Lead Data Engineer

Code First Girls • London, CA

2d • $65,000 - $75,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

We are looking for a Lead Data Engineer to join our growing Data & AI team. This is a hands-on player/coach role, combining people leadership with meaningful technical contribution, where you will help build robust, scalable data solutions while supporting the growth of a small but impactful team.

You will have direct line management responsibility and are expected to remain technically hands-on, contributing to design decisions, code reviews and problem-solving alongside the team.

We are a diverse team, and strongly encourage applications from all genders, men, women and non-binary people.
Code First Girls offers family-friendly, flexible working arrangements. With an office on Old Street, we offer hybrid working with one day in the office a week for those based in the South East. For those outside of the South East, we have in-person full team meetups in London approximately once a month.

Code First Girls is on a mission to close the gender gap in the tech industry by providing employment through free education. We’ve already helped more than 300,000 women learn to code, and by working with companies globally, we’re boosting employability, diversity and social mobility, transforming local economies and communities. But we are expanding further with the launch of our Code First Teams brand (for employee training) and opening up more international opportunities and markets with our client partners.

We are looking for a Lead Data Engineer to lead our Data Engineering & Automation capability, with a focus on delivery, technical quality and team development. With core data foundations already in place, this role will focus on evolving and extending our data platform to support new use cases and deliver high-quality data products that create value across the organisation.

This is a hands-on player/coach role, combining strong technical leadership with people management, supporting engineers through code reviews, design discussions and day-to-day problem solving, while maintaining high standards for scalability, reliability and data quality.

You will report into the Associate Director of Data & AI, who owns the overall data strategy and senior stakeholder relationships. You will work in close partnership to translate strategic priorities into clear delivery plans and robust, scalable systems.

You are comfortable balancing short-term delivery with long-term technical health, and you enjoy guiding teams through ambiguity without losing momentum.

Requirements

• Experience mentoring, leading or managing people in a technical environment.
• A strong coaching mindset: helping others get unstuck, break down complex problems, and prioritise effectively when everything feels urgent.
• Comfortable balancing hands-on delivery with people leadership.
• Strong Python and SQL skills, with experience writing and reviewing production-grade code.
• Confidence conducting deep code reviews and setting engineering standards, including testing and deployment practices appropriate for data systems.
• Solid data modelling foundations and experience working with modern cloud data warehouses (e.g. BigQuery, Snowflake).
• Strong Git and version control practices, including branching and merging workflows.
• Experience architecting data solutions on cloud platforms (GCP preferred)
• Ability to troubleshoot data issues across multiple business systems, APIs and integrations.
• Ability to identify opportunities for automation, design pragmatic solutions and propose clear implementation approaches.
• Practical experience working with data quality, documentation and safe deployment of the importance of documentation, data quality and observability.
• Experience handling data securely and in line with GDPR and data protection principles.
• An interest in using AI tools to support engineering workflows, with a strong human-in-the-loop approach to ensure quality, accountability and sound engineering judgement.

Nice To Haves

• Experience developing or owning internal data products.
• Knowledge of data governance or data quality tooling.
• Experience supporting teams that use low-code or no-code tools (such as n8n or Zapier), and introducing guardrails and best practices to ensure reliability and maintainability

Responsibilities

• Team Management: Providing direct line management to the data engineering & automation team. You will run code reviews, manage performance and nurture career growth.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Working in partnership with the Associate Director of Data & AI to represent the data engineering team, supporting stakeholder conversations, setting realistic delivery expectations and protecting the team’s focus.
• Operational Stability: Supporting the team in diagnosing and resolving data issues across our integrations (APIs, CRM, automation tools) and designing systems that reduce manual intervention and single points of failure.
• Engineering Delivery: Overseeing the rollout of our Client Portal and agentic products. You will ensure these tools are stable, scalable and ready for high-volume operations.
• Governance & Quality: Establishing safe deployment practices and data quality checks. You ensure that our data is accurate, backed up and handled securely in line with GDPR.

Benefits

• Salary: £65k to £75k DOE + opportunity for up to 10% bonus, dependent on company performance
• Annual leave: 20 days + 7 days over Christmas + 1 Special Occasion Day (+ 8 bank holiday days). Optional: Buy or sell 3 days of holiday, 1 Giving back day, option to work 2 days over the festive period and get additional days back.
• Parental leave: 16 weeks full pay for the primary caregiver, 6 weeks full pay for the secondary caregiver. Phased return to the office for the primary caregiver (work for 4 days at full pay for 2 months).
• Flexible working: Our standard working hours are 9.30am - 5.30pm, but we offer flexibility to fit your work around your life.
• Work from Abroad: Opportunity to work from abroad for up to 90 days a year.
• Free CFG education: After working at CFG for 6 months you are able to enroll on one of our Tech Accelerator courses.
• 6% matched pension: CFG will match your pension contribution up to 6%.
• Length of service: After 3 years you get an extra day of annual leave, 2 extra days at 4 years and 3 extra days at 5 years (and 5+ years). After 5 years a 2-month sabbatical, first month paid, 2nd month unpaid is available.
• Mental health support: Free access to Spill, which offers employees free workplace support therapy sessions.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed