Senior Data Engineer (Grade E3)

Application Deadline: 12 January 2025

Department: Policy, Insight and Analytics Directorate

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Edinburgh - Hybrid

Compensation: £46,392 - £54,003 / year

Description

At Scottish Funding Council, we’re embarking on an exciting digital transformation to redefine how we use data to drive innovation and deliver exceptional value to our customers. Central to this journey is the creation of the Azure-based data ecosystem, enabling us to unlock the full potential of our data through transformative and intelligent solutions.

Our Data Engineering team plays a pivotal role in this mission. We manage the entire data lifecycle—from integrating diverse data sources and optimizing storage and processing pipelines to delivering actionable insights—while ensuring compliance with company standards and data protection regulations.

As a Senior Data Engineer, you will be a technical leader within this dynamic team, driving innovation and engineering excellence. You’ll work closely with teams across the organisation, including Analytics and Cloud Engineering, to cultivate a data-driven culture and lead initiatives that turn data into a powerful tool for transformation.

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of post-16 education in Scotland. By delivering innovative, data-driven solutions, you will enable institutions, and policymakers to make informed decisions, enhance learning outcomes, and create opportunities that empower students to thrive in an increasingly data-centric world.

Key Responsibilities

Translate business requirements into technical specifications, roadmaps and deliverable data solutions, including data streams, integrations, transformations, databases, data warehouses, and business intelligence, reporting and analytical platforms.
Define the data architecture framework, standards and principles, including modelling, metadata, security and data virtualisation.
Support the Head of Data Engineering to develop and enhance standards and policies/guidelines whilst driving adoption of standards.
Define data flows and data lineage, visualising which parts of the organization generate data, which require data to function, how data flows are managed, and how data changes in transition.
Provide technical guidance and advice to help in the design and development of data solutions for data modelling and warehousing, data integration, and analytics.
Provide direction and support to a team of data engineers and provide technical guidance on the data products.
Develop roadmaps for both product related DE work as well as overall data maturity roadmap.
Drive the design, building, and launching of new data models and data pipelines in production.
Perform peer reviews, audits, standards compliance checks and due diligence as required.
Report delivery progress and status to both internal and external stakeholders.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

It is important through your CV / Cover Letter that you give evidence of proven experience of each of the following essential criteria:

A demonstrable track record of delivering data products and solutions across the Microsoft Azure data technologies.
Significant experience in SQL or similar standard data processing languages and development experience in at least one scripting language (Python, etc.).
Extensive and demonstrable Data Modelling / architecting in Data Warehouses and BI Solutions.
Deep technical expertise gained from extensive hands-on experience.
Effective analytical skills with ability to undertake data profiling and source system analysis, and to present clear insights to support the end use of the data.
Collaboration and Communication: Strong ability to communicate effectively with colleagues and non-technical stakeholders, especially in gathering requirements for data solutions.
Evidence of leadership experience, with experience initiating and driving projects.
Degree level education (SCQF level 9) or equivalent experience, ideally in a technical field such as Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics.
Azure Data Engineer Associate certification or higher OR Azure AI Engineer Associate certification or higher.

Desirable

Significant exposure to Azure utilising some of the following: Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, Azure DevOps and PowerBI.
Azure Data Engineer Associate certification or higher OR Azure AI Engineer Associate certification or higher.

Benefits

· Normal full-time hours of work are 35 per week. We will consider flexible working arrangements. A flexi-time system is in operation.

· Annual leave entitlement of 26.5 days pro-rata, rising to 30 days pro-rata after 2 years’ continuous service. Public and privilege holiday entitlement of 13 days pro-rata.

· A flexible approach to hybrid working, giving you flexibility to work from home anywhere in the UK for some of the time while also maintaining regular in-person contact with colleagues.

· Annual pay review: approved within the framework of the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy and negotiated with our recognised trade union, Unite. Salaries are reviewed annually in April for employees who commence employment prior to 1 October in the preceding year.

· Eligibility to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme. With its low member contribution rates and generous employer contributions, this gives you a secure, inflation-proof pension for life with no investment uncertainty. Details of contribution rates together with further details of the pension benefits are available on the Civil Service Pensions website. There is also the option of a Partnership pension account.

· Support for continuous professional development: as a part of SFC, we are dedicated to providing comprehensive support for continuous learning and professional development. Civil Service-Learning curriculum has thoughtfully designed to cater to various learning preferences, allowing employees to engage in a manner that best suits their needs. All our educational resources are conveniently accessible through the CSL website.

· Support for health and wellbeing, including generous occupational sick pay, free access to confidential advice and support through our 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme, Special Leave (paid and unpaid), a contribution to learning outside work through our Lifelong Learning Fund, free winter flu vaccination, and access to occupational health support.

· We provide support to SFC employees with Volunteering Days.

· Support for travel to and from work, including a salary sacrifice cycle loan scheme, cycle storage and shower facilities, an interest-free loan for bus or rail season tickets and free office car parking for employees on a first-come basis.

Review of Application

Panel Interview via Teams

Verbal Offer

Hired