Lead Data Engineer

Lead data engineers at Thoughtworks develop modern data architecture approaches to meet key business objectives and provide end-to-end data solutions. They might spend a few weeks with a new client on a deep technical review or a complete organizational review, helping them to understand the potential that data brings to solve their most pressing problems. On projects, they will be leading the design of technical solutions, or perhaps overseeing a program inception to build a new product. Alongside hands-on coding, they are leading the team to implement the solution.

Job responsibilities

• You will lead and manage data engineering projects from inception to completion, including goal-setting, scope definition and ensuring on-time delivery with cross team collaboration.
• You will collaborate with stakeholders to understand their strategic objectives and identify opportunities to leverage data and data quality.
• You will design, develop and operate modern data architecture approaches to meet key business objectives and provide end-to-end data solutions.
• You will be responsible to create, design and develop intricate data processing pipelines, addressing clients\’ most challenging problems.
• You will collaborate with data scientists to design scalable implementations of their models.
• You write clean and iterative code based on TDD and leverage various continuous delivery practices to deploy, support and operate data pipelines.
• You will lead and advise clients on how to use different distributed storage and computing technologies from the plethora of options available.
• You will develop data models by selecting from a variety of modeling techniques and implementing the chosen data model using the appropriate technology stack.
• You will be responsible for data governance, data security and data privacy to support business and compliance requirements.
• You will define the strategy for and incorporate data quality into your day-to-day work.

Job qualifications

Technical Skills

• You have experience in leading the system design and implementation of technical solutions.
• Working with data excites you; You have created Big Data architecture, can build and operate data pipelines, and maintain data storage, all within distributed systems.
• You have a deep understanding of data modeling and experience with modern data engineering tools and platforms.
• You have experience in writing clean, high-quality code using the preferred programming language.
• You have built and deployed large-scale data pipelines and data-centric applications using any of the distributed storage platforms and distributed processing platforms in a production setting.
• You have experience with data visualization techniques and can communicate the insights as per the audience.
• You have experience with data-driven approaches and can apply data security and privacy strategy to solve business problems.
• You have experience with different types of databases (i.e.: SQL, NoSQL, data lake, data schemas, etc.).

Professional Skills

• You understand the importance of stakeholder management and can easily liaise between clients and other key stakeholders throughout projects, ensuring buy-in and gaining trust along the way.
• You are resilient in ambiguous situations and can adapt your role to approach challenges from multiple perspectives.
• You don’t shy away from risks or conflicts, instead you take them on and skillfully manage them.
• You coach, mentor and motivate others and you aspire to influence teammates to take positive action and accountability for their work.
• You enjoy influencing others and always advocate for technical excellence while being open to change when needed.
• You are a proven leader with a track record of encouraging teammates in their professional development and relationships.
• Cultivating strong partnerships comes naturally to you; You understand the importance of relationship building and how it can bring new opportunities to our business.

Other things to know

Learning & Development

There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.

Country: UK
City: London
Date Posted: 08-18-2025
Industry: Information Technology
Employment Type: Regular

About Thoughtworks

Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary.

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