Senior Data Engineer

The Compleat Food Group; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK food manufacturer is looking for a Senior Data Engineer to lead the design and development of their cloud-based data platform. This role involves technical leadership, mentoring junior engineers, and ensuring data quality and compliance with GDPR. The position is home-based but does require regular travel to TCFG sites. The ideal candidate will have over 7 years of experience in data engineering, with strong skills in SQL, Python, and Azure data services.

Benefits

Regular travel allowances

Qualifications

• 7+ years’ experience in data engineering, with senior or lead-level technical delivery.
• Strong experience with Azure data services.
• Proven ability in building and optimising lakehouse architectures.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of ELT/ETL pipelines using best practices.
• Monitor and optimise data workflows for performance and cost efficiency.
• Embed security and privacy-by-design in data solutions.

Skills

Expert knowledge of SQL

Python

Azure data services (ADF, Synapse, Event Hub, ADLS)

Building and optimising lakehouse architectures

Data security

Integrating APIs

Tools

dbt

CI/CD pipelines

Power BI

Job description

Job Advert

Senior Data Engineer

Salary: £80,000 per annum

Contract: Permanent

Location: Home-based, with regular travel to TCFG sites nationwide

About The Compleat Food Group (TCFG)

At The Compleat Food Group, data plays a critical role in how we operate, grow, and make decisions. As a leading UK food manufacturer, we’re investing in modern, secure, and scalable data platforms to support our teams across the business — and we’re now looking for a Senior Data Engineer to help lead that journey.

The Role

This is a senior, hands‑on technical role with real ownership. As our Senior Data Engineer, you’ll lead the design, development, and optimisation of our cloud‑based data platform, ensuring it is scalable, secure, and fit for the future.

You’ll act as a technical authority within the data engineering function, mentoring others, shaping best practice, and working closely with engineering, analytics, security, and business stakeholders to enable high‑quality, trusted data across TCFG.

While the role is home‑based, regular travel to our national sites is required to build strong relationships and understand how data supports our operations on the ground.

Key Responsibilities

Data Architecture & Engineering Leadership

• Lead the design and delivery of robust ELT/ETL pipelines using modern, scalable patterns
• Define and promote best practices in pipeline design, orchestration, and transformation
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring junior engineers and contributing to architectural decisions

Advanced Pipeline Design & Optimisation

• Architect real‑time, batch, and micro‑batch data workflows
• Use orchestration tools such as Airflow, Azure Data Factory, and dbt Cloud for scheduling, observability, and lineage
• Monitor and optimise performance, reliability, and cost efficiency

Cloud Platform Ownership

• Take ownership of data infrastructure across Azure (ADLS, Synapse, Event Hubs) and hybrid environments
• Implement CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and infrastructure‑as‑code (Terraform/Bicep)
• Design for high availability, disaster recovery, and fault tolerance

Data Governance, Security & Privacy

• Embed security‑ and privacy‑by‑design across all data solutions
• Work closely with Information Security to ensure GDPR and internal policy compliance
• Lead data lineage, classification, audit logging, and access control initiatives

Integration & Interoperability

• Design and maintain integrations with ERP platforms (e.g. Infor M3, ION), planning tools, and external data sources
• Build reusable ingestion frameworks for structured and semi‑structured data (JSON, XML, CSV, Avro, Parquet)

Data Quality & Observability

• Implement testing and validation frameworks (dbt tests, Great Expectations, or similar)
• Ensure clear documentation and lineage from source to consumption
• Build observability dashboards and alerts to ensure reliability and transparency

Collaboration & Delivery

• Translate business needs into scalable, well‑engineered data solutions
• Contribute to agile planning, estimation, and roadmap delivery
• Maintain clear documentation including architecture decisions and data standards

What You’ll Bring

Essential

• 7+ years’ experience in data engineering, including senior or lead‑level technical delivery
• Expert knowledge of SQL and Python
• Strong experience with Azure data services (ADF, Synapse, Event Hub, ADLS)
• Proven experience building and optimising lakehouse architectures (Databricks, Delta Lake, Snowflake)
• Hands‑on experience with orchestration tools and data modelling approaches
• Experience integrating APIs and event‑driven platforms
• Strong understanding of data security, GDPR, encryption, and IAM
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices

Desirable

• Experience in manufacturing or FMCG environments (ERP, MES, TPM systems)
• Familiarity with Microsoft Purview or data cataloguing tools
• Exposure to Power BI, Tableau, or similar BI platforms
• Relevant certifications (e.g. Azure DP-203, dbt, cloud architecture)

About The Compleat Food Group

At The Compleat Food Group, we’re proud to be a food business built on purpose and passion. Formed in 2021, we’re on a mission to create Food to Feel Good – great quality, tasty and affordable food that people love to eat.

We’re home to some of the UK’s most exciting and loved food brands, including Wall’s Pastry, Pork Farms, Wrights, The Real Yorkshire Pudding Co., unearthed, Vadasz, Squeaky Bean, Palace Culture, and Harvey & Brockless. Alongside our branded portfolio, we’re a leading supplier of delicious own‑label pastry, sweet bakery, party food, olives and antipasti, added‑value egg products, continental meats, dips and sauces and plant‑based food to the UK’s major retailers, as well as across foodservice.

With over 6,000 talented colleagues across 17 sites, and an annual turnover of £1.3bn, we’re united by a shared ambition to shape the future of food for the better.

We are backed by European private equity firm PAI Partners.