Head of Data Engineering - #2194114

Head of Data Engineering

Location: Leeds

Sector: Retail

On-site: 3 days (hybrid)

We're looking for an experienced Head of Data Engineering to lead and develop a growing data engineering function within a major retail business.

This is a senior leadership position, responsible for shaping the data engineering strategy, overseeing delivery and establishing best-practice engineering standards across an enterprise-scale Azure Databricks environment.

You'll lead internal engineering teams and third-party partners, driving improvements across data architecture, DataOps, governance, quality and cost efficiency.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the data engineering function, including internal teams and external delivery partners.
• Own the design, development and delivery of enterprise-scale data products.
• Establish and embed engineering standards, best practices and a robust DataOps operating model.
• Drive improvements across data quality, governance, monitoring and platform performance.
• Oversee data engineering costs, optimisation and delivery efficiency.
• Work closely with senior stakeholders, data science and technology teams.
• Help shape the future direction of data applications, machine learning and AI engineering.

Essential Experience:

• Extensive experience leading enterprise-scale data engineering teams.
• Strong hands-on experience with Azure Databricks and the wider Azure ecosystem.
• Strong knowledge of Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, Lakeflow / Delta Live Tables and Databricks Workflows.
• Experience implementing CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code and automated testing.
• Proven experience establishing DataOps practices, engineering standards and data governance.
• Strong understanding of data architecture, performance optimisation and cost management.
• Experience managing third-party delivery partners and engaging with senior stakeholders.

Desirable Experience:

• Experience building data applications on the Databricks Lakehouse.
• Exposure to MLflow, Mosaic AI, RAG and agentic AI solutions.
• Experience taking machine learning and AI workloads into production.
• Background in retail, grocery, supply chain or another high-volume transactional environment.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an established data engineering leader to take ownership of a significant enterprise data environment and help shape its future direction, including its growing AI capabilities.