Data Engineer Consultant Principal

Looking for 8+ years as a Principal Data Engineer Consultant, you will act as the senior technical authority for complex data and analytics engagements. You will own the end-to-end solution architecture, lead client discovery and design, set technical direction and assure delivery across workstreams. You will balance business outcomes with architectural integrity, security, governance, cost, performance, resilience and operability, while developing technical capability across the team and supporting successful consulting outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead discovery and architecture workshops, validate requirements and translate business outcomes into target architectures, delivery roadmaps and technical specifications.

• Own end-to-end architecture for Microsoft Fabric and Azure data platforms, including integration, data, analytics, semantic and operational design.

• Evaluate solution options and communicate trade-offs covering value, cost, complexity, risk, scalability, performance and time to deliver.

• Define and assure non-functional requirements including security, privacy, availability, recoverability, scalability, performance, supportability and auditability.

• Establish architecture principles, reference patterns, engineering standards and governance controls for the engagement.

• Provide design authority across multiple workstreams, review technical designs and code, manage architectural exceptions and resolve complex technical issues.

• Assure DataOps practices including source control, automated testing, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, environment management and release governance.

• Own technical risk, dependency, debt and production-readiness assessments, including monitoring, capacity, recovery and support arrangements.

• Oversee data modelling, integration, data quality, lineage, metadata, classification, retention and access-control approaches.

• Lead technical planning and estimation, coordinate engineering delivery and provide clear confidence, risks and decisions to project leadership and clients.

• Act as the senior technical escalation point during delivery and significant production incidents.

• Coach Senior Consultants and engineers, delegate effectively and build reusable assets and organisational capability.

• Contribute technical content to proposals, statements of work, estimates and client presentations, while managing scope assumptions and delivery integrity.

• Identify opportunities to improve client outcomes through modernisation, reuse and responsible adoption of advanced analytics and AI.

Essential

• Demonstrable experience owning the end-to-end architecture and technical delivery of complex Microsoft Fabric and Azure data-platform solutions.

• Deep hands-on understanding of Fabric lakehouse, warehouse, orchestration, OneLake, semantic modelling, Direct Lake and Power BI.

• Broad experience across data architecture, integration, dimensional and enterprise modelling, data quality, analytics and cloud infrastructure.

• Strong SQL skills and sufficient Python or PySpark depth to guide implementation, assess designs and review engineering work.

• Experience leading discovery, option assessment and architecture workshops with senior technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Experience defining and assuring non-functional requirements, including security, privacy, availability, recovery, scalability, performance and operability.

• Experience designing governance approaches for lineage, metadata, classification, retention, access control and auditability.

• Experience establishing and assuring Git, automated testing, DataOps, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code and deployment standards.

• Experience with capacity, cost and performance planning for cloud data platforms.

• Experience overseeing multiple technical workstreams, resolving complex delivery issues and acting as a technical escalation point.

• Experience leading, coaching and developing senior technical practitioners through design and code assurance.

• Strong written, presentation and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to explain decisions, risks and trade-offs clearly.

• Experience estimating technical delivery, managing dependencies and contributing to proposals or statements of work.

• Experience delivering in Agile and client-facing consulting or equivalent stakeholder-intensive environments.

Desirable

• Microsoft Fabric certification and relevant Azure architecture or data certifications.

• Experience defining enterprise reference architectures, migration strategies and platform operating models.

• Experience integrating cloud, on-premises and third-party platforms in complex or regulated environments.

• Experience with Microsoft Entra ID, managed identities, Key Vault, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and broader Azure integration services.

• Experience leading responses to significant production incidents and converting lessons learned into architectural improvements.

• Experience shaping responsible use of AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot and/or Claude, including quality and governance controls.

• Experience supporting practice development through reusable assets, standards, mentoring or technical communities.

Success Criteria

• Owns and communicates a coherent end-to-end technical solution aligned to client outcomes.

• Makes timely, evidence-based architecture decisions and remains accountable for their delivery impact.

• Assures that solutions are secure, governed, scalable, cost-aware, supportable and production-ready.

• Creates delivery confidence by managing technical risks, dependencies, standards and quality across workstreams.

• Develops people and reusable capability beyond the immediate engagement.

Why Version 1?

At Version 1, we believe in providing our employees with a comprehensive benefits package that prioritises their wellbeing, professional growth, and financial stability.

• Share in our success with our Quarterly Performance-Related Profit Share Scheme, where employees collectively benefit from a share of our company's profits

• Strong Career Progression & mentorship coaching through our Strength in Balance & Leadership schemes with a dedicated quarterly Pathways Career Development programme

• Flexible/remote working, Version 1 is tremendously understanding of life events and people’s individual circumstances and offer flexibility to help achieve a healthy work life balance

• Financial Wellbeing initiatives including; Pension, Private Healthcare Cover, Life Assurance, Financial advice and an Employee Discount scheme

• Employee Wellbeing schemes including Gym Discounts, Bike to Work, Fitness classes, Mindfulness Workshops, Employee Assistance Programme and much more. Generous holiday allowance, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, marriage/civil partnership leave and special leave policies

• Educational assistance, incentivised certifications, and accreditations, including AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat

• Reward schemes including Version 1’s Annual Excellence Awards & ‘Call-Out’ platform.

• Environment, Social and Community First initiatives allow you to get involved in local fundraising and development opportunities as part of fostering our diversity, inclusion and belonging schemes.

And many more exciting benefits… drop us a note to find out more.

Version 1 is an equal opportunities employer.

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace where everyone feels valued and able to thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities and lived experiences, and we value the different perspectives people bring including those shaped by disability and neurodiversity.

We want every candidate to have a positive and accessible recruitment experience. If you need reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process, please contact your recruiter at Version 1. We will consider all requests carefully, respectfully and confidentially.

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