Lead Data Engineer

Lead Data Engineer (Permanent, London on-site)A high-growth AI software company is looking for a Lead Data Engineer to own and scale the data foundations behind an AI-driven operations platform used by property teams. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role where you''ll define the data architecture, set engineering standards and build systems that power product analytics and modern AI capabilities.What you''ll doArchitect and build scalable data pipelines and distributed data systemsDesign ingestion, transformation and storage patterns for operational and AI workloadsDeliver batch and real-time/streaming pipelinesBuild and optimise vector search and retrieval pipelines that support AI featuresImplement monitoring, observability and data quality frameworksDrive security, reliability and governance across the data layerPartner closely with backend and AI engineers to support training, inference and product deliveryInfluence technical direction and help shape the future data team as the company scalesWhat we''re looking forDemonstrable experience in data engineering or backend engineering with proven architecture ownershipGood level of Python engineering skillsStrong relational database experience (PostgreSQL preferred) including performance and query optimisationExposure to NoSQL systemsComfortable building from scratch in a fast-moving, product-led environmentExperience with vector databases and vector search in modern AI systemsDesirable: Spark, Airflow, Kafka, ..... full job details .....