Senior Manager - Data Engineer in West Bromwich

About Squarcle / The Team

Squarcle is a growing strategy, operations and digital consultancy dedicated to driving the performance of our clients. We are people orientated and pride ourselves on our people-first culture. Unlike many consultancies, Squarcle is as equally dedicated to delivery as it is to design. The Technology and Digital department, led by the Head of Digital, is responsible for providing expert technology and digitisation strategy, operational optimisation and analysis advice to clients operating within a fast-moving global environment. The team comprises several subject matter experts who work to a manager to deliver the client and internal Squarcle mandate. Working together but often independently, each team member will be expected to work onsite and remotely with the client, on complex and exciting technology challenges. Squarcle is committed to equality and diversity and our aim is to build a diverse, dedicated, and high-performing team of subject matter experts to help our clients achieve supply chain and operational excellence.

Job Overview / Introduction

The Senior Manager Data Engineer, Digital, reports to the Head of Digital and is responsible for the provision of independent technical expertise in data engineering, infrastructure and back-end development best practice, both on client projects and Squarcle’s proprietary platform development. All of our digital team members are expected to have input into our digital, product and technology strategy, owned by the Head of Digital, and be comfortable presenting technical content to non-technical colleagues and clients. Squarcle consultants work across both project delivery, business and product development.

Roles and Councils

Squarcle consultants work across four broad areas and two main delivery orientations:

• Delivery: Provide solutions to the client’s changing business needs. The scope of engagements is highly variable and can include core strategy development, large-scale implementation, process optimisation, change management, data analysis, data modelling, solution development and innovative technology introduction.
• Business development: Lead sector thinking in development of ideas, including producing white papers and internal research on sector changes and their impact on the economy.
• Product Development: Invest in and develop internal products, including conceptualising, designing, and creating cutting-edge products that align with the business strategy and drive sustainable growth.

Primary Roles And Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across multiple client engagements and internal product initiatives, setting direction and assuring quality for data engineering deliverables in line with the DDAT framework.
• Own end-to-end delivery governance for data engineering workstreams, including engagement planning, estimating, budgeting, mobilisation, RAID management, and delivery assurance.
• Lead architecture and design of scalable, secure, and cost-effective data platforms and pipelines (batch, streaming, API, event-driven, and unstructured), ensuring appropriate technology choices and design patterns.
• Define and enforce data engineering standards (coding, testing, CI/CD, observability, documentation, and operational readiness), and conduct technical assurance including design and code reviews.
• Partner with client stakeholders to understand business objectives, data maturity, information governance requirements, and security constraints; translate needs into robust roadmaps, backlogs, and delivery plans.
• Ensure compliance with relevant policies and regulations (e.g., data protection, access controls, retention), embedding data quality, lineage, metadata management, and auditability into delivered solutions.
• Lead multi-disciplinary teams (data engineers, platform/infrastructure engineers, analysts, data scientists, and product delivery) and contribute to ways of working that enable effective delivery (Agile, Discovery–Alpha–Beta–Live where appropriate).
• Drive platform reliability and performance, setting SLOs/SLAs where appropriate, and implementing monitoring, alerting, incident response processes, and continuous improvement.
• Lead and contribute hands-on to critical technical delivery when required (e.g., complex pipeline development, optimisation, troubleshooting, and secure integration design).
• Develop client and internal capability through coaching, mentoring, and formalised knowledge sharing; build and maintain communities of practice and reusable assets (patterns, accelerators, templates).
• Support growth of the Data & Digital practice through business development activities, including shaping proposals, defining delivery approaches, contributing to thought leadership, and supporting recruitment and capability planning.
• Provide people leadership for direct reports, including objective setting, performance reviews, development planning, and creating an inclusive, high-performing culture.

Secondary Roles And Responsibilities

• Champion continuous improvement and professional development across the Data & Digital practice, including organising and sponsoring communities of practice, team events, and internal training programmes.
• Support recruitment and growth activities, including shaping role profiles, interviewing, onboarding, and workforce/capability planning for current and future delivery demand.
• Contribute to internal governance and assurance activities, including peer reviews, delivery health checks, escalation support, and ensuring consistent application of engineering standards and DDAT-aligned ways of working.
• Represent Data Engineering capability internally and externally through thought leadership (e.g., white papers, case studies, presentations) and by supporting proposal development and client.