Senior Data Engineer
Maritime and Coastguard Agency · Cardiff, Wales
Senior Data Engineer at Maritime and Coastguard Agency, based in Cardiff, Wales, paying £44,241 - £57,000 per annum. This is a apprenticeship role.
- Salary
- £44,241 - £57,000 per annum
- Location
- Cardiff, Wales
- Contract
- Apprenticeship
- Posted
- 6 days ago
- Closes
- 19 Aug 2026
- Sector
- Data Entry
23% below the typical rate for data entry
Reference 8445d6c8e2d6a6632ff15bdb11015fd84aa30417
About the role
Job summary
Can you design and deliver modern data engineering solutions that support agile, fast-paced organisational needs?
Do you thrive on solving complex data challenges and collaborating with diverse technical and business stakeholders?
If so, we'd love to hear from you!
The Senior Data Engineer leads multi-functional delivery teams to deliver robust data services for their department, other government departments and private sector partners. They create, inspire, innovate, and lead by example in best practice for data products and services within their teams. They build the data engineering capability by providing technical leadership, data pipelines, standards, and data flows to meet priorities for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA). They work with other senior team members to identify, plan, develop and deliver data services. They support junior members of the team in their development, and manage Data Engineers, Data Engineering apprentices, and PhD student placements.
Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:
- Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
- 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
- Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Read more in the Benefits section below!
Find out more about what it's like working at MCA: MCA Homepage , Civil Service Careers
Job description
Your responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Responsible for designing, architecting and building data flow solutions.
- Responsible for the build of data streaming systems applying knowledge of systems integration.
- Be a technical expert in current data engineering technologies and share knowledge with other data engineers.
- Demonstrate curiosity about new and emerging technologies and make recommendations about how these could benefit the MCA’s data platform.
- Provide technical expertise and leadership across data projects and programmes.
- Identify and address user needs and build relationships across organisations.
- Contribute to creating an agile, fast paced organisation by promoting innovation as we investigate and adopt modern technologies and modernise our approach to policy making, enforcement and customer service.
- Provide leadership and inspiration to promote the benefits of the change.
- Work closely with senior colleagues within the Directorate of Information & Technology in the deployment of the Agency's technical experts and administrators in their technical, educational and regulatory roles.
- Assist with the development and delivery of the data roadmap for the MCA.
- Champions data engineering across the MCA, Department for Transport (DfT) and wider government.
- Work closely with external suppliers, technical experts, DfT data community.
For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, not all criteria may be assessed during the recruitment process; this job advert outlines exactly which ones will be.
Person specification
You will need the following experience:
- Experience in delivering successful and high-value data engineering initiatives using an agile approach.
- Demonstrable hands-on technical experience in delivering data engineering projects working through complex business problems and partnering with internal and external stakeholders.
- Proven experience in data engineering and/or software architecture and development using Python, in a cloud environment.
- Strong knowledge of technical design, implementation and security.
- Strong stakeholder management skills.
- Strong experience of a broad range of data management processes and technologies, both traditional and big data.
Additional Information
The role is part of the Government Digital and Data (or Government Security Profession Career Framework) profession and utilises an enhanced Capability–Based Pay Framework which provides access to a Digital and Data allowance.
The base pay is £44,241. In addition to this the role includes a Digital and Data allowance of up to £13,159.
Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements
Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.
Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 30 hours per week.
This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.
The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.
Visa Sponsorship
Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. Therefore, this role is not open to applications from those who require sponsorship – candidates must ensure they have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.
Security Checks
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is SC (Security Clearance)
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
Reference: 8445d6c8e2d6a6632ff15bdb11015fd84aa30417 · Posted 6 days ago · Closes 19 Aug 2026 · Listed via Maritime and Coastguard Agency
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