Principal Data Engineer

IG Group; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Growth opportunities

Mentoring by leaders

Clear career progression

Diversity & inclusion programs

Volunteering time off

Job summary

IG Group is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to own the end-to-end architecture of our Google Cloud data platform, including BigQuery, Kafka ingestion, and batch/real-time processing. You will drive the migration from the legacy AWS/on-prem systems to GCP-native capabilities, defining platform contracts and self-service patterns for mature divisions to build trusted models using Core Lake data.

You will lead a team of data engineers, ensuring data quality, observability, and SLA/SLO compliance

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience designing and operating large-scale data pipelines on GCP.
• Experience leading or mentoring a team of data engineers.
• Strong data quality practices: contracts, observability, SLA/SLO definitions.
• SQL data transformations and dbt usage in production pipelines.
• Comfortable communicating with non-technical stakeholders in a regulated financial services environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical architecture of IG’s GCP data platform end-to-end, including Core Lake, batch, and real-time ingestion.
• Lead delivery of complex, high-risk work within the GCP consolidation program; migrate legacy AWS/on-premises to GCP-native capabilities.
• Define platform contracts, interfaces, and self-service patterns for mature divisions to reuse safely.
• Drive data quality with contracts, observability, monitoring, and automated remediation across layers.
• Set engineering standards through reviews, mentoring, and reusable frameworks across squads in multiple regions.
• Maintain delivery rigour: shape sprint cadences, monitor pipeline SLAs, and report metrics to Head of Data Engineering.

Skills

GCP Data Pipelines

Kafka

Team Mentoring

Data Quality

dbt

SQL Transformations

Cross-functional Communication

Regulated FinServ

Tools

BigQuery

Airflow

GCS

dbt

Job description

About IG Group

Job Title Principal Data Engineer Job Description So, who are we? IG Group is a FTSE 100 fintech operating across five continents, serving over 1.3m customers and handling billions of dollars in transactions – built on scale, trust, and proof. We didn’t pivot to innovation; it’s how we’ve always operated. What that means for the people who work here is real: genuinely complex problems to solve, the technology and resources to tackle them properly, and the kind of scope that’s rare in established businesses. The bar is high – bring a curious and forward-thinking mindset and we’ll give you the platform to define what comes next. Join us at IG – the future gets built here.

Your team IG’s Data function is a central capability serving both central and divisional business lines across the entire IG estate. The Data Engineering team is responsible for the platforms that underpin analytics, reporting, compliance, and client-facing data products, and that will increasingly power AI and machine-learning use cases across the firm. The current data landscape reflects IG’s growth: a combination of GCP-native capabilities, on-premises systems, and a legacy AWS data platform. The strategic direction — endorsed by the CDO and Executive — is clear: consolidate onto GCP, raise the bar on data quality, and enable self-service access to trusted data for teams across the business.

What you’ll do Own the technical architecture of IG’s GCP data platform end-to-end — Core Lake (BigQuery), batch and real-time (Kafka) ingestion, transformation in the Medallion architecture, and Data-Engineering-owned integration services — setting the reference designs and patterns squads build against. Lead delivery of the most complex, high-risk work within the GCP consolidation programme, including migration off the legacy AWS platform and on-premises systems onto GCP-native capabilities. Define the platform contracts, interfaces, and self-service patterns that let mature divisions build and own their own models safely against trusted Core Lake data, and ensure fully-managed builds for less-mature functions follow the identical pattern so they are handover-ready by design. Drive data quality as a first-class, firm-wide concern: establish data contracts, observability, SLA/SLO monitoring, and automated alerting and remediation across ingestion and transformation layers, and hold squads to those standards. Act as the senior technical point of contact for stakeholders across Compliance, Marketing, Finance, Data Science, and the self-serving divisions (UK, APAC, tastytrade/US, Quants, Risk), translating requirements into well-scoped, well-architected engineering deliverables. Set and uphold engineering standards through code and design reviews, technical mentoring, and reusable frameworks that raise the bar across squads in London, India, and Poland — growing the technical capability of the whole function. Provide technical direction and quality assurance for third-party staff augmentation, ensuring augmented capacity engaged for time-boxed projects works to IG’s patterns and leaves behind maintainable, standards-compliant assets. Maintain delivery rigour: shape sprint cadences, elevate technical risk early, and report on pipeline SLOs, data freshness, and DORA-style engineering metrics to the Head of Data Engineering and CDO.

What you’ll need for this role

• Hands-on experience designing and operating large-scale data pipelines on GCP (BigQuery, Cloud Composer/Airflow, GCS), with proven knowledge of Apache Kafka and real-time streaming architectures
• Demonstrated experience leading or technically mentoring a team of data engineers, with the ability to set standards, conduct code and design reviews, and grow engineers’ capabilities
• Strong grasp of data quality practices: data contracts, pipeline observability, SLA/SLO definition, and automated alerting and remediation
• Solid understanding of SQL transformation patterns and modern tooling such as dbt, alongside experience managing ingestion estates with third-party connectors and in-house integrations
• Clear and confident communicator able to work cross-functionally with non-technical stakeholders; comfortable in a regulated financial services environment with structured delivery disciplines (sprint cadences, change control, escalation)

How we work

We try to take a thoughtful approach to our ways of working as a company. We follow a hybrid working model with 3 days in the office – which we think balances the need to collaborate effectively and connect with each other.

When it comes to how we deliver, there are 5 things we want everyone to do to drive high performance, better learning and career satisfaction:

• Lead and Inspire: Drives trust, alignment, and enthusiasm
• Think Big: Focus on the problems that most impact commercial outcomes
• Champion the client: Understand and prioritise client’s needs
• Deliver at pace: Push for fast, sustainable growth
• Raise the bar: Take ownership, be accountable and share feedback

Diversity & Inclusion

We believe that diversity is vital to success, it fuels creativity, drives innovation and sets us up for global success. We’re committed to building teams with a variety of perspectives and skills to help us realise our vision and strategy, that’s why we encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to join us on this journey. Learn more about our D&I approach here.

The Perks

• Your growth fuels our success!
• Thrive with tailored development programs, mentoring opportunities with leaders, and clear career progression.
• Expand your network through committees, sports and social clubs.
• Enjoy extra time off for volunteering and community work.
• Learn more about the Perks here! Join us for this exciting journey.

Number of openings 1