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Job Description

Director of Data Engineering: AI & Data Platforms

Location: London (Hybrid – 1–2 days per week onsite)

Salary: Up to £140,000 + equity & benefits

Reports to: CTO

Overview of the Role

This is a rare opportunity to shape and lead the evolution of a next-, AI- data platform within a high-growth, well-funded scale-up.

As Director of Data Engineering, you will operate at the intersection of strategy and execution partnering closely with the CTO to define the long-term architecture, build a high-performing team, and transition the organisation from a traditional data platform to an agentic, AI-driven ecosystem.

You will inherit a capable team, but more importantly, you will define its future: how it scales, what it builds, and where it leverages external innovation. This role combines hands-on technical leadership (circa 50%) with team and organisational leadership (circa 50%), making it ideal for a builder-leader who thrives on both architecture and people.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Platform Vision

Partner with the CTO to define and execute the AI and data platform strategy, including critical build vs buy decisions Establish a clear approach to partner vs upskill, ensuring the team leverages external innovation while building core internal capability Shape the long-term vision for an agentic, AI- data ecosystem

AI-Driven Data Platform Development

Lead the design of a unified AI search layer, combining vector, keyword, and graph-based approaches (e.g. GraphRAG) Architect and scale agent-based systems and human-in-the-loop workflows Oversee the development of a knowledge graph and data enrichment pipelines to unlock proprietary data value Drive AI/ML Ops maturity, including LLM deployment, RAG pipelines, and evaluation frameworks

Engineering & Architecture

Define scalable, cloud- architectures across GCP () and AWS Lead cross-cloud data orchestration, ensuring seamless data flow from ingestion to intelligence layers Guide technical decisions on tooling, frameworks, and platform evolution

Team Leadership & Growth

Lead and develop a team of data and AI engineers, including senior and staff-level contributors Build a culture of engineering excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement Hire, mentor, and scale the team in line with business growth

Delivery & Impact

Ensure engineering effort is focused on high-value, domain-specific problems Improve velocity through modern engineering practices and AI-assisted development Balance innovation with pragmatism, avoiding unnecessary reinvention while maintaining competitive advantage

Key Requirements

Leadership & Experience

Proven experience as a Director or Senior Engineering Manager leading data/platform teams Strong track record of scaling teams and mentoring engineers (typically 5+ years in leadership roles) Comfortable operating in a hands-on leadership capacity

Data Platform & Cloud Expertise

Experience building and scaling high-volume data platforms Strong knowledge of GCP (BigQuery ) and exposure to AWS Expertise in data pipelines, distributed processing, and Python-based data services

AI & Emerging Technologies

Exposure to or strong interest in agentic systems, LLMs, and AI-driven architectures Experience with AI search (vector databases, hybrid search, GraphRAG) is highly desirable Familiarity with knowledge graphs, ontologies, or complex data modelling

Strategic & Commercial Thinking

Experience making build vs buy and technology investment decisions Ability to evaluate and integrate third-party tools, platforms, and partnerships Strong alignment with business outcomes, not just technical delivery

Additional Information

Working Pattern: Hybrid (1–2 days per week in London office) Salary: Up to £140,000 + equity + benefits (private healthcare, pension) Team Size: ~4–5 engineers currently, scaling further Career Progression: Clear path towards VP Engineering / CTO Environment: Stable, well-funded scale-up (not early-stage chaos) Highly unique, proprietary datasets Strong investment in modern AI tooling and practices

Interview Process (3 Stages)

Introductory conversation with senior leadership Technical/design interview (architecture-focused) Final interview with executive stakeholders (in-person)

This role is ideal for a senior engineering leader who wants to build, shape, and scale—not just maintain. If you’re motivated by cutting-edge AI, complex data challenges, and genuine strategic influence, this is an opportunity to make a lasting impact.

If you are interested in applying for this job please press the Apply Button and follow the application process. Energy Jobline wishes you the very best of luck in your next career move.