Lead Data Engineer

Lead Data Engineer (Permanent, London on-site)

A high-growth AI software company is looking for a Lead Data Engineer to own and scale the data foundations behind an AI-driven operations platform used by property teams. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role where you'll define the data architecture, set engineering standards and build systems that power product analytics and modern AI capabilities.

What you'll do

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• Architect and build scalable data pipelines and distributed data systems
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• Design ingestion, transformation and storage patterns for operational and AI workloads
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• Deliver batch and real-time/streaming pipelines
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• Build and optimise vector search and retrieval pipelines that support AI features
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• Implement monitoring, observability and data quality frameworks
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• Drive security, reliability and governance across the data layer
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• Partner closely with backend and AI engineers to support training, inference and product delivery
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• Influence technical direction and help shape the future data team as the company scales
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What we're looking for

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• Demonstrable experience in data engineering or backend engineering with proven architecture ownership
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• Good level of Python engineering skills
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• Strong relational database experience (PostgreSQL preferred) including performance and query optimisation
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• Exposure to NoSQL systems
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• Comfortable building from scratch in a fast-moving, product-led environment
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• Experience with vector databases and vector search in modern AI systems
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• Desirable: Spark, Airflow, Kafka, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, event-driven architectures
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• Cloud experience (AWS, GCP or Azure) is a plus
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Why join

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• High impact and ownership as an early senior hire
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• Work with a strong engineering team on real AI product challenges
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• Competitive salary
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If you are an experienced Data Engineer seeking a challenging opportunity to lead and innovate within a transformative AI company, we encourage you to apply now and become a vital part of our client's mission.

Unfortunately sponsorship is not available for this role.