We have an incredible opportunity to join us here at Standard Life as a Principal Data Engineer to join our Digital, Engineering & Delivery team within Pensions & Savings. We're looking for someone with strong experience in data engineering and you'll play a key role in delivering scalable, high-quality data solutions.
Job Type: Permanent
Location: This role could be based in either our Birmingham, Telford, London or Edinburgh offices with time spent working in the office and at home.
Flexible working: All of our roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process. You can read more about Phoenix Flex here.
Closing Date: 20/11/26
Salary and benefits: £77,000-£100,000K plus 30% bonus up to 60%, private medical cover, 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more
Who are we?
We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.
Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.
The role
We are seeking a Principal Data Engineer to join our new CDIO function. This senior-level role is ideal for candidates with a strong leadership background in data engineering and a proven track record of designing and optimizing data solutions across diverse use cases. The Principal Data Engineer will play a crucial role in shaping our data strategy, ensuring efficient data management and infrastructure across the organization, and enabling impactful data-driven decision-making that enhances customer experiences.
Key Accountabilities:
- Data Solutions Ownership: Lead and take ownership of key data engineering platforms (e.g., Databricks, Azure) within the organization. Drive strategic initiatives, ensure safe and efficient adoption of data solutions, and provide expert technical guidance and mentorship across the Engineering & Delivery function and partner organizations.
- Platform Optimization and Automation: Ensure technical implementation aligns with strategic goals, emphasizing automation, scalability, and the integration of security best practices across all data processes. Embed robust engineering practices to optimize cloud data platforms and other infrastructure.
- Data Engineering Leadership: Directly support key business initiatives where data engineering expertise is critical. This involves owning the roadmap for data platform features and aligning them with business priorities to deliver maximum impact.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with cloud engineers, data scientists, and software engineers to ensure seamless integration of data engineering capabilities into business operations. Provide technical direction on data architecture, system interoperability, and scalable data pipelines.
- Cloud Platform Expertise: Design, implement, and optimize data infrastructure on cloud platforms (e.g., Azure) for scalable, high-performance data management. Oversee the integration and processing of large, diverse datasets to support operational and analytical workloads.
What are we looking for?
- In depth knowledge of CICD pipelines for data engineering processes to ensure seamless deployment, testing and automation.
- Extensive experience as a Data Engineer, with deep expertise in cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud) and data engineering services.
- Proven leadership experience, with the ability to mentor and guide engineering teams, manage cross-functional collaboration, and engage senior stakeholders.
- Expertise in designing and optimizing data architectures, pipelines, and platforms (e.g., Databricks).
- Advanced proficiency in data engineering programming languages including Python, Scala and SQL.
We want to hire the whole version of you.
We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.
If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.
We’re reviewing applications as they come in, so apply early to avoid missing out.
Find out more about working at Standard Life
Guide for Candidates: standardlifeplc.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates #LI-GJ1
Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.standardlifeplc.com/careers/talk-to-us
Skills Required
- In-depth knowledge of CI/CD pipelines for data engineering processes, including deployment, testing, and automation
- Extensive data engineering experience
- Deep expertise in cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud and related data engineering services
- Proven leadership experience mentoring engineering teams, managing cross-functional collaboration, and engaging senior stakeholders
- Expertise designing and optimizing data architectures, pipelines, and platforms such as Databricks
- Advanced proficiency in Python, Scala, and SQL
What We Do
Standard Life champions the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, using our size, expertise and influence - to shape the world our customers will retire into.
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