Director of Data Engineering

Ashdown Group; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 135,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Ashdown Group, partnering with a leading international data organisation, seeks a Director of Data Engineering to shape and lead its next phase of data platform development. This senior role targets an established Head of Data or Director of Data Engineering who can combine strategic vision with deep technical depth.

You will own the organisation's data architecture, engineering strategy and data platform, ensuring it provides a trusted, scalable foundation for customer-facing products,

Qualifications

• 12+ years in data engineering or related senior leadership roles.
• Experience designing and operating enterprise-scale data platforms.
• Strong cloud data architecture expertise across Snowflake/Databricks/BigQuery.

Responsibilities

• Define enterprise data architecture and technical roadmap.
• Lead development of a scalable cloud data platform.
• Own data modelling, governance, quality and resilience.
• Build foundations supporting AI, ML and advanced analytics.
• Establish DataOps, CI/CD, observability and data quality practices.
• Lead and develop a high-performing data engineering function.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering and Data Science to drive commercial value.
• Own budgets, vendors and cloud cost optimisation.

Skills

Data architecture

Cloud data platforms

Snowflake

Databricks

BigQuery

SQL

Python

Data modelling

DataOps

CI/CD

Observability

Data quality

Leadership

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

BigQuery

Job description

Ashdown Group is partnering with a leading international data organisation to appoint a Director of Data Engineering to shape and lead its next phase of data platform development.

This is a high-impact senior leadership opportunity for an established Head of Data, Director of Data Engineering or senior data engineering leader who combines strategic vision with genuine technical depth.

You will own the organisation's data architecture, engineering strategy and data platform, ensuring it provides a trusted, scalable foundation for customer-facing products, analytics, forecasting and emerging AI/ML capabilities.

Key responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise data architecture and technical roadmap
• Lead the development of a scalable modern cloud data platform
• Own data modelling, architecture, governance, quality and operational resilience
• Build data foundations capable of supporting AI, ML, vector search and advanced analytics
• Establish strong DataOps, CI/CD, observability and data quality practices
• Lead and develop a high-performing data engineering function
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Data Science and senior leadership to turn data into commercial value
• Own budgets, vendors and cloud cost optimisation

What we're looking for

You'll have 12+ years' data engineering experience, including substantial leadership experience, and a proven track record of designing and operating enterprise-scale data platforms.

Strong experience across cloud data architecture, Snowflake/Databricks/BigQuery, SQL, Python, data modelling and modern data engineering practices is essential.

Experience across AI/ML, knowledge graphs, unstructured data, SaaS or customer-facing data products would be highly advantageous.

Most importantly, you'll be a technically credible leader who can set the strategy, challenge architecture, lead teams and still engage confidently with the detail.

This is an excellent opportunity to take ownership of a strategically important data function and play a key role in shaping the organisation's future data and AI capabilities.

Central London | Hybrid | Up to £150,000