Lead Data Engineer

We are easyJet – a FTSE-250 listed, £multi-billion low-cost airline that serves tens of millions of customers every single year. If you’re reading this, you have probably already been an easyJet customer, and you’ll know that there is no more iconic (or Orange!) travel brand in Europe.

We fly more than 1,207 routes, connecting 38 countries across Europe, and employ more than 18,000 colleagues. We’re on a mission to make low-cost travel easy – and whatever your role here, you’ll connect millions of people to what they love using Europe’s best airline network, great value fares, and friendly service.

What makes us easyJet? Our Promise Behaviours – we are Safe, Bold, Welcoming and Challenging. Four Behaviours. One Spirit. One easyJet.

JOB PURPOSE

The Lead Data Engineer is responsible for the technical direction, design, delivery and production implementation of analytical data solutions across the IT and Data estate. Combining exceptional technical capability with inspirational leadership, the role shapes the Analytics Engineering practice and ensures that data is fit for purpose, curated for consumption and discoverable within and beyond individual business domains.

Working with Data Engineering leadership, cross-functional product teams and wider stakeholders, the role leads the development of high-quality, reusable analytical pipelines and data products that enable reporting, decision support, data science, machine learning and AI. The role also develops engineers, sets technical standards and helps easyJet progress towards being a leading data-driven airline

JOB ACCOUNTABILITIES

> Serve as the technical authority for designing and delivering production-grade analytical data solutions and reusable data products across multiple business domains.

> Shape and manage the future direction of the Analytics Engineering practice, defining standards, patterns and approaches for critical analytical pipelines and curated data assets.

> Champion the distributed data platform and drive Data Product adoption, ensuring assets are catalogued, documented and discoverable so consumers understand what is available, where it exists and how to access it.

> Lead the transformation of data through the silver and gold layers, ensuring datasets are structured, modelled and optimised for analytics, BI, data science, machine learning and AI use cases.

> Own engineering quality across analytical pipelines by embedding automated testing, validation, observability, end-to-end lineage, performance optimisation and appropriate production support.

> Ensure data products comply with data management, security, privacy and governance requirements, working collaboratively with Business Data Stewards.

> Partner with BI Analysts, Data Scientists and business stakeholders to refine requirements and analytical methods, create production-ready feature engineering and deliver meaningful cross-functional datasets.

> Provide direct line management, coaching and technical guidance to Data Analytics Engineers, supporting personal development and ensuring work meets required engineering standards.

> Work within cross-functional teams of internal and external colleagues to deliver enterprise-scale solutions, clearly communicating technical concepts and designs to technical and non-technical audiences.

> Verify requirements; define data engineering components; establish implementation, testing and QA approaches; manage technical debt; and ensure functional and non-functional requirements are met.

> Identify emerging technologies, methods and techniques across data engineering and analytics engineering, assessing and championing those that offer practical business value.

> Work with Data Engineering leadership to improve delivery processes, automate manual activity and optimise ways of working.

KEY SKILLS & BEHAVIOURS REQUIRED

> Leadership: leads by example, creates clarity around the vision and helps the team understand how its work contributes to easyJet.

> Team management and coaching: supports onshore and offshore engineers, builds capability and creates an inclusive, high-performing engineering environment.

> Technical ownership: remains hands-on, makes sound engineering decisions and presents solution designs confidently for review and approval.

> Analytics mindset: understands how curated data, semantic models and well-designed data products enable effective reporting, insight and decision-making.

> Delivery support: contributes to estimation, milestone setting and agile delivery while balancing pace, quality, risk and sustainable engineering.

> Clear communication: explains complex technical concepts in accessible language and takes business stakeholders on the analytics engineering journey.

> Complex problem solving: is structured, organised, outcome-oriented and able to apply learning from previous delivery to new challenges.

> Self-direction: translates the overarching data strategy into practical technical steps with limited supervision.

> Continuous improvement: identifies opportunities to improve engineering effectiveness, standards, automation and ways of working.

TECHNICAL SKILLS REQUIRED

> Strong SQL capability, including efficient querying, transformation, performance optimisation and management of analytical data models.

> Experience in building cloud-based, analytical solutions using AWS, GCP or Azure.

> Python experience for data engineering, manipulation, automation and production software development.

> Experience developing and optimising ETL/ELT pipelines and using dbt or equivalent transformation frameworks.

> Strong knowledge of dimensional and analytical data modelling, including star and snowflake schemas, traditional warehousing, OLTP, data lakes and lakehouse patterns.

> Experience with modern lakehouse and warehouse platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery or Redshift.

> Experience of software engineering and release practices including Git, automated testing, TDD, CI/CD, Linux, containerisation and infrastructure as code.

> Understanding of data quality, metadata, lineage, cataloguing and technical data stewardship.

> Understanding of data management, including sensitive data handling and GDPR.

> Working knowledge of analytics and visualisation platforms such as ThoughtSpot, Tableau or Power BI, and how to prepare compatible, reusable datasets.

DESIRABLE

> Airline experience

> Worked the adoption and productionisation of AI solutions.

> Worked on regulatory/data privacy requirements in a data lake architecture, e.g. GDPR data handling

> Provisioning infra-as-code automatically – serverless data pipelines. (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Terraform)

> Solution architecture background – thinking beyond the data layer.

> Data Lake migrations into cloud.

M&P3#

How to Apply:
If you are a self-starter who can identify opportunities to drive greater success for the team and have a track record of building strong relationships with internal stakeholders, we would love to hear from you. Apply now to join our dynamic team!

What you’ll get in return:

At easyJet, we pride ourselves on a vibrant and inclusive workplace culture that supports and rewards innovation and excellence.

We offer:

· Competitive base salary

· 20% bonus potential.

· 25 days holiday, pension scheme, life assurance, and a flexible benefits package.

· Discounted staff travel scheme for friends and family

· Annual credit for discount on easyJet holidays

· ‘Work Away’ scheme, allowing you to work abroad for 30 days a year

· Electric vehicle lease salary sacrifice scheme

Location & Hours of Work

We operate a hybrid working policy of 40%-60% of the month spent with colleagues.

We look forward to your application and the possibility of you flying high with our team!

Application Process:
Interested candidates should apply through our careers portal.

Reasonable Adjustments:
At easyJet, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive workplace that reflects the diverse customers we serve across Europe. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds. If you require specific adjustments or support during the application or recruitment process, such as extra time for assessments or accessible interview locations, please contact us at ma.recruitment@easyjet.com. We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to ensure accessibility and accommodation

Job: Information Technology (IT)

Primary Location: United Kingdom-London-London Luton Airport

Schedule: Full-time

Unposting Date: 23/10/2026, 10:59:00 PM