Lead Data Engineer

About us

At National Grid, we keep people connected and society moving-and as we accelerate the energy transition, we're creating the environment for innovation to thrive. We're committed to ensuring no one is left behind, and data is at the heart of that mission. Join us as a Lead Data Engineer and discover how your skills can help shape a smarter, more sustainable future.

We're hiring a Lead Data Engineer to join our Electricity Distribution (NGED) team. This role can be based in Warwick or Bristol
, with flexible working arrangements including the option for home working. You'll be part of a forward-thinking organisation that empowers you to make a real impact through data-driven solutions.

Reporting to the Head of Data Engineering & Insight, the Lead Data Engineer is accountable for designing, building and optimising scalable data pipelines and architectures to support analytics and operational needs across the organisation. This role provides technical leadership within the data engineering function, ensuring best practices in data management, governance and performance optimisation are upheld.

The Lead Data Engineer will act as a subject matter expert, guiding and mentoring data engineers while working closely with data scientists, insight analysts and stakeholders to deliver high-quality, reliable data solutions. They will be instrumental in defining engineering standards, resolving complex technical challenges, and driving the adoption of modern data platforms and cloud technologies.

In addition to hands‑on technical work, this role is expected to influence strategic decisions, champion a data‑driven culture, and contribute to the continuous improvement of engineering practices within the Data Platform and wider technology ecosystem.

The role also has accountability to deputise for their line manager (whenever necessary) and is expected to support the software engineering community while also driving a positive culture (primarily through role‑modeling) across the Technology department and wider business.

• Own, define and implement scalable data engineering solutions, ensuring they align with NGED's architectural standards, data governance principles, and business priorities. Lead the adoption of best practices for data pipelines, storage, and processing frameworks.
• Support the Head of Data Engineering & Insight in driving the future roadmap for data engineering, evaluating new technologies, and fostering innovation to enhance NGED's data capabilities.
• Ensure data infrastructure is reliable, secure, and optimised, managing cloud‑based and on‑premise solutions effectively, including storage, compute resources, and access controls.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the data engineering team, fostering a culture of continuous learning, technical excellence, and collaboration. Encourage knowledge sharing and professional
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and business stakeholders to understand data requirements and translate them into scalable, efficient solutions that enable better decision‑making.
• Own the development and optimisation of data pipelines and workflows, ensuring they are automated, maintainable, and cost‑efficient. Promote the adoption of CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure‑as‑code for streamlined deployment and operations.

• Exceptional communicator with strong influencing skills and ability to communicate technical information to both technical and non‑technical audiences, clearly and concisely.
• Excels at working with people and developing teams (coaching, training, facilitating and collaborating).
• Detailed knowledge/experience of the NGED product suite.
• Able to work under pressure and adapt to shifting priorities, demands and timelines and quickly update stakeholders on impact (potential or actual) to the defined delivery timescales.
• High self‑awareness and emotional intelligence, able to recognise the impact of their own behaviour on others.
• Eagerness to continually develop self through high‑quality training and the latest industry trends with regular, guided self‑reflection and mentoring.
• Knowledge and experience of implementing and leading a systems engineering strategy, SDLC strategy, and working with cloud technologies (AWS, Azure and GCP).
• Strong hands‑on experience in designing, building (and) optimising data pipelines and architectures in cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP) and on‑premise environments.

A competitive salary between £70,000 - £85,000 dependent on capability.

As well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus based on personal and company performance and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution. You will also have access to a number of flexible benefits such as a share incentive plan, support via employee assistance lines and matched charity giving to name a few.

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