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Lead Data Engineer

Remote/Home Based, UK

Aker Systems was founded in 2017 by a team of experienced technology professionals who recognised an opportunity to provide highly secure enterprise data platforms to large organisations.  We build and operate ground-breaking, ultra-secure, high performance, cloud-based data infrastructure for the enterprise. Our proprietary technology solutions drive performance and reduce costs while helping our clients to improve the management and sharing of data across their organisations.

In 2024, Aker Systems won the Breakthrough Culture Awards highlighting growth companies putting culture first. In 2020 Aker Systems was recognised as a ‘One to Watch’ on the Sunday Times Tech Track.  The Company was also recognised at the Thames Valley Tech Awards 2020; winning the Thames Valley Tech Company of the year, the Emerging Tech Company and High Growth Tech Business categories.  We encourage people of all different backgrounds and identities to apply.  We are committed to maintaining an inclusive, and supportive place for you to do your very best work.

A UK Government Security Check (SC) clearance is required for this role.  If you don’t hold SC clearance, we will support you to apply assuming you have lived and worked in the UK for a minimum of 5 years. 

As a Lead Data Engineer you will lead the development and enhancement of a secure, scalable, and efficient data platform for a high-profile government client. This role is pivotal in designing and delivering batch and real-time data processing solutions using both commercial and open-source technologies.

As a technical leader, you maybe responsible for leading data engineering efforts, mentoring junior engineers, and ensuring data architecture aligns with business and compliance requirements. You’ll work across diverse data sources and formats to deliver clean, reliable, and accessible data to downstream consumers, enabling critical analytics and operational insights.

Key Responsibilities

  • Architect, build, and maintain robust, scalable data pipelines to ingest, transform, and store data from multiple structured and unstructured sources.

  • Lead the design and development of new data solutions, ensuring alignment with business goals and data governance policies.

  • Conduct and guide logical and physical database design, data modelling, and performance tuning.

  • Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including data scientists, analysts, DevOps, and software engineers.

  • Troubleshoot and perform root cause analysis of data issues and production bottlenecks.

  • Drive best practices in code quality, testing (TDD), version control, and CI/CD across data engineering processes.

  • Contribute to the continuous improvement of the data platform, exploring new technologies and methodologies to solve complex data challenges.

Essential Skills & Experience

  • Proven experience leading data engineering projects or teams.

  • Expertise in designing and building data pipelines using frameworks such as Apache Spark, Kafka, Glue, or similar.

  • Solid understanding of data modelling concepts and experience working with both structured and semi-structured data.

  • Strong knowledge of public cloud services, especially AWS (EC2, RDS, Lambda, Athena, Glue).

  • Proficiency in programming/scripting languages such as Python.

  • Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.

  • Familiarity with configuring and tuning both relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, DynamoDB).

  • Test-Driven Development (TDD) using appropriate frameworks.

Nice to Have

  • Experience with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins or Drone.

  • Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform, Ansible, and Packer.

  • Hands-on experience with both Linux and Windows environments.

  • Knowledge of data governance, security controls, and compliance in public sector environments.

Aker Systems Attributes

At Aker we work as a team, we are collaborative, hardworking, open, and delivery obsessed.  There is no blame culture here: try things, and take responsibility for the outcomes.  You are always part of the wider Aker.  We help out our colleagues and take pride in successfully achieving difficult tasks.  We run towards problems and help solve them.  Communicate always, do so accurately and in a timely fashion.

In return, we offer a competitive salary, 25 days holiday (excluding bank holidays), Company Paid Medical Insurance, Life Assurance (4x times basic salary), Pension scheme, Perks at Work, Cycle Scheme, Tech Scheme and Season Ticket Loan. Plus, a list of voluntary benefits including Dental Insurance, Critical illness cover and Virtual GP.  

Equal Opportunities

Aker Systems fosters a diverse environment that encourages openness in its communications and is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, age, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status or other personal characteristics. We embrace differences of opinion and diversity because they help challenge us and find new groundbreaking technical solutions.

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