Lead Data Engineer

Details
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Reference number

465018

Salary

£70,521 \- £86,262
£76,515 \- £86,262 (London) / £70,521 \- £77,824 (National) Based on capability. The base salary of this grade is £74,605 for London and £69,675 for other locations. Offers made above this will be made up with a specialist pay allowance.
GBP

Job grade

Grade 6### Contract type

Permanent### Business area

GDS \- Digital Identity \& One Login### Type of role

Digital

Information Technology### Working pattern

Flexible working, Full\-time, Job share, Part\-time, Compressed hours### Number of jobs available

1
Contents
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• Location


• About the job


• Benefits


• Things you need to know


• Apply and further information

Location
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Bristol, London, ManchesterAbout the job
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Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services


• harnessing the power of AI for the public good


• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure


• elevating leadership and investing in talent


• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation


• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world\-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly\-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest\-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need

Job description

You’ll be the technical data engineering lead for the data and analytics team in the Digital Identity (DI) programme.

As a Lead Data Engineer you’ll:

• be responsible for the data and analytics team’s data engineering strategy; transforming Digital Identity data into structures and layers that enable analysis


• work with stakeholders and teams across the Digital Identity programme to understand relationships between data and business processes; use this to define data requirements; and translate these into data structures and data models that resolve specific business problems for analysis


• proactively identify and integrate cutting\-edge tools and techniques to ensure our data analytics infrastructure remains scalable and future\-proof


• collaborate with Data, Solution, and Enterprise Architects to ensure all data engineering strategy, pipelines, and architecture designs adhere to GDS and DSIT documentation, standards, and enterprise principles


• lead a team of analytics engineers, data modellers and data engineers to design, build and maintain data models which enable analysis through reproducible pipelines


• act as a bridge between technical teams, business stakeholders, and senior leadership, ensuring analytics capabilities align with strategic objectives and operational requirements


• design and optimise metadata repositories, establishing the standards for how the analytics teams store, categorise, and utilise data to ensure long\-term discoverability and consistency

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• are accomplished expert data engineers with experience of producing, maintaining and updating data models which solve business problems and are optimised for data analysis


• have extensive experience using and managing Google Cloud and AWS, using technologies such as Redshift, BigQuery, Dataform, and SQL; and using their experience to continuously improve the codebase and reliability of solutions


• have experience transforming complex unstructured data into structures and layers that enable analysis, defining and promoting best practices for creating repeatable, reliable and reusable data solutions that therefore drive impact and value


• can listen to and interpret the needs of technical and non\-technical stakeholders, manage their expectations and influence in order to gain the confidence of senior leaders


• have experience at a senior level of providing technical leadership, guiding and mentoring engineering teams

Benefits
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There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi\-time and the option to work part\-time or condensed hours


• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28\.97%


• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days


• an extra day off for the King’s birthday


• an in\-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance


• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development


• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme


• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK


• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets


• death in service benefits


• cycle to work scheme and facilities


• access to an employee discounts scheme


• 10 learning days per year


• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)


• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non\-home based location for 40\-60% of the time over the accounting period.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

Things you need to know
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Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.### Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process \- We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip \- please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above


• a 90 minute technical and behavioural panel interview by video call, which will include a 20 minute presentation. Details around the presentation will be shared with shortlisted candidates.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

• are accomplished expert data engineers with experience of producing, maintaining and updating data models which solve business problems and are optimised for data analysis

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• changing and improving


• leadership


• developing self and others


• delivering at pace

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Lead Data Engineer role:

• communicating between the technical and non\-technical


• data analysis and synthesis


• data compliance and security


• data development process


• data innovation


• data integration design


• data modelling


• metadata management


• problem management


• programming and build (data and analytics engineering)

Want to know more about who Government Digital and Data are? Click Here

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: week commencing Monday 22nd June 2026

Panel interviews: week commencing Monday 6th July 2026

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil S

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