Lead Data Engineer

Location: Hybrid, nearby to one of their offices in Leeds/Manchester/London

Impactive are excited to be supporting a global consultancy who are looking to hire a Lead Data Engineer to take ownership of their data engineering capability and help shape the future of their enterprise data platform.

This is a genuinely hands‑on leadership opportunity, managing a team of 3-4 Data Engineers while remaining technically involved and making key decisions around architecture, engineering standards and technology.

You’ll be responsible for the evolution of a modern data platform, working across Microsoft Fabric, data pipelines, data modelling, integration, governance and engineering best practice , whilst helping build the foundations for increasingly advanced analytics, AI and digital use cases .

What you'll be doing:

• Lead and mentor a team of 3-4 Data Engineers
• Own the design and evolution of the enterprise data platform
• Make technical decisions around architecture, tooling and engineering approaches
• Oversee data pipelines, transformations and analytical datasets
• Drive modern architecture including Lakehouse, Medallion and Data Product approaches
• Establish strong engineering practices across CI/CD, testing, version control and automation
• Champion data quality, governance, monitoring and platform reliability
• Work closely with BI, Analytics, Architecture and senior business stakeholders
• Help shape the longer‑term data platform roadmap and technology strategy

What they're looking for:

• Strong SQL and Python/PySpark
• Experience with Microsoft Fabric or a similar modern cloud data platform
• Strong data engineering and data architecture experience
• Experience with data modelling, ideally Medallion, Star or Snowflake
• Understanding of CI/CD, testing, version control and automation
• Previous experience leading, mentoring or technically guiding engineers
• Someone comfortable balancing hands‑on technical delivery with strategic ownership

This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to lead from the front technically , rather than move into a purely managerial role, with genuine ownership over the direction of the data platform.