Lead Data Engineer - Front Office

About

We’re partnering with a top-tier global investment firm running a multi-strategy platform across public and private markets. Data sits at the centre of capital allocation, risk, and PnL and this role is responsible for defining how that platform evolves.

This is a senior leadership hire, reporting directly to the Head of Data, with ownership of the firm’s data platform and roadmap.

The Role

You will lead a small, high-calibre team while remaining hands-on, owning the architecture, direction, and delivery of the firm’s core data platform.

This is not a maintenance role, you’ll define the operating model, set engineering standards, and build systems that directly power trading and investment decisions. You’ll work closely with PMs, quants, and risk to translate business needs into scalable, high-performance data systems.

What You’ll Own

• End-to-end ownership of the firm’s data platform, including architecture, tooling, and long-term strategy.
• Defining and executing the data engineering roadmap in partnership with the Head of Data and senior stakeholders.
• Leading and mentoring a team of engineers, setting technical direction and raising the bar on engineering quality.
• Building and scaling low-latency, high-reliability pipelines powering PnL, positions, and risk.
• Designing and owning golden-source datasets (security master, pricing, accounts) used across the firm.
• Driving the evolution to a modern, cloud-native architecture (Snowflake, DBT, Spark, Databricks/EMR).
• Establishing best practices across data quality, lineage, observability, and platform reliability.

What They’re Looking For

• Proven experience leading data engineering teams and owning platform-level decisions.
• Strong software engineering background with expert Python and SQL.
• Deep experience designing and scaling distributed data systems (e.g. Spark, Databricks, EMR).
• Track record of defining architecture and delivering production-grade data platforms.
• Ability to operate in a front-office environment, working closely with trading and investment teams.

Financial markets experience is helpful but not required; the focus is on engineering depth, ownership mindset, and the ability to operate at pace in a high-performance environment.

Why Join

• True platform ownership with direct impact on trading and risk.
• Leadership role reporting into the Head of Data.
• Opportunity to define the data strategy of a globally active investment firm.
• Lean, senior team with high visibility across the business.
• Comp up to $600k TC.