Lead Data Engineer

Who we are

CreateFuture is fast becoming the UK’s most recognisable digital consultancy, with years of experience building digital products and services for major organisations whilst putting our people first. We have offices in the centre of Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, and London as well as remote employees located throughout the country. 

We are a team of creators - whether that’s code, project plans, go to market strategies, culture initiatives, marketing campaigns, large language models or people policies. And together, with our clients, we create the future. This has seen us collaborate and partner across a multitude of industries and sectors, with the likes of PayPal, adidas, Natwest, FanDuel and Money Saving Expert, to name just a few.

Our reputation as a partner determined to deliver high-quality, robust and thoughtful products has enabled us to scale to over 500 people in the last couple of years, and it is our amazing people - along with the safe, supportive and friendly culture we have built - that makes CreateFuture a great place to work. Don’t just take our word for it though, we have been recognised by Best Workplaces UK multiple years in a row - across a number of categories - and our employee exit rate is astonishingly low. 

Join us on our journey… Let’s create something awesome, together, today.

About the role and team:

As a Lead Data Engineer, you’ll play a hands-on technical leadership role in our Data Practice. You'll be instrumental in shaping how we deliver data engineering engagements, working closely with client stakeholders, internal teams and fellow consultants. You’ll bring strong technical expertise, mentorship, and a practical approach to building scalable and value-driven data platforms.

What you'll be doing:

• Leading the design and implementation of robust, cloud-native data platforms
• Architecting and optimising data pipelines and data models for performance and scalability
• Championing best practices across data engineering, including testing, automation, and documentation
• Mentoring junior engineers and guiding technical delivery across projects
• Working directly with client stakeholders to define goals, shape roadmaps and deliver real business impact
• Driving innovation through continuous improvement and staying ahead of industry trends

We'd love to talk to you if:

• You’ve led technical delivery of data engineering projects in a consultancy or client-facing environment
• You’re experienced with Python, SQL, dbt, Airflow and cloud-native data tools (AWS, GCP or Azure)
• You have strong knowledge of data architecture patterns – including Lakehouse and modern warehouse design (e.g. Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks)
• You know how to build with performance, security and maintainability in mind
• You can comfortably influence and guide both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• You’re passionate about helping others grow, and about making things better for clients and teams alike

What we'll offer you:

At CreateFuture, we challenge ourselves to go beyond the obvious and we care deeply about our craft and customers. With us, you’ll have ambitious projects to sink your teeth into and plenty of opportunities to learn and grow. You’ll be part of our safe, supportive and friendly culture - that looks after you - and join our team of genuinely great people. 

Our benefits include:

• Total 35 days holiday (we have flexible bank holidays)
• Comprehensive private medical insurance
• Enhanced parental and adoption leave
• Pension - matched up to 5%

View our complete list of benefits here.

As this is a hybrid role we’re looking for people within a commuting distance of our hub locations (Edinburgh/Leeds/Manchester/London office) and who are flexible to travel to client sites and CreateFuture regional offices. We are very flexible and trust you to manage your own schedule to balance face-to-face time with clients, colleagues and working from home.

We create and reinforce a culture that rewards employees’ impact, not just activity. We trust our employees to work autonomously and promote ownership across all levels.

Next steps:

Our Talent team aims to respond to all applications within a reasonable timeframe, regardless of whether or not we progress your application.

Our interview process:

• 30-minute call with one of our Talent Acquisition Team
• 1-hour competency-based interview
• Take Home Task & Review 
• 60-minute values-led interview

Our interview process is designed as an opportunity both for our interviewers to learn about your expertise, interests and motivations and for you to gain insights into the role, team and business as a whole, so throughout the process, you’ll meet a few people from our team as well as others from across the business to help you get a well-rounded view of the role and life at CreateFuture.

We believe that representative teams made up of people with different backgrounds, skills, and points of view help us build the best workplace possible, and enable us to create genuinely innovative, broadly useful products.