuous improvement of the data platform. This is a hands-on leadership role, combining technical delivery with people management, giving you the opportunity to influence both technology strategy and team development.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery and ongoing evolution of the organisation's data platform.
• Own and maintain the data platform roadmap, balancing business priorities, technical debt, resilience and future platform capabilities.
• Design, build and maintain scalable data pipelines, reusable datasets and robust data models.
• Establish engineering best practices around code quality, testing, documentation, deployment, monitoring and operational support.
• Ensure platform services are secure, reliable, scalable and cost-effective.
• Enable analytics engineering through trusted, well-modelled and documented datasets that support reporting and self-service analytics.
• Build the foundations for AI-ready data, including governance, lineage, discoverability, access controls and data quality monitoring.
• Partner with analytics, product, engineering and business teams to deliver scalable technical solutions.
• Act as an escalation point for complex data engineering challenges and production issues.
• Line manage and mentor a team of three Data Engineers, supporting their development and performance.

About You

You will be a technically strong and commercially aware Data Platform Lead who enjoys balancing strategic thinking with hands-on delivery. You'll be passionate about building reliable and scalable data solutions while supporting and developing engineering talent.

You'll bring:

• Strong technical leadership and hands-on data engineering expertise.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• A collaborative approach and the ability to work across technical and non-technical teams.
• Experience balancing new delivery, operational support, platform resilience and continuous improvement.
• The confidence to make pragmatic decisions around scalability, governance, security and cost.
• Strong hands-on experience in data engineering and modern data platforms.
• Proven experience designing, building and supporting production-grade data pipelines and reusable data models.
• Strong SQL and software engineering fundamentals.
• Experience with cloud-based data platforms, orchestration tooling and CI/CD practices.
• Strong understanding of data quality, monitoring, testing, documentation and operational support.
• Experience setting technical standards and reviewing engineering outputs.
• Knowledge of data governance, lineage, discoverability and AI-ready data foundations.
• Experience coaching, mentoring or managing engineers.
• Strong prioritisation and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience with platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery, Azure or AWS.
• Experience using data transformation and orchestration tools.
• Background within regulated industries or financial services.
• Experience with data governance, security controls and access management.
• Exposure to analytics, machine learning or operational data products.