Databricks Data Engineer

Nimble Approach; Manchester; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Champion Fund £2k for L&D

Westfield health care

Company pension

Wellness program

Relaxed client-focused culture

Tech meetups and team activities

Job summary

Nimble Approach is building a dedicated Databricks practice and seeks a hands-on data engineer to help scale it from day one. You will design and build production pipelines and lakehouse platforms on Databricks, delivering reliable, governed data platforms for client projects.

You will own meaningful pieces of work, grow your Databricks expertise, and contribute to accelerators and delivery standards as the practice expands.

Qualifications

• Hands-on Databricks experience building/maintaining production pipelines.
• Strong PySpark and SQL skills for tuning Spark performance.
• Understanding Delta Lake, medallion architecture, data modelling and ingestion patterns.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain batch and streaming pipelines on Databricks.
• Develop lakehouse platforms with Delta Lake and Unity Catalog governance.
• Apply CI/CD and IaC to deliver repeatable, observable solutions.
• Collaborate with client engineers to understand requirements and communicate options clearly.
• Build reusable accelerators, templates and delivery patterns.

Skills

Databricks experience

PySpark

SQL

Lakehouse fundamentals

CI/CD

Terraform

Git

Client communication

Tools

Databricks

Terraform

Git

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Nimble Approach is building a dedicated Databricks practice, and we’re looking for a hands-on data engineer to help build it with us. This is a chance to join a small, growing team early, work on real client platforms from day one, and develop your Databricks expertise alongside experienced consultants.

You’ll design and build production-ready pipelines and lakehouse platforms on Databricks, helping clients replace fragmented data and tooling with something reliable, well governed and built to last. You’ll work as part of a delivery team, take ownership of meaningful pieces of work, and grow your technical and consulting skills as the practice grows.

Your Impact

1. Delivering for Clients

• Build Production Pipelines: Design, build and maintain batch and streaming pipelines on Databricks using PySpark, SQL and Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines, with a focus on reliability, performance and data quality.
• Implement Lakehouse Platforms: Help stand up and extend client platforms, including medallion architectures, Delta Lake tables, Unity Catalog governance and workspace configuration.
• Engineer for Production: Apply CI/CD, automated testing and infrastructure as code (Databricks Asset Bundles, Terraform) so that what we deliver is repeatable, observable and easy to hand over.
• Work with Clients: Collaborate with client engineers and stakeholders to understand requirements, explain technical choices clearly, and raise risks or opportunities you spot along the way.

2. Growing the Practice

• Build Reusable Assets: Contribute to the accelerators, templates and delivery patterns that help us deliver Databricks projects faster and more consistently.
• Set the Standard: Follow, and help shape, our internal view of “what good looks like” for Databricks engineering: coding standards, review practices and documentation.
• Learn and Share: Develop your skills through pairing, code review and certification, and share what you learn with the wider team.

What You Bring

• Hands-on Databricks Experience: You’ve built and supported production pipelines on Databricks, ideally including at least one end-to-end platform delivery.
• Strong PySpark and SQL: You write clean, tested, maintainable code and know how to diagnose and tune Spark performance.
• Lakehouse Fundamentals: You understand Delta Lake, medallion architecture, data modelling and ingestion patterns, and why data quality matters.
• Engineering Practices: You’re comfortable with Git, CI/CD and automated testing, and have some exposure to infrastructure as code.
• Cloud Experience: You’ve worked on at least one major cloud platform (Azure / AWS / GCP).
• Certification: Databricks certification is preferable
• Client-Ready Communication: You can explain technical concepts to non-technical people and are comfortable working directly with client teams.

Nice to Have

• Unity Catalog implementation or migration experience
• Declarative Automation Bundles or Terraform for Databricks
• Streaming experience (Structured Streaming, Auto Loader, Kafka or Event Hubs)
• Migrating workloads from legacy platforms such as Synapse, Hadoop or on-premises warehouses
• Consulting or other client-facing delivery experience
• Exposure to Databricks AI/ML capabilities

Why Nimble?

We don't just want you to work here; we want you to grow here. We offer a flat structure where your voice shapes our OKRs and our future.

• Autonomy & Growth: £2k annual "Champion Fund" to spend entirely as you wish on your own L&D, plus dedicated time to learn.
• Reward: Competitive salary, company pension, and a £3,000 referral scheme for every successful hire you bring in.
• Wellness: Westfield healthcare (for you and a family member), an internal wellness program supported by mental health first aiders, and a supportive, "egoless" culture.
• Community & Fun: From escape rooms and bouldering to tech meetups, we genuinely enjoy each other's company.
• Flexibility: Top-tier equipment (Mac or Windows) and a relaxed environment that focuses on client outcomes.

Please be advised we are unable to offer Sponsorship for this role

At Nimble Approach, we strongly believe that discrimination and victimisation is unacceptable. It is our duty to ensure that no employee or job applicant receives less favourable facilities or treatment (either directly or indirectly) in recruitment or employment on grounds of age, disability, gender / gender reassignment, marriage / civil partnership, pregnancy / maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation (the protected characteristics).

Our aim is that our workforce will be truly representative of society and each employee feels respected and able to give their best. We want everyone at Nimble and those applying to join us to feel safe, supported and encouraged so if we can make any adjustments to help with your application or you require any assistance, please reach out to us on [e-mail] and we are happy to help.