Lead Data Engineer

Job summary

Working at HM Treasury puts you at the heart of government, making a difference to the UK economy and ultimately to people’s lives right across the UK.

Jobs at the Treasury are fast-paced, fun and can offer unparalleled perspective – not least the opportunity to advise Ministers on the decisions which directly determine the UK’s prosperity. Deep in our DNA is a commitment to empowering our people: maximising individual and collective impact, with interesting work no matter your role or seniority.

Day-to-day you could be supporting Ministers to decide the right level of a specific tax or line of government spending; helping maintain the stability of financial markets; analysing the long-term trends impacting the future of the economy; or enabling this work as part of our vital corporate functions.

We are a high-performing department and proud to have outstanding staff from a wide range of backgrounds. We are also a friendly, inclusive and sociable workplace that prides itself on fostering great team spirit. Our two largest offices are 1 Horse Guards Road in London, opposite St James’ Park, and the Darlington Economic Campus, which also contains eight other departments. We work seamlessly across all our sites, including Norwich, Birmingham and Leeds, as one Treasury.

We are both a 1,000-year-old institution and dynamic, forward-looking economics and finance ministry, with a strong direction set by our organisational strategy, the Future Treasury Vision. The 21st century offers huge opportunities and poses new challenges for the UK. Working at the Treasury is your chance to help the country chart the right course.

Job description

NISTA

The Prime Minister has called for reform of the British state, seeking to go further and faster on renewal, and to ensure a more active government. To support these aims, the government has established the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) as its centre of infrastructure expertise, harnessing the policy and strategy insight of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) and the delivery specialism of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) and bringing them together to create a new, stronger and more powerful organisation capable of delivering these goals. NISTA has six objectives:

• Overseeing the government’s 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy
• Identifying and coordinating infrastructure needs
• Unblocking barriers and streamlining delivery of the government’s major projects
• Setting standards and improving the government’s project delivery capabilities
• Providing effective assurance for the government’s priority projects
• Leading expertise on private finance

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to join a friendly and ambitious team who are always finding new ways to drive better use of data, right in the heart of central government?

The NISTA Data & Insight Team brings together data scientists, engineers, analysts and digital professionals who genuinely care about learning from each other, sharing ideas and making things happen. Together we turn rich, high-value project data into analysis, insights and tools that support people across government, from project delivery teams to senior leaders in HMT, the Cabinet Office and No10, to make decisions that shape how the UK delivers its biggest and most complex projects. Working with the Government Major Projects Portfolio, the 10‑year Infrastructure Pipeline and other project delivery data, your work will directly influence how major programmes are planned, delivered and improved.

Over the last two years, the team has undergone a significant transformation, digitising large-scale project data collection and overhauling our digital and data infrastructure. This enables us to create high-impact dashboards and analytics as well as drive the development of AI tools. It means we can develop and share quickly, resulting in rapid iterative development with our users. And we continue to evolve, improve our capability and develop our skills.

In this role, you’ll be joining a supportive, inclusive and collaborative environment, where you can grow your skills, tackle meaningful challenges and make a real impact on the future of government delivery.

As the Lead Data Engineer in NISTA you will oversee the data architecture which governs how we process data, and the infrastructure onto which the team deploys its suite of applications.

Working with subject matter experts, data scientists, and infrastructure engineers, you will ensure that data is relevant and processed effectively to enable products which meet the needs of our decision makers. You will use you your technical skills to translate complex data needs into easily understood and well documented structures by utilising and developing the team’s cloud architecture and existing tooling. You will use a range of technical skills, deploying your existing data engineering and infrastructure toolkit to ensure you use the right technologies for the job. You will have line management responsibility and lead a passionate team to promote a data-centric culture in the whole organisation, championing data engineering best practice in all your interactions with colleagues.

Key accountabilities for this role include:

1. Lead the team’s data architecture which defines how we extract, transform, and load data on the cloud platform we use to deploy our applications.
2. Work closely with data scientists and infrastructure engineers to define efficient and performant schemas which enable high-quality analysis and insight.
3. Implement secure, well-governed change practices using our multi-environment architecture to ensure that developments are secure and reliable.
4. Drive the development of our cloud architecture using Infrastructure as Code.
5. Create and maintain clear technical documentation so that our data infrastructure is transparent and easy to work with.
6. Act as a bridge between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders, clearly explaining data processes and helping others to understand how data flows through the organisation.
7. Create and maintain data infrastructure which facilitates high-quality analysis and improves outputs using CI/CD pipelines and repeatable architectural patterns.

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.

Monday 14th September 10am

https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/31297771773870?p=22Znrwd9hoqUdaznZC

If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date, please contact Jack Jenkins – [email removed]

Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Person specification

Application Form

Applications should consist of a CV including your employment history, and a 1000-word statement setting out how you meet the shortlisting criteria below. Your CV and employment history won’t be scored. It is 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.

Applicant criteria:

1. Programming and build (data engineering): You h