Cloud Data Platform Engineer

We’re 1st Central, a market-leading insurance company utilising smart data and technology at pace. Rapid growth has been based on giving our 1.4 million customers exactly what they want: great value insurance with an excellent service. And that’s the same for our colleagues too; we won Insurance Employer of the Year at the British Insurance Awards 2024 and our Glassdoor score is pretty mega too!

Are you a cloud-savvy engineer who loves building smart, secure, scalable data platforms?

We’re on the lookout for a Cloud Data Platform Engineer to help us build the future of data at 1st Central. You’ll take the lead in shaping and scaling our Azure Data Platform - designing smart, secure, and scalable solutions that power everything from business intelligence to machine learning.

You’ll collaborate closely with Data Architects, Principal Engineers and teams across Tech to deliver infrastructure as code using tools like Bicep and Terraform. Whether it’s driving standards, co-authoring low-level designs, optimising performance or keeping our data secure, this is your chance to make a big impact in a forward-thinking, data-led business.

If you get excited about Azure, Infrastructure as Code, and enabling teams to do amazing things with data – keep reading.

Skills you’ll need to be a great fit for the role:

• Infrastructure as Code Mastery - you’ll be hands-on with Terraform and Bicep, deploying Azure infrastructure like a pro, with automation, templates, and CI/CD pipelines all part of your toolkit.
• Azure Know-How - you’ve got solid experience across Azure services – Synapse, Data Factory, Databricks, DevOps, networking - and you know how to keep things secure, efficient, and cost-effective.
• Great Communicator & Team Collaborator - whether you’re talking to data engineers, security, or stakeholders - you can translate tech talk into human-speak and work together to get things done.
• Creative Problem Solver - you love a good challenge. Troubleshooting, unpicking tricky infrastructure issues, and finding clever solutions - it’s all in a day’s work.

We’re big on flexible working, with offices in Salford Quays, Manchester and Haywards Heath, West Sussex, you'll spend most of your time working from home with occasional visits to the office, but of course, it’s your choice - if you prefer to be in the office more - that's good with us too.  If you live a bit further out, we’re open to remote working - we just ask that you pop in either monthly/bi-monthly to catch up in person, because collaborating with colleagues is always great, right?  

What’s involved:

• Work closely with Data Architecture and Principal Engineers to bring new data capabilities to life in our Azure Data Platform.
• Lead on the design and implementation of our Data Science and ML Ops environments.
• Own the infrastructure, security, and performance of the Azure platform – making sure we deliver insights while protecting data.
• Translate high-level solutions into detailed low-level designs and actionable work packages.
• Build and test Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and Bicep to support delivery and meet release timelines.
• Create a Data Platform Services Roadmap to drive improvements around performance, cost, and security.
• Collaborate across the business – from InfoSec and DPO to DevOps and IT Ops.
• Help shape standards, streamline processes, and create clear documentation that others can follow.
• Lead by example with strong coding practices, testing, and CI/CD delivery.
• Coach and support others, sharing your expertise and contributing to a positive team culture.

Experience, knowledge & skills:

• Requires experience of designing and building end to end data solutions in Microsoft Cloud technologies for the purpose of Business Intelligence or Data Science purposes
• Experience with IAC (infrastructure as code)
• Evidencable experience designing and building systems that scale, are resilient and performant with suitable monitoring, cost management and alerting capabilities.
• Expert in Infrastructure as code, network design, containerisation, and automation and CICD
• Experience defining Bicep to deploy Azure infrastructure, including use of modules and templates.
• Experience defining Azure DevOps build and release YAML pipelines should be included.
• Experience with source control providers, preferably Git
• Deep engineering and database skills in SQL, Server Azure Synapse, Data factory, spark compute and Databricks technologies.
• Experience of developing coding standards and deliver methods that others follow.
• Experience of testing techniques, tools and approaches.
• Extensive experience of the full data lifecycle.
• Will have been involved in the implementation of Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) methods
• Working in an agile, rapid development, and prototyping environment

Behaviours:

• Excellent communicator - able to clearly share ideas, collaborate with others, and explain complex concepts in a straightforward way.
• Creative problem solver - enjoys tackling challenges and finding smart, practical solutions.
• Proactive and optimistic - takes initiative, stays positive, and keeps things moving forward.
• Strong time management and organisation - able to juggle priorities and meet deadlines without dropping the ball.
• Team player - supportive, enthusiastic, and focused on achieving shared goals with colleagues.
• Coaching mindset - enjoys helping others grow, share knowledge, and raise the bar across the team.
• Quality-driven - pays attention to detail and ensures work meets high standards, both their own and others’.
• Agile and adaptable - comfortable in a fast-paced, iterative environment and open to change.

Sound like your kind of role? If you’re ready to take your cloud engineering skills to the next level and help drive data innovation at 1st Central – we’d love to hear from you. Apply now and let’s build something brilliant together.

What can we do for you?

People first. Always. We’re passionate about our colleagues and know the best people deserve an extraordinary working environment. We owe it to them so that’s what we offer. Our workplaces are energetic, inspirational, supportive. To get a taste of the advantages you’ll enjoy, take a look at all our perks in full here. 

Intrigued? Our Talent team can tell you everything you need to know about what we want and what we’re offering, so feel free to get in touch.