Job description
Senior data engineer
Grade G7
What data engineers do
A data engineer develops and constructs data products and services, and integrates them into systems and business processes.
Role responsibilities
As a Senior Data Engineer, you will be experienced practitioner who can plan and lead data engineering activities in larger teams and across complex programmes of work.
This role sits in Data Engineering Division. As a division, we provide a full range of engineering capabilities including data sourcing, management, operations, and maintenance of underlying infrastructure.
In the Department for Education you will:
- deliver secure, robust, and scalable data engineering solutions in multi-disciplinary teams for complex data products
- implement modern data engineering practices to assure high-quality data is made available for use cases like analysis and machine learning
- build complex data pipelines and guide other members of the team to achieve optimal code performance
- effectively communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, and influence decision making to enable sound business decisions
- taking an active role and leading initiatives in the DfE data engineering community, to help develop and improve our practice across the department
Skills you need
It is essential that you can demonstrate the following experience in your application and at the interview:
- data development process. Strong experience of building data pipelines on cloud platforms and working with a wide variety of data structures such as data warehouses and data lakes to service business data needs
- agile working. Experience of delivering data products in an agile delivery environment through DevOps working practices such as CI/CD and automation
- collaboration. Ability to work alongside others to ensure the stability, robustness and resilience of products you build, with strong experience in managing team dynamics and facilitating difficult discussions within the team or with diverse stakeholders
- programming and build. Proficiency in programming and data engineering tools including SQL, Python, Azure Data Factory, Informatica DEI and/or Databricks
- problem resolution. In‑depth knowledge of common problems in data structures, processes and products, and the techniques to resolve them, along with strong problem‑solving skills such as assessing and mitigating risks while identifying opportunities for innovation
- data innovation. Understanding of business requirements and the ability to spot opportunities to innovate, with a willingness to step out of your comfort zone and learn modern data engineering practices and trends
- coaching, mentoring and learning. Coaching and mentoring junior team members on their professional development, and continuously developing your own skills by staying up to date with the latest data engineering trends and applying those learnings where appropriate
It is desirable if you can demonstrate the following:
- data Visualisation and Machine Learning. Experience of creating data visualisation products and/or implementing machine learning models on large scale