Senior Data Engineer

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a centre of excellence for research, education, and care in the treatment of Cancer. The Trust has an outstanding reputation for information and has recently implemented a new digital health record, data warehouse and business intelligence solutions. The information team currently supports management and clinicians throughout the organisation by providing information and analysis for planning, decision making, quality assurance and improvement. We are further developing our analytical tools and capabilities to rapidly increase the utilisation of anonymised clinical data to support research and to maximise the use of clinical data to increase understanding of the disease and treatment outcomes. We are looking for a motivated experienced data engineer to join our team, to play a pivotal role supporting the Information Development Manager to shape, develop, and maintain the Trust’s new data ecosystem.

Main duties of the job

• To develop, maintain and support the corporate data warehouse and Trusted Research Environment. This will include and is not limited to data engineering tasks, data pipeline development, and resolving performance issues.
• To work with our cloud hosting provider to ensure effective resource utilisation and consumption patterns.
• To develop complex data structures, data models and Extract Transformation and Load processes using Azure Synapse Analytics and related Azure services to support the trust Data warehouse at the direction of the Database Architect and Data Infrastructure Manager.
• To apply data engineering techniques including data wrangling, cleansing, transformation and integration to ensure high‑quality data pipelines and datasets.
• Develop, implement, and assist in the maintenance of a data asset catalogue to facilitate data discovery.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To work as part of the Information Development team to develop, support, and enhance the corporate data warehouse environment.
• Support the integrity of the data warehouse and contribute to the design and implementation of adequate back‑up solutions.
• Contribute to business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
• Maintain an in‑depth knowledge of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, and related Azure data services, and provide expert advice regarding their application, act as a point of escalation for investigation and resolution of complex technical issues.
• Lead the development and implementation of data pipelines using Synapse Pipelines and other ETL/ELT tools to ingest, transform and load data from various sources.
• Act as the SME for data engineering, providing authoritative input on schema design, data quality, and interoperability.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

• Educated to degree level (or equivalent qualification/experience)
• Evidence of on‑going professional development
• Microsoft certified: Azure Fundamentals, Data Fundamentals, Database Administrator, Designing & implementing DevOps Solutions

Experience

• Significant experience in a database developer role in a multi‑professional organisation
• Evidence of having developed complex database systems
• Evidence of having administered Azure data warehouses including but not limited to SQL Server including SSIS, T‑SQL, Data Factory/ Synapse Pipelines, Azure DevOps, including Repos & Test Plans, Azure Data Catalogue, Serverless application development
• Knowledge and understanding of modern data analytics platforms including but not limited to Python, R, PowerBI, Office 365
• Experience of working within an Agile and Continuous Integration environment
• Knowledge and experience of working with sensitive information within the NHS
• Knowledge and understanding of Machine Learning data pipelines

Skills, Abilities & Knowledge

• A strong commitment to customer service delivery and excellent organisational skills
• Ability to evaluate and respond to rapidly changing operational situations, often under pressure and with changing and sometimes conflicting priorities
• Excellent communication skills especially when dealing with complex technical information and colleagues who have limited IT knowledge and understanding
• Ability to document technical procedures/standards
• An in‑depth understanding of schema creation for databases & management of permissions

Other Requirements

• Self‑motivated: generates ideas and carries them forward, keen to deliver results and take ownership of work
• Self‑disciplined: able to work on own initiative, works to high standards
• Team working ability to work and contribute well within a team
• Good communicator: able to communicate clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing

Flu Vaccination – What We Expect of our Staff

At The Royal Marsden we have an immune compromised patient population who we must protect as much as we can against the flu virus. Each year, seasonal flu affects thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal disease. The wellbeing of our staff and patients is of the upmost importance to us, and it is the expectation of The Royal Marsden that all patient‑facing staff have an annual flu vaccination, provided free of charge by the Trust.

The Royal Marsden values diversity and is committed to the recruitment and retention of under‑represented minority groups. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are working to create a workplace that enables all staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to this because we know that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even greater positive impact for the people we serve.