Staff Data Engineer — Hands-On Leader for Data Modernisation

WeDoTech; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 84,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

WeDoTech, on behalf of a major UK financial services organisation, seeks a Staff Data Engineer to lead data engineering modernisation while staying hands-on in Python and Spark. This permanent hybrid London role pays up to £140,000 plus a 20% bonus and additional benefits.

You'll drive migrations of large-scale data pipelines on AWS, shape data architectures, and raise engineering standards across multiple teams, balancing technical leadership with delivery.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on Python, PySpark and Apache Spark expertise.
• Deep experience with AWS data engineering, particularly AWS Glue.
• Strong experience with Apache Airflow and complex data pipeline orchestration.
• Proven experience delivering large-scale data transformation, migration or modernisation programmes.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and the ability to design scalable, maintainable engineering solutions.
• Experience operating at Staff, Principal or equivalent technical leadership level.
• Ability to independently shape technical direction, challenge existing approaches and influence multiple engineering teams.
• A genuine desire to remain deeply hands-on with engineering and code.
• Experience adopting modern AI-assisted development tools, such as Claude Code, within engineering workflows.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to engage with senior technical stakeholders.
• Experience with Snowflake and delivering data solutions within financial services or another highly regulated environment would be particularly beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Provide staff-level technical leadership across major data engineering initiatives.
• Remain deeply hands-on with Python, PySpark and Spark.
• Lead modernisation and migration of large-scale data pipelines across AWS.
• Design and challenge technical approaches across AWS Glue, Airflow and related tech.
• Shape scalable data architectures and development standards.
• Support design and delivery of new data products.
• Champion AI-assisted development tools to improve productivity and delivery.
• Collaborate with senior technical stakeholders to drive improvements.

Skills

Python

PySpark

Apache Spark

Technical leadership

Tools

AWS Glue

Airflow

Snowflake

Job description

WeDoTech, on behalf of a major UK financial services organisation, seeks a Staff Data Engineer to lead data engineering modernisation while staying hands-on in Python and Spark. This permanent hybrid London role pays up to £140,000 plus a 20% bonus and additional benefits.

You'll drive migrations of large-scale data pipelines on AWS, shape data architectures, and raise engineering standards across multiple teams, balancing technical leadership with delivery.