Lead Data Engineer (Databricks)

United Utilities; Warrington; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Pension

Private healthcare

Share save scheme

Wellbeing benefits

Job summary

United Utilities seeks a Lead Data Engineer to own Databricks-based data platforms for near real-time river water quality monitoring in Warrington. You will design, build and optimise scalable data pipelines across engineering and environmental teams.

You will lead technically, mentor engineers and ensure data governance, security and cost efficiency while embracing CI/CD and modern data architectures.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering or a related discipline.
• 5+ years' experience in data engineering roles, including 3+ years with Databricks.
• Proven ability to lead technically and mentor engineers.

Responsibilities

• Design scalable batch and streaming data pipelines using Databricks, Spark and Delta Lake.
• Implement medallion architecture (bronze/silver/gold) for data quality and lineage.
• Optimise Spark jobs to meet near real-time monitoring SLAs.
• Build and maintain streaming pipelines using Structured Streaming and Delta Live Tables.
• Ensure strong data governance, including schema enforcement and ACID compliance.
• Orchestrate pipelines using Databricks Jobs, APIs or cloud-native schedulers.
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts and environmental specialists to deliver high-quality datasets.
• Monitor, troubleshoot and improve production pipelines for reliability and cost efficiency.
• Champion CI/CD, testing, version control and documentation.

Skills

Databricks (Spark/PySpark)

Delta Lake

Unity Catalog

Workflows

ETL/ELT pipelines

Python

SQL

Cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP)

Data modelling

Data governance/security/compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Data Engineering

Tools

Airflow

CI/CD pipelines

Git workflows

Job description

About us

Lead Data Engineer (Databricks)

River Water Quality Programme
Warrington (Hybrid - 3 days onsite per week)

At United Utilities, we're committed to protecting the environment that millions of people depend on every day. As part of our Digital Services team, you'll play a pivotal role in one of our most important and high-impact initiatives: near real time monitoring of river water quality.

We're looking for a Lead Data Engineer to take technical ownership of modern, scalable data platforms that turn complex environmental and telemetry data into trusted insights for regulators, scientists, and operational teams.

What you'll be doing

As the Lead Data Engineer on our River Water Quality Programme, you'll design, build, and optimise Databricks-based data pipelines that enable timely, reliable and well-governed data across the organisation.

• Design and develop scalable batch and streaming data pipelines using Databricks, Spark and Delta Lake
• Implement medallion architecture (bronze/silver/gold) to ensure data quality, lineage and efficient consumption
• Optimise Spark jobs and workflows to meet near real-time monitoring SLAs
• Build and maintain streaming pipelines using Structured Streaming and Delta Live Tables
• Ensure strong data governance, including schema enforcement, validation rules and ACID compliance
• Orchestrate and automate pipelines using Databricks Jobs, APIs or cloud-native schedulers
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts and environmental specialists to deliver high-quality, well-documented datasets
• Monitor, troubleshoot and continuously improve production pipelines for reliability, performance and cost efficiency
• Champion best practices across CI/CD, testing, version control and documentation

Act as a technical leader and mentor, raising standards across the data engineering community

What you'll bring

Essential

• Deep expertise in Databricks (Spark / PySpark, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Workflows)
• Strong experience building ETL/ELT pipelines, both batch and streaming
• Advanced Python and SQL skills
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS or GCP)
• Solid understanding of data modelling and modern architectures
• Strong knowledge of data governance, security and compliance

Desirable

• Experience with orchestration tools such as Airflow
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Git workflows and automated testing
• Exposure to real-time, IoT or environmental telemetry data

Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering or a related discipline
• 5+ years' experience in data engineering roles, including 3+ years with Databricks

Proven ability to lead technically and mentor engineers

What you'll get

We believe in rewarding our people properly:

• Up to 10.5% annual bonus
• Outstanding pension - up to 21% combined contribution
• Private healthcare
• Share buy scheme
• Wellbeing benefits and support programmes

Other

Why United Utilities?

You'll be working on data that truly matters - protecting rivers, supporting environmental compliance, and helping shape the future of sustainable water management across the North West.

If you're passionate about modern data engineering, enjoy technical leadership, and want your work to have real-world environmental impact, we'd love to hear from you.