About the job

Data Engineering Manager (GCP) | Remote | Up to £120k DOE + benefits

KDR are working with a rapidly growing global technology business looking for a Data Engineering Manager to lead and scale their Data Engineering function.

This is a great opportunity to take ownership of a relatively early-stage data engineering environment and have a real influence over what it becomes.

You’ll inherit an established team of senior Data Engineers, but there’s plenty still to build. The business is moving away from reactive, ad-hoc data engineering towards a more structured and scalable platform, with further growth planned across Data Engineering and potentially ML.

As Data Engineering Manager, you’ll balance people leadership, technical direction and delivery. You won't need to write code every day, but this is definitely not a hands-off management role. They need someone with the technical depth to challenge decisions, review complex work and jump in when the team needs you.

What you’ll do

Lead & Scale the Team:

Manage and develop a team of experienced Data Engineers, while shaping the hiring roadmap as the function continues to grow.

Build the Data Engineering Function:

Help take the team from a reactive environment towards structured, predictable engineering delivery with clearer standards and ways of working.

Own the Roadmap:

Take responsibility for priorities, sequencing and delivery across Data Engineering, working alongside senior engineers who will help drive the deeper technical direction.

Develop the Platform:

Help shape the architecture and engineering foundations needed to support a growing international, data-heavy business.

Work Across the Business:

Partner with Software Engineering, Product, Analytics, Marketing and senior stakeholders, translating between business priorities and engineering reality.

Raise Engineering Standards:

Drive improvements across data quality, pipeline reliability, observability, governance, CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code.

Stay Technically Close:

Get involved when it adds value, whether that's reviewing complex code, helping unblock difficult engineering problems or occasionally contributing hands-on.

What you’ll bring

You’ll have a strong background as a Data or Software Engineer before moving into engineering management.

We’re looking for:

• 7+ years across Data / Software Engineering
• 2+ years managing and scaling Data Engineering teams
• Strong GCP experience, ideally including BigQuery
• Python and advanced SQL
• Airflow or Dagster
• dbt and modern ELT environments
• Experience with distributed processing such as Spark or Flink
• CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code
• Data observability, quality and monitoring
• Strong people management and hiring experience
• Experience improving engineering maturity rather than simply inheriting established processes

Nice to have:

• Experience with CDPs, real-time/event-driven data, data catalogues, experimentation platforms or ML infrastructure would be particularly useful.
• Experience within high-volume B2C, marketplace or similarly data-intensive environments would also be beneficial.

Why this one is interesting

You’re not walking into a finished data platform with a large established team and simply keeping things moving.

There’s an existing foundation and experienced engineers in place, but plenty of opportunity to influence the architecture, improve engineering standards, grow the team and shape how Data Engineering operates as the business scales.

You’ll also be working within a genuinely international technology business, tackling the challenges that come with large volumes of customer and product data across multiple markets.

Please click apply if you think this role seems like a good match!

Candidates must be based in the UK with full rights to work.