Principal Data Engineer

About the role

Freshfields is looking for a Principal Data Engineer in Manchester to architect a modern, cloud-first data platform and grow the team that delivers it. The role sits within the Global Data Office and works across a global, cross-functional community, driving data democratisation, governance maturity and AI-readiness.

Key responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable, secure data lake and lakehouse solutions using Azure Data Lake, Databricks and Delta Lake, supporting real-time insight, advanced analytics and AI/ML at enterprise scale.
• Develop and optimise batch and streaming ETL/ELT pipelines with Azure Data Factory, PySpark, SQL, Apache Spark and Airflow, integrated with dbt and Git-based CI/CD.
• Implement data cataloguing, lineage tracking and governance frameworks with Collibra so data is discoverable, documented and compliant.
• Lead, coach and develop the Data Engineering team, supporting recruitment, performance management, skills growth and engineering best practices.
• Work with Data Office leadership on engineering strategy, delivery planning and building a collaborative culture across a geographically dispersed team.
• Monitor and tune data jobs for performance, scalability and cost, and embed validation, logging and monitoring.

Required profile

• Experience in data engineering, including designing and delivering data lake or lakehouse architectures in an enterprise cloud environment, ideally Microsoft Azure.
• Genuine leadership experience with a passion for developing people as well as building systems.
• Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences, and a resilient, proactive approach.

Required skills

• Databricks, Spark, PySpark, SQL and core Azure services (Data Lake Storage, Synapse Analytics, Data Factory)
• Data governance and cataloguing tools such as Collibra or Purview
• Modern data stack: dbt, CI/CD, streaming frameworks