Data Engineer

Data Engineer Preston (Hybrid working) £50,000 Reliable, high‑quality data underpins effective decision‑making across the organisation. This Data Engineer role plays a critical part in ensuring that trusted data flows seamlessly from operational systems through to reporting and analytics platforms.

Acting as the architect of the organisation’s data foundations, you will design, build, and maintain robust data pipelines and models that turn raw information into meaningful, actionable insight. The role goes beyond writing code — it is about creating scalable, resilient data infrastructure that connects systems, supports regulatory requirements, and enables teams at all levels to make informed decisions.

Data Engineer Key Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines using Microsoft Fabric.

Ensure data is ingested, transformed, and stored efficiently, securely, and reliably.

Implement robust error handling, logging, and monitoring across ETL/ELT processes.

Develop and maintain test plans to validate data accuracy and pipeline performance.

Monitor pipeline health and apply tuning techniques to optimise performance.

Create and maintain dimensional and relational data models to support reporting and analytics.

Collaborate closely with analysts and business stakeholders to ensure data models meet operational and strategic requirements.

Document data structures, transformations, and lineage in a clear and accessible manner.

Write, optimise, and maintain complex SQL queries for data extraction and transformation.

Implement data quality checks and validation processes to ensure accuracy, reliability, and completeness.

Work in partnership with data governance stakeholders to align engineering practices with governance frameworks, security standards, and GDPR requirements.

Undertake additional duties aligned with the scope and seniority of the role as required.

Key Skills & Experience

Strong experience designing and maintaining scalable ETL/ELT data pipelines, ideally within a cloud‑first environment.

Hands‑on experience with Microsoft Fabric, including data ingestion, transformation, and storage.

Advanced SQL skills, with experience writing and optimising complex queries; Python experience advantageous.

Solid understanding of relational and dimensional data modelling to support reporting and analytics.

Experience migrating data workloads from on‑premise solutions (e.g. SSIS or manual processes) to modern cloud platforms.

Strong focus on data quality, including validation, monitoring, error handling, and documentation.

Familiarity with Power BI and supporting analytics use cases.

Awareness of data governance, security, and GDPR principles.

Ability to work collaboratively with technical and non‑technical stakeholders, translating business requirements into effective data solutions.

Robert Walters Operations Limited is an employment business and employment agency and welcomes applications from all candidates