Lead Data Engineer

Chelsea FC; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading sports organization in Greater London seeks an experienced Lead Data Engineer to shape the technical vision of its data platform. The role involves leading data engineering initiatives, ensuring data quality, and collaborating with various stakeholders to enhance fan engagement. Candidates should have over 5 years of experience, strong technical skills, and a degree in a related STEM field. This is a hybrid permanent position offering competitive benefits and a unique opportunity to work in the sports sector.

Benefits

25 days annual leave (+ Bank Holidays)

Pension Contribution (5%)

Life Assurance (4 x base salary)

Private healthcare

Cycle to Work scheme

Chelsea Ticket Membership Program

Free staff lunches at Stamford Bridge

Discount on club products

Employee Assistance Program

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering.
• Hands-on expertise with modern data stacks and cloud environments.
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and influence architectural decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead data engineering strategy for Chelsea FC’s centralized data platform.
• Design scalable data pipelines for various business use cases.
• Mentor engineers and promote a culture of excellence.

Skills

Data transformation with dbt

Cloud data warehouses like BigQuery

Orchestration tools like Airflow

Streaming frameworks like Beam

Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform

CI/CD pipelines

Docker

DevOps workflows

Strong communication skills

Stakeholder management

Education

Degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

JOB TITLE: Lead Data Engineer

DEPARTMENT: Business Data

LOCATION: Stamford Bridge (Hybrid: 4 days per month remote)

CONTRACT: Permanent / Full-time

Closing date: 26th January

We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the position may be filled before the listed closing date. To avoid missing out, please submit your application at your earliest convenience.

Role Overview

Chelsea Football Club is seeking an experienced and innovative Lead Data Engineer to shape the technical vision and delivery of a next-generation data platform that underpins the club’s commercial, digital and fan‑engagement strategy. This role will lead the evolution of Chelsea’s centralised data ecosystem, ensuring our data is accurate, accessible, secure and capable of powering world‑class fan experiences.

As a Lead Data Engineer within the Business Insights & Analytics team, you will play a key role in defining the technical direction of the club’s data engineering capabilities – influencing architecture decisions, setting engineering standards and driving modern data practices across the organisation. You will collaborate closely with teams across CRM, digital, marketing, ticketing, merchandise, hospitality and IT, helping Chelsea unlock the full value of its data.

You’ll be (Responsibilities):

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Contributing to the data engineering strategy for Chelsea FC’s centralised data platform.
• Designing and evolving a unified data ecosystem that brings together ticketing, merchandise, CRM, digital platforms, matchday systems and partner technologies.
• Helping to define and uphold strong data governance, data quality, security and compliance standards.
• Influencing architectural decisions and championing modern engineering practices across the Business Insights & Analytics team and wider club.

Data Engineering Delivery

• Designing, building and maintaining scalable, reliable data pipelines that activate data for marketing, digital analytics, merchandising, hospitality and fan‑engagement use cases.
• Developing and optimising high‑quality data models that support analytics, personalisation, operational reporting and emerging AI/automation needs.
• Managing ingestion frameworks, orchestration, monitoring and observability to ensure high‑performing data operations.
• Acting as a senior technical contributor to major club‑wide initiatives, including the implementation and evolution of the Customer Data Platform (CDP).

Collaboration & Mentoring

• Working closely with stakeholders across CRM, Digital, Marketing, Ticketing, Merchandise, Hospitality and IT to translate business objectives into technical solutions.
• Challenging legacy processes and advocating for continuous improvement across our data landscape.
• Providing mentorship and guidance to engineers and analysts, helping raise technical standards and fostering a culture of excellence.

You’ll have (Experience & Qualifications):

Experience

Essential

• 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering.
• Hands‑on expertise with modern data stacks and cloud environments, including:
  • dbt for data transformation
  • BigQuery or equivalent cloud data warehouses
  • Airflow or similar orchestration tools
  • Beam / PubSub or equivalent streaming frameworks
  • Terraform or other IaC tools
  • CI/CD pipelines, Docker and DevOps workflows
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and influence long‑term architectural decisions.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with experience working across technical and commercial teams.

Desirable

• Exposure to machine learning, analytics or business intelligence tools.
• Experience within sports, entertainment, media, retail or other fan/customer‑centric environments.
• Experience with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and real‑time personalisation ecosystems.
• Familiarity with AI/ML pipelines or automation use cases.

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related STEM field, or equivalent professional experience.

In return: (Benefits)

• 25 days annual leave (+ Bank Holidays). After three years’ service, AL days increase to 28.
• Pension Contribution (5%)
• Life Assurance (4 x base salary)
• Private healthcare through Vitality
• C2W (Cycle to Work scheme)
• Chelsea Ticket Membership Program – enables employees to purchase tickets for home games 49 days prior to the match
• Free staff lunches at Stamford Bridge (Mon‑Fri)
• Discount on club and club‑affiliated products (Megastore, Nike 25% discount, Stadium Tours, onsite bar/restaurant etc)
• Employee Assistance Program, Mental Health first aiders and a strong well‑being community

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equality & Inclusion:

The Employee must at all times carry out his/her responsibilities with due regard to Chelsea Football Club policies and procedures in particular Health & Safety, Financial Authorisation, Confidentiality and with regard to the Data Protection Act. The Employee must act to protect all young people and vulnerable adults that are in their care or attending the Company’s premises. The Employee must report any misconduct or suspected misconduct to the Safeguarding Lead.

Safeguarding

Chelsea Football Club and the Foundation is fully committed to ensuring the safety and well‑being of all children, young people and adults at risk (vulnerable groups) that are in our care or attending our premises. As a consequence, Chelsea FC may require any successful applicants to complete a DBS Check prior to working at our premises. Successful applicants may also be required to undergo other child protection screening appropriate to the post applied for.

The Employee must ensure a positive commitment towards equality and diversity by treating others fairly and not committing any form of direct or indirect discrimination, victimisation or harassment of any description and to promote positive working relations amongst Employees and customers.

The above Job Description is not intended to be exhaustive, the duties and responsibilities may therefore vary over time according to the changing needs of the Club.