Senior Manager, Data Engineering

Join us and be part of a mission-driven, independent publisher. You'll work with a diverse group of people who share a passion for empowering researchers, educators, and institutions to shape the future.

Sageis a global academic publisher of books, journals, and library resources with a growing range of technologies to enable discovery, access, and engagement. Believing that research and education are critical in shaping society, Sara Miller McCune founded Sage in 1965. Today, we are controlled by a group of trustees charged with maintaining our independence and mission indefinitely.

Our guaranteed independence means we're free to:

• Do more - supporting an equitable academic future, furthering disciplines that drive social change, and helping social and behavioural science make an impact
• Work together - building lasting relationships, championing diverse perspectives, and co-creating resources to transform teaching and learning
• Think long-term - experimenting, taking risks, and investing in new ideas

Our Data Engineering team sits at the heart of Sage's evolving technology and data landscape, building the foundations that enable teams across the organisation to make better use of data, analytics and insights. We are entering an exciting period of transformation, with an opportunity to rethink how the function is structured, how we work, and the technology and standards that will support us into the future.

You’ll join a collaborative, globally connected Technology organisation and work closely with Engineering, Product and business leaders to shape a modern, scalable and secure data engineering capability. This is a team where you’ll have the opportunity to make a significant impact, developing existing talent, bringing in new capabilities and creating an inclusive culture of learning, innovation and accountability.

To be a strategic partner to Technology leadership, defining the future of Data Engineering s role will assess the current team's state, provide input on the design of the ideal future state, make decisions about role redesign and hiring, upskill the existing team and construct a new data engineering function largely from the ground up. The data estate this role builds must reliably meet the distinct needs of multiple business units, providing the robust, functional, and secure foundation the organisation needs for data, analytics and decision‑making.

• Shape the data engineering transformation strategy in line with Technology's broader direction, and drive its execution through prioritised, actionable initiatives that address gaps, risks and opportunities to ensure alignment across technology areas and leadership to produce streamlined collaboration, efficient delivery, and high‑quality solutions.
• Comprehensively assess current processes, tooling, skills, tech stack, and automation maturity across the organisation's data space.
• Assess current team capability and structure, and design and implement a hiring and role‑redesign plan to build the function needed to achieve the target state.
• Establish data‑centric success measures for the data engineering team, setting baseline metrics and defining KPIs, dashboards, and success criteria to track progress and value realisation.
• Develop and govern the data roadmap in partnership with product and business leadership, ensuring a phased, outcomes‑driven approach aligned to data engineering, product, and business priorities, with clear achievements and measurable results.
• Set data engineering standards and operating principles, including frameworks, tooling strategy, CI/CD integration, test management and defect tracking practices.
• Partner…