Lead Database Developer

SAGA PLC; Sandgate; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Pension matched up to 10%

Annual bonus up to 5%

Life assurance 4x salary

Saga Academy learning platform

Job summary

Saga plc, a long-standing UK specialist in services for people over 50, is seeking a Lead Database Developer to drive performance, scale, and quality of its Customer Hub data solution. You will lead SQL optimisations, data model design, and CI/CD delivery across partner integrations and growth initiatives.

You will mentor delivery teams, shape efficient data flows, and implement automation to improve reliability and speed, while ensuring data security and governance across critical systems.

Qualifications

• Expert knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server development, data engineering and performance optimisation.
• Extensive experience analysing query behaviour, execution plans, indexing approaches and performance diagnostics.
• Strong experience designing and improving high-volume transactional data solutions and business-critical applications.
• Advanced Transact-SQL development and optimisation skills.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines for data-related delivery.
• Strong PowerShell and automation scripting capabilities.
• Experience using Azure DevOps, GitHub, or similar delivery platforms.
• Knowledge of deployment automation practices and repeatable engineering controls.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and root-cause analysis skills.
• Experience improving performance and resilience within business-critical systems.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities within a fast-paced Agile delivery environment.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Investigating performance bottlenecks across customer data processing and integration flows.
• Improving SQL code, stored procedures and data-processing logic for efficient delivery.
• Leading complex performance analysis activities and translating findings into engineering improvements.
• Supporting delivery teams in shaping data models, data flows and integration patterns.
• Helping ensure customer data services meet performance, security and quality expectations.
• Providing technical input into solution decisions affecting data quality and partner integrations.
• Identifying opportunities to improve efficiency of data processing and storage usage.
• Supporting data lifecycle and retention requirements through engineered approaches.
• Assessing data growth trends and recommending scalable designs.
• Developing and improving automated deployment and validation approaches.
• Integrating data change delivery within CI/CD pipelines.
• Implementing automation to improve delivery quality and productivity.
• Supporting release planning by assessing performance and data impact.
• Defining validation criteria for data changes and performance-sensitive releases.
• Working with delivery teams to ensure changes meet performance and quality expectations.
• Contributing to post-release learning for improved delivery outcomes.
• Providing technical guidance on data design, SQL development, performance and scalability.
• Supporting code reviews and engineering improvements for data changes.

Skills

SQL Server

T-SQL

Data engineering

Performance optimisation

Query analysis

CI/CD for data

Automation scripting

Azure DevOps

GitHub

Deployment automation

Agile delivery

Stakeholder management

Problem solving

Tools

PowerShell

Azure DevOps

GitHub

SQL Server Management Studio

Job description

As our new Lead Database Developer, you will be the senior technical specialist responsible for improving the performance, scalability, and engineering quality of Saga's Customer Hub data solution. The Customer Hub is a critical strategic platform sitting at the very heart of Saga with over 10 million customer records and is constantly growing. As we continue to serve more customers and embark on new and exciting partnerships as part of our wider growth strategy, your role in sustaining this high-performing database is crucial to our success. This database supports customer data management, customer matching, partner integrations, data processing, and customer data distribution across Saga's technology landscape. This role helps ensure that data solutions are designed and optimised to support efficient, secure, and scalable customer data capabilities. You'll act as a technical authority for Customer Hub data engineering and performance optimisation, driving best practice, supporting delivery teams, and ensuring the platform continues to support strategic business initiatives, partner integrations, and customer data quality objectives.

Responsibilities

• Investigating performance bottlenecks across customer data processing and integration flows.
• Improving SQL code, stored procedures, and data-processing logic to support efficient delivery.
• Leading complex performance analysis activities and translate findings into practical engineering improvements.
• Supporting delivery teams in shaping efficient data models, data flows, and integration patterns.
• Helping ensure customer data services are engineered to meet performance, security, and quality expectations.
• Providing technical input into solution decisions that affect data quality, partner integrations, and strategic delivery.
• Identifying opportunities to improve the efficiency of customer data processing and storage usage.
• Supporting data lifecycle and retention requirements through well-designed engineering approaches.
• Assessing data growth trends and recommend design improvements to support future scalability.
• Developing and improving automated deployment and validation approaches for data changes.
• Supporting integration of data change delivery within CI/CD pipelines
• Implementing automation to improve delivery quality, repeatability, and engineering productivity.
• Supporting release planning by assessing the performance and data impact of proposed changes.
• Helping define validation criteria for data changes, integration flows, and performance-sensitive releases.
• Working with delivery teams to confirm that changes are engineered to meet performance and quality expectations.
• Contributing to post-release learning by identifying opportunities to improve future delivery outcomes.
• Providing technical guidance on data design, SQL development, performance, and scalability.
• Supporting code reviews and engineering improvements for data-related changes.

The successful candidate will bring a strong track record of improving data solution performance, increasing engineering quality, automating delivery processes, and ensuring customer data capabilities continue to support partner integrations, strategic initiatives, and business growth objectives.

This includes experience performing activities such as API performance analysis, query optimisation, code tuning, delivery automation, release validation, data model improvement, and proactive scalability planning.

You will need to demonstrate the following skills;

• Expert knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server development, data engineering, and performance optimisation.
• Extensive experience analysing query behaviour, execution plans, indexing approaches, and performance diagnostics.
• Strong experience designing and improving high-volume transactional data solutions and business-critical applications.
• Advanced Transact-SQL development and optimisation skills.
• Experience improving large-scale customer data processing systems.
• Experience analysing and improving integration and data-processing performance.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines for data-related delivery.
• Strong PowerShell and automation scripting capabilities.
• Experience using Azure DevOps, GitHub, or similar delivery platforms.
• Knowledge of deployment automation practices and repeatable engineering controls.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and root-cause analysis skills.
• Experience improving performance and resilience within business-critical systems.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities within a fast-paced Agile delivery environment.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management capabilities.

Over the past 75 years we have become the UK's specialist provider of products and services to people aged over 50 in the UK. We're the most trusted brand amongst UK consumers in this demographic, recognised for high-quality products and exceptional standards of service. Our product portfolio includes cruises, holidays, insurance, personal finance products and our Saga Magazine.

Our focus on delivering exceptional products and service empowers our colleagues to create moments that are personal and special for our customers and for each other and our values underpin our approach and help guide us to deliver our purpose. We're committed to making sure that colleagues can be their best, be themselves and make a difference - more than anywhere else. We have done this by creating a truly inclusive culture, where all colleagues can bring their full and authentic selves to work and be treated with dignity and respect in an environment that is free from discrimination and harassment. Thanks to our people, Saga was awarded with a Gold for Best Customer Centric Culture in 2025. This is testament to the great culture we've built together. This award belongs to all our colleagues who collectively make Saga a fantastic place to work.

We work in a hybrid way at Saga, both at home and in the office. This role requires you to be working from our Folkestone office at least once a week, allowing us to collaborate and share success as a business.

Package Description At Saga we recognise that our people make us special. We believe our colleagues deserve rewards for the excellence they demonstrate every single day, that's why we have put together an amazing benefits package for all colleagues.

BENEFITS AVAILABLE FOR THIS ROLE:

• 25 days holiday + bank holidays
• Option to purchase additional leave - 5 extra days
• Pension scheme matched up to 10%
• Company performance related annual bonus - Up to 5%
• Life assurance policy on joining us, 4 x salary
• Wellbeing programme
• Colleague discounts including family discounts on cruises, holidays and insurance
• Range of reductions and offers from leading retailers, travel groups and entertainment companies
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Grandparents leave
• Income protection
• Access to Saga Academy, our bespoke learning platform