Senior Data Engineer

About Downing Downing is a fast-growing, entrepreneurial, responsible investment manager with headquarters in central London. We believe a great investment opportunity isn’t just financial - it’s a chance to invest in things that matter: our environment, our health, our society, our communities, and our economy. This aligns with our B CORP status.

Our ability to adapt and innovate to create products for our investors is key to our growth and success, and our core values are vital to everything we do - from the businesses we invest in to the people we hire. About the Team Our BI and Data team based in split across London and Cardiff, sits at the heart of our investor operations, delivering the data infrastructure, pipelines, and reporting that the business depends on. We are in an active phase of platform modernisation and we are growing the team to meet that ambition.

The successful candidate will join a small, collaborative team of data engineers and analysts delivering work across the full data lifecycle, from extraction and transformation through to data modelling and reporting. About the Role As a Senior Data Engineer, and a senior member of the team based in Cardiff, you will be a hands-on technical contributor and a reference point for engineering quality within the team. In practice, this means owning complex ETL pipelines end-to-end, working directly with stakeholders to translate data requirements into solutions that are clear, robust, and built to last.

You will lead the specification of data features - taking requirements from across the business, turning them into elegant and fit-for-purpose designs, and working with team members to see them through to delivery. As much as this is an engineering role, it requires confident engagement with the business and the ability to bring people along with you. Key Responsibilities Design, build, and maintain Python-based ETL pipelines across extract, transform, and load stages SQL development - stored procedures, views, and complex ad hoc queries Data lake development within Azure Synapse, working to our Bronze/Silver/Gold medallion architecture Leading feature specification - working with business stakeholders to define requirements and translate them into solution designs Keeping stakeholders informed on the status of data initiatives Producing technical documentation: solution designs, data dictionaries, and engineering runbooks Reviewing and guiding the work of less experienced members of the team Contributing to solution design discussions and architecture decisions You will be working primarily within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, including Azure SQL Server, Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory, and Azure DevOps, with an expectation of familiarity with Microsoft Fabric.

Qualifications Required You must have prior experience and strong command of both SQL and Python to apply for this role. Candidates without this will not be considered. Required Skills Strong Python for data engineering - production-quality ETL code, error handling, logging, and testing Hands-on experience with cloud data lake platforms and layered architectures (medallion / Bronze–Silver–Gold or similar) - Azure Synapse, Databricks, or equivalent Experience with orchestration tooling, CI/CD pipelines, and version-controlled development workflows An AI-first approach to development - you already use AI tools daily to write and review code, design solutions, and solve problems, and are committed to developing this practice as the tooling evolves Experience leading feature specification and working closely with business stakeholders Experience mentoring or upskilling less experienced colleagues Ability to produce clear, maintainable technical documentation as a standard part of delivery Preferred Skills Experience migrating or re-platforming a data estate Experience integrating AI or LLM capabilities into data workflows or tooling Financial services or investment management background Familiarity with Power BI report development Kanban delivery methodology