Lead Data Engineer

This is an Expression of Interest (EOI) opportunity, available on a lateral move basis only. Applications are open to Core Scottish Government employees only.   

Advert type – ​Level Transfer 

Duration - ​Permanent 

Eligibility - ​ Expressions of interest are invited from substantive colleagues on level transfer​.

Skilled Worker sponsorship is not available for this role. As a result, we are unable to appoint candidates who require Skilled Worker sponsorship now or in the future. Applicants must have an existing and ongoing right to work in the UK.

Overview   

We have an exciting opportunity for a C1 to join our team on a permanent basis.

Corporate Operations Directorate, part of the DG Corporate family, leads efforts to enable Scottish Government to operate more effectively and efficiently, supporting both internal teams and shared service customers. Our critical technologies and services underpin operations across government, with a focus on digital transformation, automation and shared services. We bring structure and governance to the setting of priorities, and are responsible for delivering projects and programmes from a varied portfolio of transformational change.

This role sits within the Corporate Data team in the Corporate Hub division. The team consists of Data professionals who work with a range of stakeholders and disciplines to lead on reporting best practice and designing, building and maintaining high-quality reports and dashboards that bring together data from across multiple systems.  Corporate Data is a centre of excellence for reporting across DG Corporate, setting data quality and integrity standards, monitoring performance against these standards, and driving continuous improvement through targeted interventions.

Reporting to the C2 Chief Data Architect, the Lead Data Engineer will be responsible for designing and implementing complex data flows that connect operational systems with analytics and business intelligence (BI) platforms. The role also includes line management responsibilities, with ownership for supporting, developing and guiding a team of data engineers and architects to deliver high-quality outcomes.

The post holder will work in partnership with the Chief Data Architect to establish and deliver the target data architecture, supporting the ongoing maturation of the corporate data landscape. This includes setting standards for data warehouse pipelines, data integration, modelling, and working across data governance to ensure secure, compliant and reusable data services.

Responsibilities: 

• Lead the design, development, testing and deployment of secure, resilient data solutions, driving continuous improvement and best practice across the full data development lifecycle.

• Work closely with the Chief Data Architect to define and implement the target data architecture, ensuring alignment to organisational strategy and enabling the transition to, and ongoing evolution of, a modern data platform.

• Establish and embed standards for data pipelines, data integration, and warehouse design, enabling scalable, repeatable and reusable data solutions across the organisation.

• Support teams to apply data profiling techniques, undertake complex source system analysis, and integrate multiple data sources into conformed, reusable data models for analysis.

• Define and promote data integration patterns and interoperability standards, guiding teams to deliver secure, reliable and well‑governed data services.

• Apply data modelling principles to develop effective conceptual, logical and physical models, working across organisational boundaries to ensure alignment and reuse.

• Design, implement and continuously improve metadata management, lineage and cataloguing practices, supporting discoverability, governance and effective data use.

• Advise senior stakeholders on data security, privacy, ethical and regulatory considerations, and lead teams to implement and maintain compliant data practices.

• Collaborate with data governance and wider stakeholders to ensure data standards, quality expectations and controls are consistently applied across the data lifecycle.

• Engage with technical and non‑technical stakeholders to understand needs, manage expectations, and communicate complex data concepts clearly, including facilitating discussions with senior audiences.

• Lead and develop engineering capability, fostering a culture of high performance, continuous learning, and engineering best practice across the team.

Success Profile

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.

Experience

1. Proven experience of explaining complex engineering concepts and strategic approaches to appropriate peers and senior leaders.

2. You have hands-on experience of co-ordinating teams to resolve problems and to implement solutions and preventative measures that minimise operational data impacts on the organisation. 

3. You have established enterprise-scale data integration procedures across the data development lifecycle enabling secure delivery of quality data sets. 
4. You have managed resources to ensure that data services work effectively at an enterprise level, contributing to agreed corporate priorities.

Behaviours 

• Changing and improving
• Managing a quality service

Behaviours will be assessed at level 4. 

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours, here: Behaviour levels - Success profiles: candidate guide

Technical Skills

This role is aligned to the Data Engineer job role within the Data job family. 

You can find out more about the skills required here: Data engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

These skills are assessed by technical assessment, designed to represent the role. Candidates reaching this stage will receive a Technical Assessment Candidate Pack which outlines the specific skills to be assessed, plus the method of assessment. 

Working Pattern  

Our standard hours are 35 hours per week and we offer a range of flexible working options depending on the needs of the role. Staff in roles compatible with hybrid working should aim to spend 40% of their contracted working time working in person at their contractual workplace. More information can be found within Hybrid Working Policy.

If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.

Pay supplement  

This post is part of the Government Digital and Data (GDD) profession and currently attracts a £4,000 annual GDD pay supplement, which is paid monthly. Pay supplements are temporary payments and subject to regular review. Following a review a pay supplement may change in value or be withdrawn. 

How to Apply  

Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1000 words) which provides evidence of how you meet each of the Experience criteria listed in the Success Profile above.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and GDD Technical assessment where the behaviours, experiences and technical skills outlined in the Success Profile will be assessed.

Vacancies close at 11:59pm on the date displayed in the table, unless otherwise stated on the job advert.

Interviews

Interviews and GDD Technical assessments are scheduled for w/c 13/07/2026 however this may be subject to change.

Further Information 

For any questions relating to your expression of interest please contact Claire Yousafzai, claire.yousafzai@gov.scot.