Senior Engineer, Data Engineering in City of London

Our client is a fast-growing, AI-native, engineering-led consultancy building advanced semantic, ontology-driven and agentic AI systems. As they deepen their data engineering capability, they are seeking a senior-level Data Engineer to design and operate high-fidelity, ontology-aligned data foundations that power knowledge graphs, reasoning systems, retrieval layers and AI products.

This is a strategic engineering role for someone who sees data not simply as pipelines and tables, but as structured, semantically coherent knowledge that underpins intelligent systems.

You will build production-grade data pipelines explicitly aligned to ontologies and semantic models. Your work will ensure that entity definitions, relationships, taxonomies and domain constraints are faithfully represented in data flows, making them reasoning-ready and AI-consumable.

Working within a senior, cross-functional delivery model (consulting, ontology and engineering), you will play a foundational role in building robust semantic layers and enabling high-value AI systems for clients.

• Data Pipeline Engineering (Semantic & Ontology-Aligned)

• Implement transformations that respect entity models, relationships, taxonomies and domain constraints
• Deliver high-quality, structured data to downstream AI systems, agents, retrieval layers and decision engines
• Translate conceptual ontologies into implementable schemas and data flows
• Deploy pipelines into ontology-aware platforms (e.g. graph databases, semantic layers, Foundry-style systems)
• Ensure semantic compliance, data integrity and reasoning-readiness

• Data Quality, Observability & Lineage

• Implement robust data quality frameworks (validation, profiling, anomaly detection)

• AI Enablement & Data Serving

• Build high-quality datasets for retrieval pipelines (RAG), embeddings and conversational agents
• Create data foundations supporting decision engines, reinforcement learning and value measurement
• Partner with AI engineers to operationalise pipelines for LLM workflows and agentic systems
• Produce clear documentation for data models, schemas, ontologies and lineage

We are looking for strong data engineering fundamentals combined with demonstrable semantic and ontology experience:

• ~5–8 years’ experience in data engineering, data platform development or data-intensive systems
• ~ Strong SQL and Python for scalable data transformations and services
• ~ Experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure or GCP)
• ~ Hands-on experience with semantic or ontology-driven data models, including:

• Graph databases (e.g. Experience operationalising pipelines for AI systems, LLM workflows or retrieval ecosystems

You deliver clean, trustworthy, semantically aligned data ready for ontologies and AI layers. AI engineers build faster because your data structures and retrieval layers are reliable and predictable. Clients trust your clarity, rigour and dependability in data work underpinning high-value AI systems.

Senior-heavy, engineering-led culture with deep focus on ontologies, knowledge graphs and AI systems. High autonomy, low bureaucracy and meaningful system-building responsibility. Opportunity to shape internal standards, accelerators and AI-native products. Clear commitment to responsible AI and widening access to advanced technologies. Flexible working model with a modern Central London presence. Comprehensive health, wellbeing and pension benefits.

This is an opportunity to help define how semantic data engineering enables next-generation AI systems, within a firm where clarity, technical depth and real-world outcomes matter. If you are an experienced Data Engineer ready to work at the intersection of ontologies, knowledge graphs and AI, we would welcome a confidential conversation.