Lead Data Engineer

Lorien; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 77,000 - 104,000; Full time

Job summary

Lorien in Manchester is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to shape a growing data platform, balancing hands-on delivery with technical leadership. You'll own data architecture, engineering standards, and mentor engineers while collaborating with analytics teams and business stakeholders.

The role centers on AWS-based data lakehouse modernization, real-time processing, scalable pipelines, and long-term platform strategy.

Qualifications

• Significant experience as a Senior or Lead Data Engineer in high-volume environments.
• Strong AWS experience including Glue, Lambda, S3, Redshift or equivalent.
• Expert SQL and data modelling capabilities.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and provide technical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across the Data Engineering team.
• Define engineering standards, patterns, and best practices for data development.
• Design and oversee scalable data pipelines and ETL/ELT solutions within AWS.
• Lead architectural decisions across data warehousing and lakehouse platforms.
• Support and mentor Data Engineers to grow capability and skills.
• Drive improvements in reliability, performance, observability, and data quality.
• Collaborate with Data Scientists, Analysts and Engineering teams on data solutions.
• Contribute to long-term platform strategy and roadmap planning.

Skills

Technical leadership

Mentoring

Stakeholder communication

Tools

AWS

Apache Spark

Kafka

Job description

Lead Data Engineer - Manchester (Hybrid)

£90,000 + Benefits

The Role

We're looking for a Lead Data Engineer to help shape the future of a growing data platform and lead the next phase of its evolution. This is a role for someone who enjoys balancing hands-on engineering with technical leadership. You'll remain close to the technology, but you'll also take ownership of data architecture, engineering standards, technical direction, and the development of other engineers within the team. Working closely with engineering leadership, analytics teams, and business stakeholders, you'll help define how data is built, consumed, and governed across the organisation.

The Opportunity

The team is investing heavily in its data capabilities and modernising its data estate within AWS. Existing initiatives include the migration of a large-scale data warehouse into AWS and the adoption of modern lakehouse architecture, real-time data processing, and advanced analytics capabilities. As Lead Data Engineer, you'll be responsible for ensuring the platform scales effectively, engineering standards remain high, and solutions are designed with long-term maintainability in mind. This is an opportunity to influence technology choices, mentor engineers, improve ways of working, and establish best practices across the wider data function.

What You'll Be Doing

• Providing technical leadership across the Data Engineering team.
• Defining engineering standards, patterns, and best practices for data development.
• Designing and overseeing scalable data pipelines and ETL/ELT solutions within AWS.
• Leading architectural decisions across data warehousing and modern lakehouse platforms.
• Supporting and mentoring Data Engineers, helping to develop capability across the team.
• Driving improvements in reliability, performance, observability, and data quality.
• Working closely with Data Scientists, Analysts, and Engineering teams to deliver high-value data solutions.
• Contributing to long-term platform strategy and roadmap planning.
• Supporting the continued migration and optimisation of cloud-based data platforms.
• Promoting modern engineering practices including automation, CI/CD, monitoring, and infrastructure as code.

What You Bring

• Significant experience as a Senior or Lead Data Engineer within high-volume, data-intensive environments.
• Extensive AWS experience including services such as Glue, Lambda, S3, Redshift, and wider cloud-native data tooling.
• Strong knowledge of Apache Spark and large-scale data processing.
• Experience working with streaming technologies such as Kafka.
• Expert SQL and data modelling capabilities.
• Experience designing modern data warehousing and lakehouse architectures.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and provide technical leadership.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Why Apply?

This role offers the chance to help define the future of Data Engineering within a business that is heavily investing in cloud, analytics, and platform modernisation. You'll have the autonomy to influence technical direction, develop engineering capability, and work on large-scale data challenges that have genuine business impact.