Data Platform Engineer
UK National Audit OfficeLondon Area, United Kingdom
Added 7 Aug · still live
Not disclosed
Salary
Not disclosed by employer
£54,700
Going rate
Skilled Worker going rate
This role may qualify for a Skilled Worker visa
SOC 2134 is an eligible occupation, but we classified this role with low confidence (47% match). If the code is right — and UK National Audit Office is a licensed sponsor — it should qualify, but double-check the occupation eligibility rules against the actual role.
About the role
Job DescriptionData Platform Engineer
Location: London or Newcastle with a minimum 2 days a week office attendance
Contract Type: Permanent Full Time
Salary: London c£70,000 Newcastle c£61,250 plus civil service employer pension employer contribution of 28.9%
The deadline for applications is 11.59 pm Sunday 23rd July. We will be holding interviews WC 31st Aug.
Nationality Requirement
About The National Audit Office
The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK’s main public sector audit body. Independent of government, we have responsibility for auditing the accounts of various public sector bodies, examining the propriety of government spending, assessing risks to financial control and accountability, and reviewing the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of programmes, projects, and activities. We report directly to Parliament, through the Committee of Public Accounts of the House of Commons which uses our reports as the basis of its own investigations. We employ approx. 1,000 people, most of whom are qualified accountants, trainees, or technicians. The organisation comprises two service lines: financial audit, and value for money (VFM) audit and has a strong core of highly talented corporate teams.
The NAO welcomes applications from everyone. We value diversity in all its forms and the difference it makes to our organisation. By removing barriers and creating an inclusive culture all our people can develop and maximise their full potential. As members of the Business Disability Forum and the Disability Confident Scheme we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria.
The NAO supports flexible working and is happy to discuss this with you at application stage.
Introduction
Location: London or Newcastle with a minimum 2 days a week office attendance
Contract Type: Permanent Full Time
Salary: London c£70,000 Newcastle c£61,250 plus civil service employer pension employer contribution of 28.9%
The deadline for applications is 11.59 pm Sunday 23rd July. We will be holding interviews WC 31st Aug.
Nationality Requirement
- UK Nationals
- Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
About The National Audit Office
The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK’s main public sector audit body. Independent of government, we have responsibility for auditing the accounts of various public sector bodies, examining the propriety of government spending, assessing risks to financial control and accountability, and reviewing the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of programmes, projects, and activities. We report directly to Parliament, through the Committee of Public Accounts of the House of Commons which uses our reports as the basis of its own investigations. We employ approx. 1,000 people, most of whom are qualified accountants, trainees, or technicians. The organisation comprises two service lines: financial audit, and value for money (VFM) audit and has a strong core of highly talented corporate teams.
The NAO welcomes applications from everyone. We value diversity in all its forms and the difference it makes to our organisation. By removing barriers and creating an inclusive culture all our people can develop and maximise their full potential. As members of the Business Disability Forum and the Disability Confident Scheme we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria.
The NAO supports flexible working and is happy to discuss this with you at application stage.
Introduction
Context and main purpose of the job:
This is a new vacancy created within NAO’s Digital Services (DS) to expand the data team within the Audit Technology & Data pillar, with responsibility for designing, building, and maintaining the infrastructure that enables robust data ingestion process, storage, and access across the organization. This role supports the development and continual improvement of NAO data & technology service composition and provision, enabling scalable and reliable data solutions.
In this capacity, you will build and optimize data pipelines, integrate diverse data sources, and ensure the efficient movement of data across systems. You will work closely with analytics engineers, data scientists, and other stakeholders to ensure data is accessible, high-quality, and fit for purpose. Your work will underpin the NAO’s ability to derive insights and automate processes using corporate and client data.
In This Role, You Will
This role requires regular attendance at the NAO’s office either in Victoria, London, or at the office in Newcastle.
Responsibilities Of The Role
As a data engineer at the NAO, you will play a critical role in building and maintaining the technical foundation that enables data-driven operations and insights. You will be responsible for architecting and managing data infrastructure, ensuring that data flows securely and efficiently across systems, and enabling downstream users to access reliable, well-structured data. You will take ownership of the design and delivery of scalable cloud data pipelines, with a focus on Microsoft Azure-based solutions.
Your Key Responsibilities Will Include
This is a new vacancy created within NAO’s Digital Services (DS) to expand the data team within the Audit Technology & Data pillar, with responsibility for designing, building, and maintaining the infrastructure that enables robust data ingestion process, storage, and access across the organization. This role supports the development and continual improvement of NAO data & technology service composition and provision, enabling scalable and reliable data solutions.
In this capacity, you will build and optimize data pipelines, integrate diverse data sources, and ensure the efficient movement of data across systems. You will work closely with analytics engineers, data scientists, and other stakeholders to ensure data is accessible, high-quality, and fit for purpose. Your work will underpin the NAO’s ability to derive insights and automate processes using corporate and client data.
In This Role, You Will
- Design, develop, and maintain scalable data pipelines and ETL processes.
- Integrate structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources.
- Ensure data quality, consistency, and security across systems aligning with the NAO’s data strategy.
- Collaborate with analytics engineers and subject matter experts to support data modelling and transformation.
- Work closely with the other digital roles including Cybersecurity, BI, Architecture to ensure effective delivery.
- Monitor and optimize performance of data infrastructure
- Test, monitor, and document data architecture and engineering processes to ensure transparency and maintainability.
This role requires regular attendance at the NAO’s office either in Victoria, London, or at the office in Newcastle.
Responsibilities Of The Role
As a data engineer at the NAO, you will play a critical role in building and maintaining the technical foundation that enables data-driven operations and insights. You will be responsible for architecting and managing data infrastructure, ensuring that data flows securely and efficiently across systems, and enabling downstream users to access reliable, well-structured data. You will take ownership of the design and delivery of scalable cloud data pipelines, with a focus on Microsoft Azure-based solutions.
Your Key Responsibilities Will Include
- Building scalable data infrastructure: Design and implement systems that support the ingestion, storage, and processing of large volumes of structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources.
- Developing robust data pipelines: Create automated workflows that extract, transform, and load data into centralized platforms, ensuring consistency, reliability, and performance across all stages.
- Designing and optimizing ETL processes: Build and maintain efficient ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) workflows to move data from source systems into usable formats. Ensure these processes are scalable, well-documented, and aligned with data quality standards.
- Integrating diverse data sources: Connect and harmonize data from various systems (e.g., operational databases, APIs, cloud services) to create unified datasets for analysis and reporting.
- Collaborating across teams: Work closely with analytics engineers, data scientists, and business stakeholders to understand data needs and deliver infrastructure that supports analytical and operational use cases.
- Ensuring data reliability and performance: Monitor data systems for latency, failures, and bottlenecks. Implement performance tuning and system optimizations to maintain high availability and responsiveness.
- Implementing data governance and security protocols: Apply best practices for data privacy, access control, and compliance. Ensure that sensitive data is protected and handled in accordance with regulatory requirements.
- Maintaining technical documentation: Produce and update documentation for data architecture, pipeline configurations, and operational procedures to support transparency and continuity.
- Troubleshooting and incident response: Investigate and resolve data-related issues, from pipeline failures to data integrity concerns. Establish proactive monitoring and alerting systems.
- Supporting data accessibility: Enable self-service access to clean, well-organized data for analysts and other users through tools, APIs, or data platforms.
The skill sets listed also include the corresponding skill level (awareness, working, practitioner, expert):
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical (Skill level: Awareness)
- Data Analysis and Synthesis (Skill level: Working)
- Data Development Process (Skill level: Working)
- Data Innovation (Skill level: Awareness)
- Data Integration Design (Skill level: Working)
- Data Modelling (Skill level: Working)
- Metadata Management (Skill level: Working)
- Problem Management (Skill level: Awareness)
You investigate problems in systems, processes, and services, and contribute to the implementation of remedies and preventative measures.
Essential Criteria
- Programming and Build (Data Engineering) (Skill level: Working)
- Technical Understanding (Skill level: Working)
- Testing (Skill level: Working)
Essential Criteria
- Deep, hands-on experience as a cloud-based Data Engineer, ideally within Microsoft Azure environments.
- Expert-level experience designing and delivering ETL/ELT pipelines at scale.
- Strong experience in data modelling, including standardisation, best practice, and semantic layer design.
- Advanced Python skills for data processing, optimisation, and automation.
- Strong SQL expertise, including T-SQL and PostgreSQL.
- Proven experience implementing and operating medallion architecture patterns.
- Experience with cloud-native Azure data services, including:
- Azure Databricks
- Microsoft Fabric
- Azure Data Factory
- Demonstrable experience in pipeline performance tuning and optimisation.
- Experience working closely with DevOps engineers, with a solid understanding of CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (Iac) such terraform
- Knowledge in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) practices, including automated testing (e.g. Pytest).
- Experience in analytics engineering, including development of semantic data models for reporting and analytics.
- Experience with infrastructure and data governance tooling, such as:
- ETL and Data Pipeline Development
- Data Infrastructure and Integration
- Database Management and Optimization
- Collaboration and Communication
- Problem Solving and Troubleshooting
How to apply
Please upload a current cv and a covering letter before the deadline clearly outlining your knowledge and experience against the experience requirements above including experience utilizing Terraform.
This description is the source posting as it read when we added it. We are not affiliated with UK National Audit Office, so check their own site for the current details.
Where this offer sits in the market
SOC 2134 · UK · ONS ASHE 2025 · ~343k in sampleP25 £42kP75 £76k
£33kmedian £57kgoing rate £55k£103k
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Does this job guarantee visa sponsorship?
Not necessarily. UK National Audit Office holds a sponsor licence, but sponsorship for a specific hire is always the employer's decision. Be upfront in your application that you'll require it.
What salary is needed for this role to be eligible?
The offer must clear both the general threshold and the SOC 2134 going rate of £54,700. New-entrant and shortage discounts can lower it.