Data Technical Lead

PA Consulting; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private healthcare

25 days annual leave

Generous pension scheme

Annual performance-based bonus

PA share ownership

Cycle to work / Give as you earn

Job summary

PA Consulting is seeking an experienced Data Platform Tech Lead to design and deliver scalable data platforms that support analytics, AI and operational workloads. You will lead data engineering teams, shape architectural direction, and collaborate with product, design and client teams across sectors.

The role offers hybrid working in the UK, exposure to cutting-edge platforms, and opportunities for growth within a culture of learning and invention.

Qualifications

• Experience leading data engineering or data platform teams.
• Designed scalable data platforms in enterprise environments.
• Strong architectural decisions across ingestion, storage, processing, modelling, orchestration and serving.
• Applied software engineering practices to data platforms, including testing and CI/CD.
• Establishing data quality, observability, governance, metadata and security.
• Experience with data platform modernization and migration, including coexistence and cutover.
• Pragmatic technology choices across platform, storage, processing and integration patterns.
• Shaping end-to-end engineering lifecycle and collaborating with engineers and stakeholders.
• Able to turn business problems into practical technical solutions and communicate with clients.

Responsibilities

• Steer technical teams through complex challenges and guide clients through digital transformations.
• Provide mentorship to engineers and promote continuous improvement.
• Participate in problem-solving whiteboard sessions and design reviews.
• Support GenAI-enabled engineering delivery with appropriate guardrails.
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders to shape solution approaches and bids.

Skills

Data leadership

Modern data platforms

CI/CD

Data governance

Cloud architectures

Observability

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Databricks

Snowflake

Apache Spark

Apache Airflow

Terraform

GitHub Actions

Azure DevOps

Jenkins

Delta Lake

Kubernetes

Job description

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future.

As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity.

Our teams of interdisciplinary experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.

We are over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists. And we have deep expertise in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences, and transport.

Our teams operate globally from offices across the UK, Ireland, US, Nordics, and Netherlands.

Job Description

Hybrid working - our approach is to be in the office or on client site a minimum of 2 days per week. However, the actual time you spend and where you spend it will vary by role or assignment, including up to 5 days per week on a client site.

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. We challenge where it matters and own the outcome. We combine strategic thinking, customer-centric service design, and agile engineering practices to accelerate innovation in a tech-driven world.

• Join our Digital & Data team working alongside product, design and a wide range of other experts and cross-disciplinary teams to bring ideas to life through innovative software solutions.
• Grow a flexible and unique career within a trust-based,inclusive environment that values excellence, innovation, and curiosity. You have the option to progress with us on a technical career track. No need to go onto the Partner career track if this doesn’t align with what you want to do.
• Hybrid working - our approach is to be in the office or on client site a minimum of 2 days per week.
• Work on a broad variety of projects and tech stacks for clients across seven sectors - no project is ever the same
• Join other experts within our supportive and collaborative tech community through knowledge-sharing and peer-level support, coaching and mentoring
• Deepen your expertise through oura culture of learning and growth – you’ll have budget to take courses (technical and non-technical training), plus gain certifications

We believe in using the right technology for the problem rather than prescribing a single stack. As a Data Platform Tech Lead, you can expect to design and deliver scalable,secureand high-performing data platforms that support analytics, operational workloads,AIand emerging usecases.

You may work with technologies and architectural approaches including, butnotlimited to:

• Cloud platforms:AWS,Azureand GCP
• Modern data platforms:Databricks, Snowflake and cloud-native data services
• Data architecture:Lakehouse, medallion, datameshand domain-oriented patterns
• Data processing:Apache Spark,SQLand distributed processing technologies
• Data storage:Delta Lake, ApacheIcebergand open table formats
• Data pipelines:Enterprise-scale ETL/ELT,batchand streaming patterns
• Transformation and quality:dbt, Great Expectations and equivalent tooling
• Orchestration:Apache Airflow and cloud-native orchestration services
• Event streaming:Kafka and cloud-native event-streaming technologies
• Data modelling:Dimensional,analyticaland domain-oriented modelling
• Data governance:Catalogue, metadata, lineage, quality, security,privacyand access controls
• Data products:Reusable, discoverable and well-governed dataproductsand marketplaces
• DataOpsand observability:Testing, monitoring, operationalcontrolsand platform reliability
• Platform engineering:Terraform, CloudFormation, Azure Bicep and infrastructure-as-code
• CI/CD:GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps,Jenkinsand equivalent tooling
• Modernisation:Greenfield delivery,migrationand integration of complex legacy data estates
• AI-enabled engineering:GenAI-assisted development, agentic workflows andappropriate engineering,securityand governance controls.

What you can expect

• Work to agile best practices and cross-functionally with multiple teams and stakeholders.You’llbe using your technical skills to problem solve with our clients, as well as working on internal projects
• Steer technical teams through complex challenges and guide our clients towards successful digital transformations
• Provide mentorship to engineers and create an environment of continuous improvement
• Live in-person whiteboarding sessions to problem solve as a team, alongside asynchronous communication on Teams
• Help teams use GenAI effectively across engineering delivery, applying the right practices,controlsand guardrails.
• Hybrid working with the team on client site or in our office a minimum of two days per week. However, the actual time you spend and where you spend it will vary by role or assignment, including up to 5 days per week on a client site.
• An environment that deeply cares about its values

Qualifications

Essential requirements

Even if you do not meet every requirement below, we encourage you to apply. We often recruit for related roles where your experience may be a strong fit.

You will have demonstrable experience of:

• You have technically led data engineering or data platform teams,settingdirection while enabling engineers to own and deliver solutions.
• You have designed and delivered modern data platformsthat are scalable,reliableand cost-effective in enterprise environments.
• Making sound architectural decisions across ingestion, storage, processing, modelling, orchestration and serving.
• Applying strong software engineering practices to data platforms, including testing, CI/CDand infrastructure-as-code.
• Establishing effective approaches to data quality, observability, governance,metadataand security.
• You can lead data platform modernisation and migration, including coexistence,cutoverand decommissioning.
• Making pragmatic technology choices and understanding the trade-offs between platform, storage,processingand integration patterns.
• You shape the end-to-end engineering lifecycle, improving how teams build, test, deploy andoperatesoftware and data products.
• You communicate clearly with engineers,clientsand senior stakeholders, and canestablishcredibility quickly in complex delivery environments.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, challenge assumptions and turn business problems into practical technical solutions.
• Providing technical input into bids,proposalsand client discussions, including shaping solution approaches and implementation plans.

#LI-SG1

We know the skill-gap and ‘somewhat need to tick every box’ can get in the way of meeting brilliant candidates, so please don’t hesitate to apply – we’d love to hear from you.

Please be aware that some of our UK roles at PA Consulting require a UK security clearance.

All PA people are required to undergo background checks and to achieve the Baseline Personnel Security Standard however, some UK roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting, where applicants must have at least 5 years of continuous residency in the UK.

We therefore ask that you only apply if you meet the residency requirements (i.e. you are a British citizen or have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years), as this is the prerequisite for a security clearance. If you're unsure about your eligibility, we encourage you to review the UK Government’s guidance on security vetting before applying.

Additional Information

• Quick video call with one of our Tech Recruiters – to discuss your application, the role and PA
• Round 1: Competency interview (45 minutes)
• Round 2: Technical interview (90 mins face to face)
• Final round : Meeting with a PA leader - a discussion around your client-centricity (30 mins face to face)

Life At PA encompasses our peoples’ experience at PA. It's about how we enrich peoples’ working lives by giving them access to unique people and growth opportunities and purpose led meaningful work.

Our purpose guides how we work with our clients and our teams, and support our communities, to deliver insight and impact, solving the world’s most complex challenges. We're focused on building a workplace that values human difference and diverse mindsets, and a culture of inclusion and equality that unlocks the potential in our people so everyone can be their best self.

We are dedicated to supporting the physical, emotional, social and financial well-being of our people. Check out some of our extensive benefits:

• Health and lifestyle perks accompanying private healthcare
• 25 days annual leave (plus a bonus half day on Christmas Eve) with the opportunity to buy 5 additional days
• Generous company pension scheme
• Opportunity to get involved with community and charity-based initiatives
• Annual performance-based bonus
• PA share ownership
• Tax efficient benefits (cycle to work, give as you earn)

We’re committed to advancing equality.We recruit, retain, reward and develop our people based solely on their abilities and contributions and without reference to their age, background, disability, genetic information, parental or family status, religion or belief, race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity (or expression), political belief, veteran status, or any other range of human difference brought about by identity and experience. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups.

Adjustments or accommodations - Should you need any adjustments or accommodations to the recruitment process, at either application or interview, please contact us on [emailprotected]

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