{"id":2500883,"url":"https://alion.io/job/unidays-lead-data-engineer","title":"Lead Data Engineer","company":{"id":1755798,"name":"UNiDAYS","domain":"myunidays.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/myunidays-com","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"HiBob","truth_index":null},"role":"Data Science","role_family":"Data Science","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":108000,"max_usd":192000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":28},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Amazon Redshift","optional":false},{"name":"Amazon S3","optional":false},{"name":"Anomaly Detection","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Bash","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"dbt","optional":false},{"name":"ETL/ELT","optional":false},{"name":"Fivetran","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"SQL","optional":false},{"name":"Talend","optional":false},{"name":"Unix","optional":false},{"name":"Tableau","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-05-06T12:40:48Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-14","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T10:35:14Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":160,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":160},"description":"As a Lead Data Engineer, you will act as the technical authority within the data engineering team, responsible for defining how data solutions are designed and built across the organisation.\nYou will own the day-to-day technical direction of the data platform, ensuring that pipelines, data models, and warehouse structures are scalable, maintainable, and aligned to best practice.\nWorking closely with the Data Engineering Manager and the Head of Data Engineering & Governance, you will translate strategic direction into practical engineering approaches, while mentoring engineers and driving high technical standards across the team.\nThis is a senior individual contributor role with significant influence, operating as a peer to the Data Engineering Manager, with a focus on technical leadership rather than people management.\nResponsibilities\nTechnical Ownership & Architecture\nOwn the technical design and implementation approach for data pipelines, warehouse models, and transformations\n\nDefine and evolve data modelling standards (e.g. star schema, incremental models, partitioning strategies)\n\nEnsure solutions are scalable, performant, and cost-efficient across the data platform\n\nReview and approve technical designs and code across the team\n\nAct as the primary escalation point for complex technical challenges\n\nData Platform & Warehouse Ownership\nAct as the day-to-day technical owner of the data warehouse (BAU)\n\nEnsure consistency and maintainability across datasets, pipelines, and transformations\n\nDrive improvements in performance, reliability, and observability\n\nLead technical input into the data warehouse rebuild and future evolution\n\nEngineering Standards & Best Practice\nDefine and enforce engineering standards, patterns, and reusable components\n\nPromote strong practices in:\n\nversion control\n\ntesting and validation\n\nCI/CD for data pipelines\n\nEnsure high-quality documentation of data models and pipelines\n\nIdentify and address technical debt proactively\n\nData Quality & Reliability\nLead implementation of data quality checks and monitoring frameworks\n\nEnsure pipelines are robust, observable, and alerting appropriately\n\nDrive improvements beyond basic checks (e.g. volumetric, anomaly detection, trend validation)\n\nSupport root cause analysis and resolution of data incidents\n\nTechnical Leadership & Mentorship\nProvide hands-on technical guidance to engineers and senior engineers\n\nMentor team members on system design, coding standards, and problem-solving\n\nLead technical discussions, design reviews, and knowledge sharing\n\nSupport capability uplift across the team\n\nCollaboration & Translation\nWork closely with:\nAnalytics & Reporting\n\nData Science / ML\n\nPlatform Engineering\n\nTranslate business and analytical requirements into scalable engineering solutions\n\nPartner with stakeholders to ensure solutions are fit for purpose and usable\n\nDelivery Contribution\nContribute to scoping and estimation of complex work\n\nPartner with the Data Engineering Manager to ensure:\ntechnical feasibility\n\nappropriate sequencing of work\n\nFocus on how work should be done, not managing delivery processes\n\nCOMPETENCIES\nData Architecture & Engineering\nDetail:Designing scalable pipelines, modelling data flows, and building robust warehouse architectures.\n\nAt this level: Owns and defines how systems are built. Sets modelling standards, ensures consistency across pipelines, and makes pragmatic design decisions balancing speed, cost, and scalability.\n\nProgramming & Automation\nDetail:SQL, dbt, Python, orchestration, CI/CD.\n\nAt this level: Expert practitioner. Produces high-quality, maintainable code and sets the standard for others. Introduces automation, testing, and deployment best practices across the team.\n\nData Quality & Observability\nDetail:Monitoring, validation, reliability, incident handling.\n\nAt this level: Leads implementation of robust quality frameworks. Moves beyond basic checks to proactive monitoring and anomaly detection. Ensures trust in data outputs.\n\nTechnical Leadership\nDetail:Mentoring, design authority, technical direction.\n\nAt this level: Acts as the go-to technical authority. Guides engineers in design decisions, challenges approaches, and elevates the overall technical capability of the team.\n\nProblem Solving & Decision Making\nDetail:Breaking down complex technical challenges.\n\nAt this level: Resolves ambiguous problems independently. Proposes clear, structured solutions and articulates trade-offs effectively..\n\nCollaboration & Influence\nDetail:Working across teams, translating needs into solutions.\n\nAt this level: Partners effectively with non-engineering stakeholders. Ensures solutions meet business needs without compromising technical integrity.Requirements\nExtensive experience in data engineering and data warehouse development\n\nStrong track record of designing and implementing scalable data pipelines\n\nDeep expertise in SQL and modern ELT tools (e.g. dbt or equivalent)\n\nExperience working with cloud data platforms (AWS preferred: Redshift, S3, Athena, etc.)\n\nExperience optimising data models for performance, scalability, and cost\n\nProven experience leading technical design and code quality across a team\n\nExperience implementing CI/CD and version-controlled workflows\n\nFamiliarity with data quality, lineage, and monitoring practices\n\nExperience working closely with analytics, reporting, or data science teams\n\nStrong experience with Linux and or Unix command line including Bash/Shell scripting\n\nExperience with data pipeline orchestration and scheduling\n\nKnowledge of data governance, lineage, and quality monitoring practices.\n\nKnowledge and experience of Airflow, Fivetran and Google Big Query\n\nAcademic Qualifications:\nBSc Computer Science (or equivalent)\n\nTechnical Qualifications:\nStrong SQL skills\n\nTalend Data Integration (or similar ETL platform)\n\ndbt Integration (or similar ETL platform)\n\nLinux and or Unix command line familiarity including shell scripting\n\nCertification in AWS data systems (or similar cloud platform) desirable\n\nTableau Desktop/Server (or similar reporting system)\n\nBenefits\nThis is your opportunity to Join the world’s largest student verification network and help shape the future of how brands connect with the next generation. We engage a community of 23M+ verified students and graduates across 115 markets, making us a truly global platform. Our brand is a powerhouse in the UK, and we’re rapidly accelerating our presence worldwide-especially in the US, Germany, India, France, Canada, and Australia.\nWe partner with 850+ of the world’s biggest brands, bringing their products and services to the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s professionals-driving engagement, building affinity, and delivering real results.\nWe offer a fast-paced, fun, and social working environment where you can truly make an impact. We believe work should enhance and complement your life, which is why we provide a hybrid working model. You will work together in person a minimum of 2 days per week and work from home for up to 3 days a week.\nWe work hard at UNiDAYS, and we believe in fair compensation for that hard work. That’s why we’re proud to offer all employees full access to our comprehensive benefits package.\nOur perks include:\n25 days holiday per year increasing with length of service, plus bank holidays\nCompetitive salaries\n4pm finishes every Friday\nCompany pension scheme\nPrivate health insurance (BUPA)\nDental Insurance (BUPA)\nIncome protection policy\nLife assurance policy\nEmployee Assistance Program\nEnhanced parental leave pay\nRegular team building activities\n£150 pounds towards your home office set up\nWe are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7853,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Dental insurance","Health insurance","Home office","Hybrid work","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-14T05:49:17Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Skilled Worker, Senior or Specialist Worker)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Skilled Worker; Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-14T06:20:30+00:00","sources":["UK Home Office: register of licensed sponsors (workers)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":11,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.401,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":160,"expected_fill_days":38,"reasons":["conf:0","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/unidays-lead-data-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/unidays-lead-data-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T11:46:11Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":14119,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1755798},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1755798"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Funidays-lead-data-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Funidays-lead-data-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Funidays-lead-data-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/unidays-lead-data-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Funidays-lead-data-engineer"}]}