Senior Data Platform Engineer

Department: Cyber Services and Capabilities

Location: GBR Cheltenham Jessop House

Description

Manchester, Cheltenham or London

We are seeking a skilled Data Engineer to join our Engineering team, responsible for designing, building, and optimising scalable data pipelines that power advanced analytics and machine learning solutions. You will play a key role in enabling data-driven decision-making by delivering high-quality, reliable datasets to tools such as Amazon SageMaker and other analytics platforms.

Key Responsibilities

We are looking for a Data Engineer to work closely with the Data Science team to develop robust data pipelines that feed analytics and machine learning tools such as Amazon SageMaker and third-party platforms like Databricks. You will leverage AWS technologies such as EMR, S3, EKS and Airflow to process and orchestrate high-volume datasets, ensuring solutions are scalable, resilient and cost-efficient. You will also play a key role in embedding data loss prevention (DLP) principles and controls into data pipelines to protect sensitive information, while ensuring data is reliable, accessible, well-governed and optimised for downstream consumption.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

Essential

• Strong experience in data engineering within AWS cloud environments.
• Hands-on experience with AWS big data technologies such as EMR, S3 and SageMaker.
• Proficiency in Python for building scalable data pipelines and processing frameworks. Experience with Apache Spark for distributed data processing.
• Experience designing and maintaining scalable batch and real-time data pipelines.
• Solid understanding of ETL/ELT design patterns and data modelling techniques.
• Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Apache Airflow (ideally deployed on AWS).
• Familiarity with containerisation and orchestration using Docker and Kubernetes (EKS).
• Experience with infrastructure as code (e.g. Terraform) and CI/CD/GitOps practices.
• Proven ability to optimise performance and reduce cloud costs through partitioning, clustering and workload management.
• Understanding of data security principles, including data loss prevention (DLP).

Desirable

• Experience with Databricks or similar third-party big data platforms.
• Knowledge of real-time streaming technologies (e.g. Kafka, Kinesis).
• Experience implementing data governance and compliance frameworks.
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools in AWS environments.
• Exposure to Lakehouse or modern data platform architectures.

Job Benefits

• Flexible Working: Balance your work and personal life with our flexible working options.
• Generous Holiday Allowance: Enjoy 25 days of holiday, plus bank holidays, with the option to buy up to 5 additional days of annual leave.
• Medicash & Critical Illness Scheme
• Financial & Investment Benefits: Enjoy peace of mind with our Pension, Life Assurance, and Share Save Scheme.
• Community & Volunteering Programmes: Make a difference in your community with our volunteering opportunities.
• Green Car Scheme: Drive green and save money with our eco-friendly car scheme.
• Cycle Scheme: Stay fit and healthy with our cycle-to-work scheme.
• Special Time Off: Take time off for those big moments in life, like getting married/entering into a civil partnership, becoming a grandparent, and welcoming home a new pet.
• Family Planning: Benefit from our generous maternity and paternity leave, as well as time off and support for those undergoing fertility treatments.

We review every application received and will get in touch if your skills and experience match what we’re looking for. If you don’t hear back from us within 10 days, please don’t be too disappointed – we may keep your CV on our database for any future vacancies and we would encourage you to keep an eye on our career opportunities as there may be other suitable roles.

If you do not want us to retain your details, you can utilise the Manage Your Data tool provided by Pinpoint or contact us directly at: [email protected]. All personal data is held in accordance with the NCC Group Privacy Notice.

We are committed to diversity and flexibility in the workplace. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you during the application process, please tell us at any stage.

Please note that this role involves mandatory pre-employment background checks due to the nature of the work NCC Group does. To apply, you must be willing and able to undergo the vetting process.