Job Description
Lead Data Engineer
Location: National*
Closing Date: 27/2/26
Interviews: From 9th March 2026 this may be subject to change)
Grade: G7
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)
Salary:
London: £63,343 - £70,725 (which may include an allowance of up to £14,882)
National: £58,511 - £65,329 (which may include an allowance of up to £14,939)
Working pattern: full-time, part-time, flexible working
Contract Type: Permanent
*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP
The Role
We’re recruiting for a Lead Data Engineer here at the Ministry of Justice, to be part of our warm and collaborative Data & Analytics Engineering team.
This role aligns against Lead Data Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework.
This is a great opportunity to work with leading cloud technology and help change the way data is used in the public sector. Data engineers at MoJ play a critical role in our mission to put data at the heart of decision-making. We're looking for people with the drive to develop a deep understanding of data needs and data availability across specific areas of the Ministry of Justice.
You will work in a team of Data Engineers, alongside Analytics Engineers, to bridge the gap between data producers and data users, developing analytical pipelines and self-service tools to acquire and transform data, making it available on our Analytical Platform. A summary of the type of work the teams are involved in can be found in our handbook.
Key Responsibilities:
As a Lead Data Engineer your work might involve:
- leading a team of Data Engineers to build robust and scalable automated data flows to connect operational systems, data for analytics and business intelligence (BI) systems
- creating and promoting best practices within the team and wider
- applying knowledge of systems integration to your work
- championing data engineering across the department and wider
- collaborating with a range of stakeholders to understand their needs and establish project goals and deliverables
- using a range of AWS services to deploy your solutions in a reproducible, sustainable manner
You may also be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:
- updating and maintaining technical documentation
- leading and organising team building and development initiatives for data engineering and wider
- supporting the Ministry of Justice's Analytical Platform users to use our data and tools
- line managing more junior colleagues
- keeping up to date with current trends and best practices in engineering for continuous improvement
We welcome applications from anyone with the skills we consider make a good
data engineer. You may not currently be in a data engineering role and that's ok.
Many of our team members have a background in analysis, software engineering,
data science, and more.
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!
Benefits
- 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
- A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms
- Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow
- Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates)
- 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
- Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
- Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
- Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
- Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
- 5 days volunteering paid leave.
- Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
- Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.
Person Specification
Essential
- Leading a technical team, including applying strong Python and SQL skills, shaping technical decision-making, and supporting the capability and development of others
- Understanding of the software development lifecycle, including testing (e.g. pytest), version control (e.g. git) and CI/CD (e.g. GitHub Actions)
- Designing and building data pipelines
- Translating complex data sources into useful and usable data sets
- Communicating with stakeholders and managing expectations
Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance
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 D&I Strategy.
How to Apply
Candidates must submit
- an anonymised CV, including career history, responsibilities, and achievements
- a cover letter which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above – this should be no longer than 750 words.
A cover letter is required as part of your application. If a cover letter is not provided, unfortunately, we will not be able to consider your application.
We are recruiting using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:
- Changing and Improving
- Managing a Quality Service
A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above.
Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to undertake a 1-hour technical test, if you pass the technical test, you will be invited to a 1-hour panel interview (on a separate date) held via video conference.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on leading a technical team, preferably one that uses Python and SQL, as well as strong technical skills in these languages.
When sifting applications, we’ll be assessing candidates based on the following criteria:
- Leading a technical team, preferably one that uses Python and SQL, as well as strong technical skills in these languages
- Designing and building data pipelines
- Communicating with stakeholders and managing expectations
Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.
Use of 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.
Terms & Conditions
Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact datarecruitment@justice.gov.uk
