Senior Data Engineer

Salary Range: 50,000 - 61,950. Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Your Impact

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Data Engineer to join our team at Leonardo Cyber & Security Division. This is a highly rewarding and hands-on role with exposure across both traditional and cutting-edge enterprise IT as well as bespoke Operational Technology systems. You will be working in a dynamic environment with a team that is motivated to deliver innovative solutions to customers within defence, government and commercial sectors. We are after creative, passionate, technically savvy and personable people to help grow our practice and solve some of the most exciting and critical challenges to the UK’s digital landscape. This role requires strong expertise in building and managing data pipelines using the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) and Apache NiFi. The successful candidate will design, implement, and maintain scalable, secure data solutions, ensuring compliance with strict security standards and regulations. This is a UK based onsite role with the option of compressed hours.

What you will do as a Senior Data Engineer:

• Design, develop, and maintain secure and scalable data pipelines using the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) and Apache NiFi.
• Implement data ingestion, transformation, and integration processes, ensuring data quality and security.
• Collaborate with data architects and security teams to ensure compliance with security policies and data governance standards.
• Manage and monitor large-scale data flows in real-time, ensuring system performance, reliability, and data integrity.
• Develop robust data models to support analytics and reporting within secure environments.
• Perform troubleshooting, debugging, and performance tuning of data pipelines and the Elastic Stack.
• Build dashboards and visualizations in Kibana to enable data-driven decision-making.
• Ensure high availability and disaster recovery for data systems, implementing appropriate backup and replication strategies.
• Document data architecture, workflows, and security protocols to ensure smooth operational handover and audit readiness.

What you'll bring:

• Core areas (must have): UK DV Clearance or the ability to obtain it.
• Experience working as a Data Engineer in secure or regulated environments.
• Expertise in the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for data ingestion, transformation, indexing, and visualization.
• Strong experience with Apache NiFi for building and managing complex data flows and integration processes.
• Knowledge of security practices for handling sensitive data, including encryption, anonymization, and access control.
• Familiarity with data governance, data quality management, and compliance standards in secure environments.
• Experience in managing large-scale, real-time data pipelines and ensuring their performance and reliability.
• Strong scripting and programming skills in Python, Bash, or other relevant languages.
• Working knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) with a focus on data security and infrastructure as code.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Detail-oriented with a focus on ensuring data accuracy, quality, and security.
• Proactive problem-solving mindset and ability to troubleshoot complex data pipeline issues.

Desirable:

• Experience working in government, defence, or highly regulated industries with knowledge of relevant standards.
• Experience with additional data processing and ETL tools like Apache Kafka, Spark, or Hadoop.
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with monitoring and alerting tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, or ELK for data infrastructure.
• Understanding of ML algorithms, their development and implementation.
• Confidence developing end-to-end solutions.
• Experience with infrastructure as code e.g. Terraform, Ansible.

This is not an exhaustive list, and we are keen to hear from you even if you might not have experience in all the above. The most important skill is a good attitude and willingness to learn.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to 500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website. Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!