Lead Data Engineer

Details

Reference number

470805

Salary

£57,670 - £67,500

London: £60,670 - £67,500 / National: £57,670 - £64,500. If the successful candidate is a current Civil Servant joining on level transfer, HM Treasury will honour their current substantive salary if higher. This role is eligible for a Government Digital and Data (GDaD) allowance of £2,500, £5,000 or £10,000 per annum subject to a capability assessment. For more information on pay, please refer to the guidance at https://hmtreasury.pagetiger.com/cjbibw.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

Grade 7

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

HMT - Corporate Centre Group

Type of role

Architecture and Data

Digital

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

Location

About the job

Benefits

Things you need to know

Apply and further information

Location

This post can be based in London (1 Horse Guards Road) or Darlington (Feethams House).

About the job

Job summary

If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives, the Treasury can offer you an exciting opportunity to influence decision making that affects the whole of the UK. Working at the heart of government, we collaborate across government to promote responsible public spending and drive strong and sustainable economic growth.

Our work ranges from protecting customers through the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, to promoting British trade around the world and supporting people across the country on jobs, growth and more.

We are part of the Darlington Economic Campus, a cross-government hub bringing people together to tackle key national issues while working closer to the communities we serve.

Job description

As a lead data engineer, you will work on a variety of data engineering projects, maintaining and developing them in response to user feedback. These products are used by a wide variety of HMT staff: improving them will increase productivity across the department. You will also work in a team of data professionals, supporting HMT through a wide portfolio of projects, and hold relationships with customers within HMT and beyond.

Key accountabilities of this role include:

You will be acquiring data sets from multiple sources at varying levels of maturity. You will have a demonstrable understanding of how to expose data from systems (e.g. from APIs), link data from multiple systems, and deliver streaming services. You will collaborate with others to identify and plan these services, and to review specifications.

You will maintain and develop data products used internally and in line with HMT’s data strategy. You will leverage your expertise in Python and cloud systems to achieve this. You will ensure the products run reliably and react to any issues rapidly.

You can produce data models and understand where to use different types of data models. You have experience of a wide range of data engineering tools. You understand industry-recognised data-modelling patterns, how to establish and use agreed standards and tools, design, code, and test programs and scripts for data engineering. You can develop resilient, scalable, and future-proof services for to meet user needs.

You will actively scope and carry out other projects including web app development and data engineering. You will explore opportunities to work innovatively, recognising, identifying and exploiting opportunities to ensure efficient and effective performance of the organisation, and to support and enable that you will influence the data architecture in place. You can explore new ways of conducting business and organisational processes.

You will promote best practice in data engineering including acquisition, storage and sharing of data for the benefit of modelling and policy development, working with the Hub to provide overall technical leadership and development opportunities across HMT in data and data science.

You will contribute to the growth of the Data Hub through sharing work, pair programming, contributing process ideas.

Essential criteria:

- Strong experience using Python for data engineering and web app development

Expertise in SQL

Considerable experience at least one major Cloud provider (Azure is preferred, however Google Cloud or AWS are acceptable)

Experience successfully implementing a product and managing customer relationships, acting on feedback and other good product management practices

Desirable criteria:

Experience making pipelines and data warehousing with Microsoft Fabric

Experience making apps with Plotly Dash, Streamlit and/or Chainlit

Experience using LLM and Embedding APIs, with a strong understanding of how both work

Candidate Drop-In Session

The hiring manager will be running a candidate drop-in session to give you greater insight about the role and HM Treasury and ask any questions you might have.

If you would like to join us, use the link below to join the call at the right time.

Date & time: Wednesday 29th July and 5th August, 4-5pm.

Join the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/399558196117029?p=inFy0a53sFBYqONH9J

Meeting ID: 399 558 196 117 029

Passcode: Dn69LE6P

If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date, please contact Molly Adamat at molly.adamat@hmtreasury.gov.uk

You may also be interested in a similar role within our department - Lead Software Developer. For further details, please see the advert at Lead Software Developer - Civil Service Jobs - GOV.UK

Visa sponsorship is not available for either of these roles.

Person specification

Application Stage

Application Form

Applications should consist of a CV including your employment history, and a 1000-word personal statement setting out how you meet the shortlisting criteria below. Your CV and employment history won’t be scored. It’s used to give context to your application and support discussions at interview.

The panel will review applications and invite those that best demonstrate evidence of the shortlisting criteria for interview. Please keep this in mind when writing your application.

Please note that only applications submitted through Civil Service Jobs will be accepted.

Essential criteria (application stage)

Proven experience designing and building robust back‑end systems, such as data pipelines, services or orchestration layers, that are scalable, secure and maintainable.

Demonstrable experience applying technical governance and controls to complex systems, including areas such as logging, monitoring, auditability, access management and safe interaction with data.

Strong ability to translate organisational or user needs into effective technical solutions, working collaboratively with colleagues from non‑technical backgrounds such as policy, analytical or operational teams.

Ability to provide credible technical leadership and advice, including explaining complex concepts clearly, promoting good engineering practice, and supporting others to adopt solutions safely and confidently.

Interview Stage

If you are successful at the application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed against the following criteria:

Behaviours:

Changing and Improving

Managing a Quality Service

Working Together

Experience

Interview Task / Presentation

Prior to your interview, we will contact you about a task / presentation that the panel would like you to deliver as part of the assessment. Further details will be communicated to you nearer the time.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Changing and Improving

Managing a Quality Service

Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,670, HM Treasury contributes £16,706 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

Generous Annual Leave - 25 days (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus public holidays and the King’s birthday.

Outstanding Pension Scheme - Defined Benefit pension with employer contributions of 28.97%

Parental Leave Packages - Including 6 months’ occupational pay for maternity/adoption, shared parental leave options.

Flexible & Hybrid Working - Options include part-time, job-share, compressed hours, flexitime, and hybrid working (where business needs allow).

Advance Schemes & Discounts - Rental deposit, cycle-to-work, SmartTech, season ticket loans, and access to HM Treasury’s benefits portal for a wide range of discount codes.

You can review HM Treasury’s full offer here.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Candidate Guidance

Please review the candidate guidance for an overview of the Success Profiles and STAR approach, along with top tips for applications and interviews.

Recruitment Timeline

Closing date: 9th August 2026

Shortlisting: w/c 10th August 2026

Interviews: w/c 17th and w/c 24th August 2026

This timeline is indicative and may be subject to change. We will inform you if there is a substantial change to the recruitment timeline.

If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs Profile.

Reserve Lists

You will be placed on a reserve list if your application is successful, but we cannot offer you a role immediately. Where more than one location has been advertised, candidates will be posted in merit order by location. You will be asked to provide your location preference on your application form. Please note that a place on the reserve list does not guarantee an offer.

If you are offered a role in your first preferred location and you decline the offer or are unable to take up the post within a reasonable timeframe, you will be removed from the reserve list, other than in exceptional circumstances.

Those on the reserve list may also be approached for similar roles at a lower grade. If you are offered a role at a lower grade and choose to decline, you can remain on the reserve list.

Internal Fraud Database Check

Candidates cannot apply to roles in the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Successful candidates will be subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database. This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This also applies to those who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the database will be refused employment.

National Security Vetting

Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks. Additionally, successful candidates will be subject to National Security Vetting. The level of security vetting required for this role is Security Check (SC).

To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out, applicants will need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. You will be asked to provide residency information within your application form, and eligibility for national security vetting will be checked once the advert closing date has passed. In certain circumstances, for example if you have been working abroad on a government posting, a lack of residency would not be a bar to security clearance however the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case-by-case basis once the advert closing date has passed.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

See our vetting charter .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals

nationals of the Republic of Ireland

nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : Molly Adamat

Email : molly.adamat@hmtreasury.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : hrrecruitment@hmtreasury.gov.uk

Further information

Complaints Process: Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment based on fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact HMT by email at: hrrecruitment@hmtreasury.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.