Senior Data Engineer

Justice Digital; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 43,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous pension contribution

25 days annual leave plus holidays

Hybrid/ flexible working

Job summary

Justice Digital, Data and Science in Leeds invites applications for a Senior Data Engineer. The role focuses on designing and building robust, scalable data pipelines, leveraging Python and AWS services, with emphasis on data accessibility and governance.

A Security Check clearance is required to proceed. The team collaborates across data producers and users, exploring GenAI tooling and self-service analytics on the Analytical Platform.

Qualifications

• Experience in Python and SQL in a technical setting.
• Familiarity with testing (pytest) and version control (Git).
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and automation tools.

Responsibilities

• Designing and building robust, scalable data engineering tooling using Python.
• Developing and maintaining ETL scripts and data pipelines.
• Integrating ML/GenAI capabilities and evaluating production performance/costs.

Skills

Python

SQL

PyTest

Git

CI/CD

Job description

Senior Data Engineer

Location: Leeds

Closing Date: 18th November 2026

Interviews: Interviews will take place in person in Leeds on 1st and 2nd December 2026

Grade: SEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary**: £42,914 - £46,182 (which may include an allowance of up to £9,424)

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 1

Vacancy number: 23703

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.

The Role

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on link for details.

We’re recruiting for a Senior Data Engineer here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative property team.

This role aligns against Senior Data Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework

This isa great opportunityto work with leading cloud technology and help change the way data is used in the public sector. Data engineers at MoJ play a critical role in our mission to put data at the heart of decision-making.We'relooking for people with the drive to develop a deep understanding of data needs and data availability across specific areas of the Ministry of Justice.

You will work with other Data Engineers, and alongside Analytics Engineers, to bridge the gap between data producers and data users, exploring cutting edge GenAI/AI tooling, developing analytical pipelines and self-service tools toacquireand transform data, making it available on our Analytical Platform.

The Property domain works with a wide range of structured and unstructured data, including documents and text-based records. As part of ongoing development of the Data and Analytics Engineering capability, we are exploring how emerging technologies, including GenAI, can support the processing and structuring of this data at scale. This includes example use cases such as document enrichment and classification to improve data accessibility for stakeholders.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.

• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.

Key Responsibilities:

• Designing and building robust,scalable,automatedand genericdata engineer tooling to improve ramp-up time for new pipelines, primarily using Python.
• Designing,writingand maintaining ETL (extract, transform, load) scripts and code to ensure the ETL process performs optimally.
• Designing and building data pipelines that integrate ML and GenAI capabilities (e.g. batch inference, text processing, or enrichment workflows), and evaluating their performance, cost and reliability in production settings.
• Using a range of AWS services to deploy your solutions in a reproducible, sustainable manner, with the core ones being: S3, Glue, Athena, Lambda and LakeFormation.
• Using infrastructure-as-code(Terraform)to deploy pipelines as AWS cloud infrastructure.
• Working with a range of structured and unstructured data, including text-based data, to support analytical and data science use cases.
• Using GitHub Actions to automaterepositoryevents.
• Both ensuring and contributing to standards around engineering.
• Developing and optimising code,toolsand services that enable people to use data effectively,such as cataloguing and metadata.
• Designing andmaintainingtechnical documentation.
• Creating and promoting best practices within the team and wider.
• Responding to incident reports, ensuring relevant prioritisation and detail to allow for effective investigation.
• Developing novel solutions to fit the needs of a range of stakeholders.
• Initiatingteam buildingand development initiatives.
• Line managing a more junior colleague.

Person Specification

Essential

• Working in a technical team, preferably one that uses Python and SQL, as well as strong technical skills in these languages.
• Understanding of the software development lifecycle, including testing (e.g.pytest), version control (e.g. git)and CI/CD (e.g. GitHub Actions).
• Experience of working with a range of data sources, including data wrangling, analysis and manipulation.
• Communicating with stakeholders, and translating user needs into technical requirements

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Salary Information**

Base salary for this role is from £42,914 - £46,182

• New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
• Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
• Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.
• Candidates may also be eligible for a non‑pensionable Government Digital & Data Allowance of up to £9,424 per year This is a temporary allowance, reviewed annually and may be retained, amended, or withdrawn.

The final offer will reflect the skills and experience you demonstrate during the assessment process.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact [e-mail]