Lead Data Platform Engineer - DataOps

Capital One (Europe) plc; Nottingham; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One (Europe) plc in Nottingham is seeking a Lead Data Platform Engineer to own the resilience, scalability, and security of our core financial data ecosystem. This is a senior, hands-on role designing, building, and running high-throughput data platforms in a regulated cloud environment.

You will drive automation, self-healing platforms, and support AI workloads while guiding cross-functional teams across on-site and offshore.

Qualifications

• Background in platform engineering, site reliability, or data operations in regulated environments.
• Strong AWS knowledge and data pipeline orchestration tools (Airflow, Glue, EMR).
• Security-minded approach to managing sensitive data pipelines.
• Proficient in Python and shell scripting to automate systems and batch environments.
• Proven ability to mentor and coordinate distributed onsite/offshore teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy high-performance, secure data movement solutions in a regulated financial environment.
• Lead production support and incident management for data pipelines with RCA analysis.
• Ensure data security and governance across the data lifecycle, including encryption and access controls.
• Develop automation to reduce manual toil and increase end-to-end observability.
• Tune performance of data movement jobs and AWS infrastructure; optimize costs.
• Provide technical leadership and collaborate across dispersed teams to drive cloud modernization.

Skills

Platform engineering

SRE

Data operations

AWS

Python

Shell scripting

Automation

Mentoring

Tools

Airflow

Glue

EMR

Job description

About the Role

We are seeking a Lead Data Platform Engineer to own the resilience, scalability, and security of our core financial data ecosystem. This is a senior, hands‑on engineering role for a technical expert who thrives on the unique challenge of designing, building, and running high‑throughput, mission‑critical batch and real‑time data platforms in a regulated cloud environment.

You won’t just be maintaining pipelines; you will be driving the strategic evolution of our data infrastructure. Your mission is to build automated, self‑healing platforms that eliminate operational toil, reliably support next‑generation AI workloads, and ensure the seamless flow of highly sensitive financial data.

To succeed, you need a comprehensive understanding of cloud architecture and the technical depth to not only engineer sophisticated platform solutions but clearly articulate the “why” behind your choices to both engineering teams and stakeholders.

What You’ll Do

• Design & Implementation: Lead the architectural design and deployment of high-performance, secure data movement solutions within a highly regulated, mission‑critical financial environment.
• Production Support & Reliability: Act as the subject matter expert and technical lead for resolving the most complex, high‑impact incidents affecting data pipelines. Manage multiple stakeholders during critical events and perform in‑depth root cause analysis to engineer out systemic failures.
• Data Security & Governance: Ensure the integrity and security of highly sensitive and critical data throughout the data lifecycle. Implement and enforce security best practices, including managing encryption at rest, in transit, access controls, and compliance.
• Automation & Tooling: Develop and implement automation for common operational tasks to reduce manual toil. Focus on building tools and monitoring solutions that provide end‑to‑end visibility into the health of our data ecosystem.
• Performance Optimization: Proactively analyze and tune the performance of data movement jobs, platforms, and underlying AWS infrastructure. Identify and implement optimizations to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs.
• Collaboration & Leadership: Act as a technical leader and mentor for both onsite and offshore team members. Ensure seamless collaboration, clear communication, and consistent operational standards across a distributed team while contributing to the long‑term technical strategy and cloud modernization efforts.

What we’re looking for

• A Platform or SRE Background: You have a solid background in platform engineering, site reliability (SRE), or data operations, ideally within a large‑scale or regulated environment.
• AWS Experience: You have a strong working knowledge of AWS and cloud‑first data pipeline orchestration tools (like Airflow, Glue, or EMR).
• A Security Mindset: You understand the importance of compliance and security when managing sensitive data pipelines.
• Strong Automation Skills: You are highly comfortable using Python and Shell scripting to automate systems, manage dependencies, and handle large batch environments.
• A Great Collaborator: You enjoy mentoring others, can coordinate smoothly with distributed teams (onsite/offshore), and can explain technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders.

Where and how you'll work

This is a permanent position and is based in our Nottingham office.

We have a hybrid working model which gives you flexibility to work from our offices and from home.

We’re big on collaboration and connection, so you’ll be based in our office 3 days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

What’s in it for you

• Bring us all this and you’ll be rewarded with a role contributing to the product roadmap for an organisation committed to transformation.
• We’re continuing our journey into the public cloud and have problems of scale, security, availability and performance for you to help solve.
• We offer high performers strong and diverse career progression, investing heavily in developing great people through our Capital One University training programmes (and appropriate external providers).
• Immediate access to our core benefits including pension scheme, bonus, generous holiday entitlement and private medical insurance – with flexible benefits available including season‑ticket loans, cycle to work scheme and enhanced parental leave.
• Open‑plan workspaces and facilities designed to inspire and support you. Our Nottingham head‑office has a fully‑serviced gym, subsidised restaurant and dedicated development resources.

Capital One is committed to diversity in the workplace.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please contact [e-mail]. All information will be kept confidential and will only be used for the purpose of applying a reasonable adjustment.