National Security Data Engineer — Hybrid, DV Cleared

Forward Role; Cheltenham; On-site; Full time

Job description

Data Engineers – National Security Opportunities

Active DV / eDV Clearance
Hybrid opportunities across the UK

£55,000 - £100,000+ depending on experience, level and clearance

Thinking about your next move?

One conversation I\'ve been having more and more with Data Engineers is this:

"I enjoy the people I work with... I\'m just not learning anymore."

Sometimes it\'s legacy data warehouses that never seem to evolve.

Sometimes it\'s spending more time fixing pipelines than building them.

Sometimes it\'s being the only data specialist in the room.

More often than not, it\'s simply wanting to work somewhere that\'s genuinely investing in modern data engineering rather than talking about it.

If that sounds familiar, it might be worth reading on.

What I\'m Seeing Across the Market

paving spent the last couple of years speaking with Data Engineers, Data Architects and technical leaders across the National Security community, a few themes have become impossible to ignore.

The organisations attracting the strongest engineers aren\'t simply hiring people to move data from A to B.

They\'re building platforms that underpin AI, machine learning and operational decision-making.

Modern cloud-native data platforms are replacing fragmented legacy estates.

Engineering teams are investing in automation, scalability and data products rather than endless manual processes.

Most importantly, the best environments are treating Data Engineering as an engineering discipline—not a support function.

That\'s exactly the type of organisations I choose to partner with.

The Opportunities

p>Rather than representing a single employer, I work closely with a carefully selected group of engineering-led organisations across the National Security sector.

That includes innovative SMEs, specialist consultancies and product-focused businesses delivering secure data platforms, cloud-native engineering capability and AI-enabled solutions supporting some of the UK\'s most important programmes.

Depending on what you\'re looking for, opportunities include:

• Designing and building modern cloud-native data platforms
• Developing scalable ETL and ELT pipelines
• Working with AWS and Azure data services
• Engineering platforms using technologies such as Spark, Databricks and Kafka
• Building reliable, automated data pipelines supporting AI and Machine Learning workloads
• Collaborating with software, cloud and platform engineers in genuinely multidisciplinary teams
• Influencing architecture and technical direction as platforms continue to evolve

Some organisations are scaling rapidly.

Others are well-established engineering businesses investing heavily in modern data capability.

Some specialise in consultancy.

Others offer long-term product ownership.

The right move depends entirely on what you want your next few years to look like.

Clearance

p>Most of the organisations I support are delivering work on live National Security programmes, so active DV or eDV clearance is typically a prerequisite.

That said, every so often an opportunity arises where an exceptional SC-cleared engineer—someone with the right technical background and a realistic route to higher clearance—can be brought in and sponsored.

Those opportunities are limited, but they do exist, so if you\'re unsure where you fit, I\'m always happy to have an honest conversation.

Who I\'m Looking To Speak With

I\'m particularly interested in speaking with engineers with experience across areas such as:

Data Engineering

Cloud Data Platforms

AWS and/or Azure Python

SQL Apache Spark Databricks

Kafka

Data Modelling

ETL / ELT

Infrastructure as Code

CI/CD for data platforms

Whether your title is Data Engineer, Senior Data Engineer, Lead Data Engineer or Data Platform Engineer, I\'d be happy to hear from you.

Why Speak To Me?

The best engineers rarely move because somebody sends them a job description.

They move because somebody understands where they want to be in two or three years\' time and can introduce them to organisations that genuinely align with those ambitions.

Over the last couple of years I\'ve built relationships with many of the engineering-led organisations consistently attracting positive feedback from the engineers I\'ve placed there.

Whether you\'re looking for stronger technical leadership, greater ownership, better engineering culture, exposure to modern cloud-native platforms or the opportunity to work alongside exceptional people, I\'ll always give you an honest perspective—not simply point you towards whichever vacancy happens to be available.

Many of the engineers I\'ve helped over the last year weren\'t actively looking when we first spoke. They simply wanted a better understanding of how the market was evolving before deciding whether it was time to move.

Not actively looking?

That\'s completely fine. Some of the best conversations I have each week are with engineers who simply want an honest view of the market.

If you\'re curious about which organisations are genuinely investing in modern data platforms, how engineering cultures compare, or where the most interesting Data Engineering work is happening across the National Security community, I\'m always happy to share what I\'m seeing.

If nothing else, you\'ll come away with a clearer picture of the market—even if your next move is still a year away.