Lead Data Engineer
Summary
A Lead Data Engineer joins a well-funded AI startup in London to build its data platform from scratch: architecting distributed pipelines, real-time infrastructure and AI data systems, while owning the data strategy and eventually leading the data engineering function.
Lead Data Engineer / Well-Funded AI Startup / London
A high-growth AI startup is looking for an exceptional Lead Data Engineer to build its data platform from the ground up.
You'll architect distributed pipelines, real-time infrastructure and AI data systems while making the key technical decisions that shape the platform’s future.
What’s in it for you?
- Join a heavily backed AI startup at a major inflection point
- Own the data architecture and strategy from day one
- Solve complex problems across distributed systems and AI infrastructure
- Work alongside exceptional engineers, AI specialists and founders
- Build and eventually lead the data engineering function
- Become a key technical leader with meaningful equity and long-term upside
What they’re looking for:
- 6+ years in Data Engineering or Backend Engineering
- Strong academic background in a STEM discipline
- Expert Python and strong data engineering fundamentals
- Deep experience with distributed pipelines and modern data architectures
- Strong SQL and production database experience
- Someone who genuinely enjoys solving hard technical problems
Bonus: Spark, Kafka, Airflow, vector databases, AI/ML infrastructure or AWS/GCP/Azure.
If you want maximum ownership, serious technical challenges and the chance to build something from zero, this could be the one.