Head of Data Engineering
Role Overview
Job Title: Head of Data Engineering
Department: Global Technology – Data & Systems
Location: Manchester – hybrid, three days a week in the office. Occasional travel to the London head office is required.
Reporting to: Global Data & Systems Director
Contract Type: Permanent, full-time (FTE)
Team Management: Manages the Engineering Delivery Lead, Senior Data Engineers, and QA / Test Engineers.
About Our Client
Our client is a leading international consumer brand transforming from a traditional bricks-and-mortar focused retailer into a truly customer-centric digital business. Operating hundreds of locations across the UK, France, USA, and Hong Kong, they are on a mission to better understand their customers and their preferences. Now is an exciting time to join them as they embark on a major technological transformation.
About the Programme
This role is a critical hire for our client's strategic nine-month data modernisation programme. The programme will replatform their data and reporting estate onto Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, and a modern Azure-based integration stack, while simultaneously retiring legacy MSSQL warehouses. The pace is fast, the scope spans multiple global markets, and the expectations of their leadership team are high. They are looking for people who thrive in this type of environment.
The Role
The Head of Data Engineering will own the design, build, and operation of our client's modern data engineering estate. This is a hands-on, accountable, delivery-first leadership role for someone who has personally led large-scale migrations and is willing to roll up their sleeves alongside the team.
You will be responsible for the end-to-end data engineering stack, encompassing ingestion, transformation, orchestration, quality, observability, security, and cost. Operating in a fast-paced retail environment across four markets that trades seven days a week, you will act as the senior escalation point for major data incidents and critical change windows, which includes providing evening and weekend cover when required. They need a highly flexible, absolutely dependable leader who remains calm under pressure and leads from the front.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the design, build, operation, and roadmap of the data engineering estate - including Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, Azure integration services, and the migration from legacy MSSQL warehouses.
- Lead the engineering workstream of their modernisation programme, delivering against fixed nine-month milestones agreed with C-suite stakeholders.
- Recruit, manage, mentor, and retain a high-performing team of engineers and QA specialists.
- Set objectives, manage performance, and make difficult decisions quickly.
- Define and enforce rigorous engineering standards, including automated testing, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, version control (Git), and code reviews.
- Set the incident management model and personally act as the senior escalation point for major incidents, including out-of-hours coverage.
- Manage the health, performance, security, and cost-efficiency of the Snowflake platform across all operating markets.
- Oversee the low-risk decommissioning of legacy data warehouses, ensuring careful reconciliation, parallel running, and cutover planning.
- Partner with integration and reporting leaders to ensure data from enterprise SaaS systems (e.g., Workday, Oracle Symphony, NetSuite) lands reliably and is fit for analytics with agreed SLAs.
- Manage supplier and contractor relationships, including commercials and delivery milestones.
- Clearly report progress and risks to the Global Data & Systems Director and CIO in specific, jargon-free language.
- Maintain technical credibility by actively diving into code, schema, query plans, or pipeline failures.
Skills and Experience
Essential:
- 8+ years of data engineering experience, with at least 3+ years leading engineering teams of 5+ people through delivery.
- Demonstrable, recent hands-on experience leading a major data platform migration on a short timeline, ideally moving from legacy MSSQL to Snowflake or an equivalent cloud platform.
- Deep technical credibility using Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran (or equivalent ELT tooling), and SQL.
- Ability to read, write, and review code personally.
- Strong working knowledge of Azure data services (Function Apps, Logic Apps, Service Bus, Data Factory) and their integration into a broader architecture.
- Experience establishing a production-grade data engineering SDLC.
- A track record of owning incident response models and personally leading major incidents to resolution.
- Resilience and flexibility to work evenings and weekends during critical delivery windows or incidents.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills, capable of briefing C-suite and board-level audiences without overstatement.
- Strong commercial awareness regarding cloud cost drivers and contract levers.
- Right to work in the UK without sponsorship.
Head of Data Engineering in Manchester employer: numi
numi is an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture in the heart of London. With a strong emphasis on mentorship and continuous learning, employees are empowered to grow their skills while enjoying a hybrid work model and comprehensive benefits such as private medical insurance. Joining numi means being part of a dynamic team dedicated to technical excellence and meaningful growth.
