Senior Data Engineer -- Data Architecture Discovery & Documentation

Role: Technical Data Consultant — Data Architecture Discovery & Documentation

Contract Type: £400 - 500/day Outside IR35 | 3 months (initial)

Location: Hybrid — Manchester & Birchwood, Warrington (2 days/week onsite)

Overview:

A retail and gaming client needs an experienced consultant to reverse-engineer their Retail data landscape — spanning an on-premise SQL Server data warehouse and AWS estate — and convert undocumented, tribal knowledge into a sustainable, well-documented operating model.

Core Responsibilities:

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• Conduct independent deep-dive discovery and code reviews to map data flow from Retail systems into the data warehouse
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• Produce high-level and granular architecture diagrams (cloud resources, ETL/ELT pipelines, third-party integrations)
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• Author operational runbooks for troubleshooting, restart and maintenance of critical pipelines
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• Audit and document the SQL logic behind key retail metrics for reporting consistency
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• Design a lightweight, maintainable documentation framework (Confluence/Markdown-based) for the team
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What We're Looking For:

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• Proven experience reverse-engineering data systems with little or no existing documentation
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• Strong hands-on experience with SQL Server and AWS Lakehouse architecture
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• Expert-level ability to produce clear, structured architecture diagrams
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• Comfortable working independently, and skilled at engaging senior engineers who may be protective of their systems — positioning the work as empowering rather than replacing them
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