Lead Data Engineer - Department for Transport - G7
Government Digital & Data -
Location
Birmingham, Hastings, Leeds, Swansea
About the job
Job summary
Can you lead secure, production-grade data pipelines on GCP while balancing live operations and innovation?
Do you enjoy mentoring engineers and translating complex data engineering concepts for diverse stakeholders?
If so, we'd love to hear from you!
In recent years DfT’s digital and data teams have implemented a range of advanced data services, making use of the latest cloud technologies to deliver the services and platforms that our users need, with excellent customer satisfaction rates. We are proud of our ability develop and grow as a team, and we look forward to you sharing that sense of pride!
At DfT, we recognise that everyone has different needs and aspirations. We have created an inclusive and welcoming working environment so you can feel comfortable to be yourself at work. We’ll help you to reach your full potential, offering rewarding opportunities alongside access to the latest training and technologies.
Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:
- Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
- 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
- Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Read more in the Benefits section below!
Find out more about what it's like working at DfTc: Department for Transport Central - Department for Transport Careers
Job description
Working as part of a talented and collaborative team, you will:
- Lead the build and operation of DfT’s production‑grade data pipelines and platforms, ensuring reliability and security across our Google Cloud Platform environment.
- Own and manage live data services, triaging and resolving issues at pace to maintain high‑quality data delivery for analysts, policy teams and external commitments.
- Drive innovation within data engineering, identifying opportunities to modernise tooling, adopt emerging GCP capabilities and introduce new approaches that improve efficiency and data quality.
- Plan delivery across legacy migration, operational support and new development, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively and that risks, dependencies and priorities are well managed.
- Work closely with technical and non-technical stakeholders, translating technical concepts, shaping data‑related decisions, and responding to business need.
- Line manage and develop engineers at varying levels, providing technical guidance, coaching and oversight, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and knowledge‑
- Drive adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), establishing repeatable patterns for environments, access, and data services.
- Lead the development of our metadata catalogue, curating business and technical metadata so users can effectively discover and use data.
In return, we can offer you:
- access to new and emerging technologies,
- varied projects developed in a cloud-first environment,
- support and investment to further your training and development,
- flexible and hybrid working supporting a healthy work-life balance,
- industry-leading pension and employee benefits package.
For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.
About Us
At the heart of data innovation and evolution in DfT, you will join a talented, experienced, data engineering team imagining and shaping the delivery of the next wave of data services. The team is embedded within the wider data directorate, and works alongside analysts, data scientists, architects and other engineers to deliver some of the most impactful data projects within DfT. You will support and shape various areas within the business which delivers an innovational transport policy agenda. As DfT is a cloud-only enterprise, you will develop the latest cloud solutions meeting complex digital, identity and data needs.
This role will give you the opportunity to share your experience and further develop your skills every day as you work on new and exciting projects with advanced technologies. We provide a supportive and constructive learning environment where your career growth is important.
Person specification
You will be an experienced data engineer with deep technical foundations and expertise in both Python and SQL. You will also be highly proficient in Google Cloud Platform, or an expert user of AWS or Azure with a willingness to apply your skills to a new cloud platform. You combine hands on engineering excellence with the ability to communicate complex ideas simply, engaging effectively with a wide range of technical and non technical stakeholders. You are comfortable balancing the demands of operating reliable, production grade data services with delivering innovation: shaping new approaches, modernising legacy systems, and driving improvements in data quality and tooling. Alongside this, you bring thoughtful planning and change management skills, helping the organisation evolve its data capabilities while ensuring continuity, stability, and high quality outcomes across DfT.
You will need to demonstrate the following experience:
- Enterprise-scale delivery of robust, maintainable data pipelines in Google Cloud Platform. Including building reusable components, optimising performance and cost on cloud data platforms while meeting security, privacy and governance controls.
- Expert user of data engineering tools including relevant languages (e.g. Python/SQL), IaC tools (e.g. terraform), GCP or equivalent cloud tooling or (e.g. BigQuery, Cloud Functions) CI/CD (e.g. Github Actions), logging and testing.
- Setting and leading engineering standards, ensuring high‑quality coding practices, maintainable solutions, and consistent technical approaches across the team.
- Leading Agile delivery of data engineering work, managing and operating live services at pace to maintain continuity and high‑quality data delivery into DfT, while also driving innovation by developing new data engineering approaches and patterns.
- Stakeholder leadership and technical translation, partnering with architecture and data teams to align designs with strategy and standards, and managing change and innovation within DfT’s data landscape.
