Staff Data Engineer in Leeds

Shape the Future of Data Engineering Within a Leading SaaS Product Business. This is an opportunity to step into one of the most influential technical roles within a high-growth SaaS organisation where engineering plays a central role in shaping the future of the product.

Rather than focusing solely on building data pipelines, you'll provide technical leadership across the engineering function, helping define the architectural direction of the company's data platform while influencing how engineering teams solve complex customer and business problems. You'll work at the intersection of Engineering and Product, translating evolving commercial priorities into scalable technical solutions that enable faster delivery, improve customer outcomes and support the continued growth of the platform.

If you're looking for a role where you can influence architecture, mentor senior engineers and help shape the technical strategy of a modern SaaS business, this is an outstanding opportunity.

Working as a Staff Engineer, you'll become one of the senior technical leaders within the engineering organisation, partnering closely with Product Managers, Engineering Managers and fellow Staff Engineers to guide architectural decisions across multiple teams. This is a role centred around technical leadership rather than people management. You'll provide direction through influence, helping teams navigate complex technical challenges, balancing long-term architectural thinking with the pace required to deliver customer value.

You'll be expected to take ambiguous commercial or product requirements and transform them into clear, pragmatic technical solutions that support both immediate delivery and long-term platform evolution. This is far more than a traditional data engineering position. Success will come from the quality of your technical judgement, your ability to influence engineering across the business and your understanding of how technology decisions impact customers, product delivery and commercial success.

• Shape the technical strategy and architecture of the organisation's data platform.
• Lead architectural discussions across multiple engineering teams.
• Translate evolving product and commercial requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Partner closely with Product to ensure engineering decisions support customer outcomes and business priorities.
• Mentor engineers and help raise technical standards across the organisation.
• Provide technical leadership without relying on formal management responsibility.
• Balance long-term architectural improvements with the pace of product delivery.
• Drive engineering best practice, technical consistency and architectural governance.
• Influence technology decisions across multiple teams while supporting a collaborative engineering culture.
• Help solve company-scale engineering challenges within a fast-moving SaaS environment.

We're looking for someone who can demonstrate experience across:

• Operating as a Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer or equivalent senior individual contributor within a modern SaaS product business.
• Defining technical architecture that supports both immediate product delivery and long-term platform evolution.
• Translating ambiguous commercial or product requirements into pragmatic technical solutions.
• Balancing technology decisions with people, engineering capability and commercial priorities rather than focusing solely on technical excellence.
• Working closely with Product teams to shape delivery, influence roadmaps and ensure engineering decisions create measurable customer value.
• Considering architecture beyond the codebase, including product delivery, customer release planning and go-to-market implications where appropriate.
• Influencing technical direction across multiple engineering teams without relying on formal line management.
• Making pragmatic architectural decisions in fast-paced environments where priorities change regularly.
• Demonstrating broad experience across multiple data disciplines, with an understanding of how data engineering, analytics, platforms and product engineering work together.
• Building strong relationships across Engineering, Product and other business functions to deliver successful outcomes.

Exposure to any of the following would be advantageous:

• Event-driven architectures.
• Data platform strategy and modern data ecosystems.
• Machine Learning or AI-enabled products.
• Platform Engineering principles.
• Mentoring senior engineers and developing technical capability across engineering teams.
• Large-scale SaaS product environments serving significant customer bases.

You're someone who understands that great engineering isn't just about building excellent technology solutions - it's about making technical decisions that enable people, support product delivery and deliver meaningful commercial outcomes. You thrive in environments where requirements aren't always fully defined, bringing clarity to ambiguity and translating business challenges into pragmatic, scalable solutions that balance architectural quality with delivery pace.

You're comfortable making difficult trade-offs, challenging ideas constructively and influencing through technical credibility rather than authority, working closely with Engineering and Product to ensure technology decisions create lasting value for both customers and the business. Most importantly, you'll enjoy operating in a fast-moving, product-led environment where engineering has genuine influence over product strategy, customer outcomes and commercial success.

This is a genuinely rare opportunity to operate as a true Staff Engineer within a successful and growing SaaS business. You'll have the chance to:

• Shape the long-term technical direction of a modern SaaS data platform.
• Influence architecture across multiple engineering teams.
• Partner closely with Product to solve real customer problems.
• Work on company-scale engineering challenges in a fast-moving product environment.
• Mentor experienced engineers and raise technical capability across the organisation.
• Join a collaborative engineering culture where technical leadership is genuinely valued.
• Balance hands-on technical depth with strategic architectural influence.
• Play a key role in the continued evolution of a platform used by thousands of customers.

If you're looking for a position where your technical leadership, architectural thinking and commercial mindset will have a lasting impact on a growing SaaS business, we'd love to hear from you. Please apply with a copy of your CV by Friday 31st July to Dominic Brown.