Data Engineer

Data Engineer

Permanent

London or Newcastle

c65,000 plus Civil Service Employer Pension Contribution of 28.9%.

• 
  
• UK nationals
  
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with status under the European Union Settlement Scheme
  

Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas.

11:59pm 18 Jan 2026

First stage interviews over MS Teams, 25 January 2026. Second stage interviews at our offices in Victoria, 2–3 February.

The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK’s main public‑sector audit body, independent of government, responsible for auditing the accounts of a range of 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.

We employ around 1,000 people, most of whom are qualified accountants, trainees or technicians, and our organisation comprises two service lines: financial audit and value‑for‑money audit.

The NAO welcomes applications from everyone. We value diversity in all its forms and guarantee interview disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria.

The NAO supports flexible working and is happy to discuss this with you at application stage.

This new vacancy is created within NAO’s Digital Services to expand the data service team, with responsibility for designing, building and maintaining the infrastructure that enables robust data collection, storage and access across the organisation. The role supports the development and continual improvement of NAO data and technology service composition and provision, enabling scalable and reliable data solutions.

• 
  
• 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.
  
• Collaborate with analytics engineers and subject‑matter experts to support data modelling and transformation.
  
• Monitor and optimise performance of data infrastructure.
  
• Document data architecture and engineering processes to ensure transparency and maintainability.
  

This role reports into the Head of Data Services and requires regular attendance at NAO offices in Victoria, London or Newcastle.

• 
  
• Build and maintain the technical foundation that enables data‑driven operations and insights.
  
• Architect and manage data infrastructure, ensuring secure and efficient data flows.
  
• Design and implement ingestion, storage and processing systems for large volumes of data.
  
• Automate ETL workflows, ensuring consistency, reliability and performance across all stages.
  
• Integrate diverse data sources into unified datasets for analysis and reporting.
  
• Collaborate closely with analytics engineers, data scientists and business stakeholders.
  
• Monitor data systems for latency, failures and bottlenecks, implementing performance tuning and optimisations.
  
• Implement data governance, privacy controls and compliance measures.
  
• Maintain technical documentation for data architecture, pipeline configurations and operational procedures.
  
• Troubleshoot and respond to data‑related incidents, establishing pro‑active monitoring.
  
• Ensure self‑service access to clean, well‑organised data for analysts through APIs or data platforms.
  
• Stay informed about emerging tools and frameworks, evaluating and adopting innovations.
  

• 
  
• Communicating between technical and non‑technical stakeholders (Awareness)
  
• Data Analysis and Synthesis (Working)
  
• Data Development Process (Working)
  
• Data Innovation (Awareness)
  
• Data Integration Design (Working)
  
• Data Modelling (Working)
  
• Metadata Management (Working)
  
• Problem Management (Awareness)
  
• Programming and Build (Data Engineering) (Working)
  
• Technical Understanding (Working)
  
• Testing (Working)
  

• 
  
• ETL and data pipeline development – designing, building and maintaining ETL workflows.
  
• Data infrastructure and integration – implementing data flows using cloud services such as AWS, Azure or GCP and streaming systems.
  
• Database management and optimisation – managing relational and non‑relational databases, performance tuning, indexing and query optimisation.
  
• Collaboration and communication – translating business requirements into technical solutions.
  
• Problem solving and troubleshooting – identifying and resolving data‑related issues, implementing preventative measures.
  

Please upload a CV and a covering letter outlining your suitability and interest in the role before the deadline.

LNKD1_UKTJ

Entry level

Permanent