Head of Data Engineering

Microsoft Corporation; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Direct access to C-suite

Job summary

Microsoft Corporation is seeking a data engineering leader to translate business priorities into a deliverable strategy and architecture. You will own the tooling, roadmap and budget, while mentoring a team of ten engineers and partnering with senior leaders to drive strategic investments.

You'll own the migration from on-prem SQL to Azure, set engineering standards for data modelling, pipelines and production reliability, and decide tooling and supplier investments to enable a substantial

Qualifications

• Experience leading a data engineering team with strategy ownership.
• Strong grounding in SQL, Azure, Azure Data Factory and ETL/ELT.
• Ability to challenge senior stakeholders and advocate for investment.
• Sufficient engineering depth to guide the team through details.

Responsibilities

• Turn business priorities into a data engineering strategy.
• Lead and develop ten people with technical direction and mentoring.
• Own architecture and migrate from on-prem SQL to Azure.
• Decide tooling, investment and suppliers, and explain to senior leadership.
• Set engineering standards for data modelling, pipelines, quality, governance, deployments and production reliability.

Skills

Data engineering leadership

SQL

Azure

ETL/ELT

Cloud migration

Stakeholder management

Tools

Azure Data Factory

Job description

Reporting into the C-suite, you'll connect the ambitions of an established online business with what its engineers build. You'll own the strategy, architecture and roadmap, with responsibility for the tooling, budget and suppliers behind them. You'll also need the technical depth to help when delivery gets difficult. Someone who can work through a design with the team, mentor an engineer or roll their sleeves up when there's a pinch point. Microsoft Fabric is being explored. The interest is there, but the foundations and route to adoption still need working out. You'll decide where it fits and what needs to happen first. What you'll be doing:

• Turning business priorities into a data engineering strategy the team can deliver.
• Leading and developing ten people, providing technical direction and mentoring.
• Owning the architecture and migration from on-prem SQL into Azure.
• Making the calls on tooling, investment and suppliers, and explaining those decisions to senior leadership.
• Setting engineering standards across data modelling, pipelines, quality, governance, automated deployments and production reliability.

What we need:

• Experience leading a data engineering team, with ownership of strategy and delivery.
• Strong technical grounding in SQL, Azure, Azure Data Factory and ETL/ELT, including cloud migration and architecture.
• The confidence to challenge senior stakeholders and make a clear case for investment.
• Enough engineering depth to step into the detail and help the team move forward.

There's real appetite for AI here. They want someone who has explored how it can improve engineering, automation or platform operations and can bring useful ideas into practice. Choosing the right tool for the job matters, alongside knowing how to test whether it's actually helped.

Up to £100k, Manchester hybrid, direct C-suite access and ownership of the data engineering function. A team to develop and a substantial platform programme to shape