Lead Data Engineer (Snowflake/Azure)
Posted 4 days ago by Consol Partners
£600 Per day
Outside
Hybrid
London, UK
Summary: The Lead Data Engineer role involves hands-on execution and leadership in a significant data strategy transformation for a Tier 1 Insurance Leader, focusing on migrating to a cloud-native platform built on Snowflake. The position requires a senior professional with extensive experience in engineering execution and team guidance to create a scalable data ecosystem. Candidates with a background primarily in architecture or governance will not be suitable for this role. The engagement is for a 12-month contract with a hybrid working model based in London.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the development and implementation of scalable data pipelines in Snowflake, utilizing dbt for transformation and orchestration.
- Establish best practices, coding standards, and CI/CD workflows to ensure operational excellence.
- Provide technical leadership and influence across large teams, shaping the engineering culture positively.
- Collaborate with internal architecture groups to align engineering standards with strategic goals.
Key Skills:
- Recent hands-on experience with Snowflake and dbt for data solutions.
- Experience in leading large-scale data estate migrations from on-premises to cloud.
- Strong focus on engineering delivery rather than governance or architectural design.
- Comprehensive understanding of Data Warehousing, ELT/ETL patterns, and advanced SQL.
Salary (Rate): £600 per day
City: London
Country: UK
Working Arrangements: hybrid
IR35 Status: outside IR35
Seniority Level: Senior
Industry: IT
Lead Data Engineer: Hands-On Execution & Transformation Leadership
Location: London (Hybrid Working Model)
Contract Length: 12-Month Engagement
Rate: Up to £600 per day (Outside IR35)
A Tier 1 Insurance Leader is undertaking a pivotal, large-scale data strategy transformation, migrating its entire data estate to a cutting-edge, cloud-native platform built on Snowflake (hosted on Azure).
We are seeking a highly experienced Lead Data Engineer for a critical, multi-faceted leadership role. This engagement demands a senior professional who can seamlessly integrate deep, recent, hands-on engineering execution with strategic team guidance to deliver a scalable, high-performance data ecosystem. Candidates whose recent roles are predominantly architectural or governance-focused will not be a fit.
The Mandate: Deep Execution, Strategic Delivery, and Cultural Change
This role requires a leader focused on depth and delivery, not just breadth and design.
Deep Hands-On Engineering: Act as the principal technical expert, leading the development and implementation of highly scalable and repeatable data pipelines in Snowflake. You must have demonstrable, recent experience executing complex data modelling standards using dbt (data build tool) for transformation and orchestration.
Crucial Focus: Experience must be centered on enterprise-level data migrations and large-scale transformations on Snowflake, not just database management or maintenance.
Engineering Governance & Standards: Establish best practices, clear coding standards, and repeatable CI/CD workflows, ensuring operational excellence across delivery teams.
Leadership & Cultural Influence (Delivery Focus): Provide technical and professional leadership, adapting to ever-changing team dynamics. We require a leader with experience scaling guidance and influence across large teams (up to 30 people) and a proven ability to positively shape the engineering culture.
Note on Contract Longevity: We seek candidates who demonstrate stability and commitment through their career history in key delivery roles.
Architectural Partnership: Partner closely with internal architecture groups, ensuring engineering standards align with strategic architectural goals.
Essential Experience: Focus on Depth and Migration
Snowflake & dbt Mastery (Recent & Relevant): Proven, recent, hands-on experience in designing and deploying data solutions within a production Snowflake environment. Expert command of dbt for sophisticated data modelling and transformation.
Enterprise Migration Experience: Mandatory experience leading or playing a primary role in large-scale data estate migrations (on-premises to cloud) and complex transformation projects using Snowflake.
Focus on Delivery: Candidates must demonstrate a career trajectory emphasizing deep engineering and delivery over high-level governance or non-implementing architectural design in recent years.
Core Data Skills: Comprehensive understanding of Data Warehousing methodologies, modern ELT/ETL patterns, Analytics Engineering principles, and advanced SQL for performance optimization.
This is a unique opportunity to define the data strategy through execution for a Tier 1 institution and drive cultural change through technical thought leadership.
We invite experienced data leaders with a strong history of hands-on delivery and enterprise migration experience to engage with us on this critical transformation.