Technical Lead — Database Engineering

Original Post

**POSITION OVERVIEW** We are seeking an experienced Technical Lead — Database Engineering to drive technical direction, architecture standards, and delivery quality across our database engineering team. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in enterprise database development and cloud data platforms with the leadership capability to guide engineers, define standards, and deliver robust, scalable database solutions at pace. This role bridges hands\-on technical contribution with formal team leadership. **CORE RESPONSIBILITIES*** Define and drive database architecture standards, design patterns, and development best practices across the team. * Lead the design and development of complex, high\-performance database solutions for enterprise\-scale data platforms. * Architect and implement database schemas, data models, indexing strategies, and partitioning designs for scalability and performance. * Review and approve technical designs, SQL code, stored procedures, and data models produced by the team. * Provide hands\-on technical leadership — actively contribute to development while guiding and reviewing the team's output. * Lead database performance engineering — query optimization, execution plan analysis, index tuning, and bottleneck resolution. * Design and implement ETL/ELT transformation logic, staging layers, and reporting\-ready views within the database platform. * Define and enforce data quality, integrity, security, and governance standards across all environments. * Mentor senior and junior database developers — conduct code reviews, pair sessions, and technical knowledge sharing. * Lead CI/CD implementation for database objects — schema versioning, automated deployment, and environment promotion. * Collaborate with data engineers, architects, and business analysts to translate requirements into database solutions. * Manage technical risks, resolve blockers, and ensure quality delivery across database engineering workstreams. * Lead database migration, modernisation, and cloud transition initiatives. * Evaluate and recommend new database technologies, tools, and frameworks to enhance team capability. **REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS*** Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field. * 7–10 years of database development experience, with at least 2 years in a technical lead or senior architect role. * Expert\-level proficiency in T\-SQL / PL\-SQL — advanced stored procedures, dynamic SQL, CLR, and performance engineering. * Proven experience designing and delivering enterprise\-scale database solutions on SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or equivalent. * Deep hands\-on experience with cloud databases — Azure SQL, Azure Synapse, Snowflake, or AWS Redshift. * Strong expertise in data modelling — relational, dimensional (star/snowflake schema), and SCD design patterns. * Advanced query optimization skills — execution plans, statistics, index design, partitioning, and columnstore indexes. * Demonstrated experience leading and mentoring database development teams. * Strong background in database CI/CD — DACPAC, Flyway, Liquibase, or equivalent schema migration tools. * Excellent problem\-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills. **PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS*** Cloud certification at associate level or above (Azure Database, AWS Database, or GCP Data). * Experience with Azure Data Factory, SSIS, or equivalent ETL platforms at enterprise scale. * Hands\-on experience with Databricks SQL, Delta Lake, or Lakehouse architectures. * Familiarity with NoSQL databases — Cosmos DB, MongoDB, or Cassandra. * Knowledge of data governance, observability, and data lineage tools. * Experience with Power BI data modelling, DAX optimisation, and report layer design. * Exposure to real\-time and streaming database patterns — CDC, event sourcing, or Kafka integration.