Data Platform Engineering Lead

Location: Portugal
Industry: Advanced Technology / Engineering
Salary: €90-120,000 + 15% bonus annually

Overview of the Role

We are working with a high-tech engineering organisation developing advanced technology solutions for complex, real-world applications. They are looking to hire a Data Platform Engineering Lead to take ownership of their data platform strategy, architecture and engineering capabilities.

This is a senior technical leadership position combining data engineering, cloud architecture, platform development and team leadership. You will lead a highly skilled team while remaining technically involved in the design and development of scalable, secure and high-performance data infrastructure.

The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping the organisation’s data technology strategy and ensuring its platforms can support continued growth, innovation and increasingly sophisticated data and AI applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of data engineers and data architects, creating a collaborative and high-performing engineering culture.
• Own the design, development and ongoing evolution of scalable data platforms and pipelines.
• Define and maintain the overall architecture of the data platform, ensuring it meets current business requirements while supporting future growth.
• Establish technology standards, architectural principles and best practices across the data engineering environment.
• Develop strategies for integrating data from multiple and diverse sources while maintaining data quality and reliability.
• Design highly scalable solutions capable of handling increasing data volumes and complex processing requirements.
• Monitor and optimise platform performance, reliability and efficiency.
• Lead data platform modernisation and migration initiatives across cloud and on-premise environments.
• Ensure appropriate security, governance and compliance measures are incorporated into the platform architecture.
• Work closely with data scientists, analysts, software engineers, product teams and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions.
• Identify and introduce new technologies and approaches that can improve the organisation’s data capabilities.
• Establish and maintain comprehensive technical documentation covering architecture, pipelines, processes and design decisions.
• Provide technical leadership across complex data and analytics initiatives.

Candidate Profile

Essential

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or a related technical discipline.
• 7+ years’ experience within data engineering, data architecture or a closely related discipline.
• At least 3 years’ experience in a technical leadership or people-management position.
• Strong experience designing and implementing modern data platform architectures.
• Excellent understanding of big data technologies and distributed data processing.
• Strong experience with cloud platforms and cloud-based data services.
• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud or another major cloud platform.
• Experience with cloud migration and hybrid/on-premises environments.
• Strong programming experience with Python, Java, Scala or similar.
• Strong SQL and database knowledge, including relational and non-relational databases.
• Experience with data warehousing and modern data storage technologies.
• Experience with data integration, ETL/ELT and data pipeline technologies.
• Good understanding of data modelling, data governance and data quality.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and automation technologies such as Terraform or Ansible.
• Experience with data pipeline orchestration tools such as Airflow.
• Good understanding of Docker, Git, CI/CD and DevOps practices.
• Strong understanding of monitoring, telemetry and platform performance.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Proven ability to lead and develop highly technical engineering teams.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Highly Preferred

• Google Cloud experience and/or relevant cloud certification.
• Experience with data platform reference architectures such as Data Mesh or Lambda Architecture.
• Experience with technologies such as Hadoop, Spark and Kafka.
• Experience with modern cloud data warehouse technologies.
• Experience leading large-scale data platform transformation or migration programmes.
• Experience working within highly technical engineering, AI or advanced technology environments.

• Experience with data integration platforms such as Apache NiFi, Talend or Informatica.
• Experience with technologies such as FastAPI, PostGIS, pandas or scikit-learn.
• Experience with data visualisation or analytics tooling.
• Knowledge of relevant cybersecurity, data security and compliance frameworks.
• Experience working within multidisciplinary engineering organisations.

What We Offer

• The opportunity to join a highly technical engineering organisation working on complex and innovative technology.
• A senior position with significant ownership and influence over the organisation’s data strategy.
• The opportunity to build and lead a talented data engineering function.
• Exposure to modern Data, AI and cloud technologies.
• A collaborative environment with a strong engineering culture and relatively flat organisational structure.
• Flexible working arrangements.
• Opportunities for professional and technical development.
• The opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to advanced technology projects.
• Competitive salary based on experience and expertise.

If you are an experienced Data Engineering Lead, Data Platform Lead, Data Architect or Data Engineering Manager looking for an opportunity to combine technical leadership with hands-on platform strategy, we would be interested in hearing from you.

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Veronica Gains