Lead Data Engineer

V.Group; Glasgow; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private healthcare

Pension plan

25 days’ annual leave + holidays

Job summary

V.Group in Glasgow seeks a Lead Data Engineer to join as a hands-on player-coach, supporting the Head of Data and acting as the senior technical anchor for data engineering.

You will design scalable data pipelines, establish data quality, lineage and governance, and lead by hands-on coding while guiding other engineers in a hybrid Glasgow-based environment with occasional site travel.

Qualifications

• Senior-level hands-on data engineering experience with ownership of architecture and standards.
• Strong command of the modern data stack: pipelines/ETL, warehouse or lakehouse, SQL, Python, orchestration.
• Experience establishing data quality, lineage and governance practices.
• Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP) and streaming/real-time data; AI/ML data pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Own data engineering architectural decisions and technical standards across ShipSure.
• Design scalable, reliable data pipelines and platforms across ingestion, transformation, storage and serving.
• Establish best practice for data quality, lineage, observability and security.
• Work as a player-coach designing, building, testing and shipping data pipelines and models.
• Partner with product teams to deliver data-as-a-product capabilities.

Skills

Senior data engineer

Data pipelines

Python

SQL

Orchestration

Data governance

Cloud data platforms

AI/ML data pipelines

Hands-on leadership

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Airflow

ETL pipelines

Data warehouse

Data lakehouse

Job description

As a global leader in ship management and marine services, we add value to a vessel’s operations. Operating around the clock and around the world, V. gives every client the quality and efficiency they need in every sector. Covering crew management and recruitment, quality ship management and technical services, together with supporting management and commercial services, V. has an unrivalled industry knowledge with performance assured. Our values, We Care, We Collaborate, We Challenge, We are Consistent, We Commit and Deliver, are at the heart of everything we do and they support our strategy of Investing in Talent. We are always interested in making contact with talented individuals - people who will demonstrate our values and deliver great service, for internal and external stakeholders.

Overall Purpose of The Job

The Lead Data Engineer is a hands-on player-coach who supports the existing Head of Data and acts as the senior technical anchor for data engineering — fulfilling an existing ask within the team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own data engineering architectural decisions and technical standards across ShipSure.
• Design scalable, reliable data pipelines and platforms across ingestion, transformation, storage and serving.
• Establish best practice for data quality, lineage, observability and security.

Hands-On Delivery & Technical Leadership

• Work as a player-coach — designing, building, testing and shipping data pipelines and models yourself alongside the data team, not only directing others.
• Support the Head of Data on technical strategy and delivery, and set the technical bar through your own hands-on work.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership — including design, code review and pairing — and guide engineers as the team scales.

Delivery

• Partner with the Data & Dashboards Product Manager and Product Owner to build and deliver data-as-a-product capabilities.
• Embed with engineering squads to define and implement the data approaches they need, while personally delivering core data platform work within the data team.

Person Specification

• Senior, still-hands-on data engineering experience, with ownership of architecture and technical standards.
• Strong command of the modern data stack (pipelines/ETL, warehouse or lakehouse, SQL, Python, orchestration).
• Experience establishing data quality, lineage and governance practices.
• A genuine player-coach — you still design and write code daily — able to provide technical leadership and guide other engineers.
• Comfortable in a hybrid internal / outsourced delivery model.
• Experience in maritime, ERP, or asset-intensive domains.
• Cloud data platform experience (AWS, Azure or GCP) and streaming / real-time data.
• Exposure to AI / ML data pipelines.
• Relevant cloud or data engineering certifications.

Working Conditions

• Glasgow-based; hybrid working from the Glasgow office.
• Occasional travel between V.Group sites as required.
• A minimum of three days per week onsite in the Glasgow office is required.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary within the stated band, plus annual bonus.
• Glasgow-based; hybrid working from the Glasgow office.
• The opportunity to shape a platform that manages thousands of vessels worldwide.
• Access to cutting-edge AI-assisted development practices.
• Private healthcare, pension contribution, and 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays.
• A collaborative, ambitious team working on a programme with genuine board-level sponsorship.