Principal Data Engineer FTC

The closing date is 22 January 2026

The Information and Digital Departments at Chelsea and Westminster are a cutting edge working environment, looking to further utilise modern technologies and methods.

The post-holder will be expected to work closely with all members of the digital team, data engineering team, and other key stakeholders, providing dynamic and creative support within the teams, as well as for the wider organisation. This is an exciting opportunity to become involved with an evolving team, utilising cloud technology platforms and modern development tools.

The post-holder will serve as a senior member of the Digital, Information and data Warehousing departments, taking responsibility for designing, building, maintaining and optimising data infrastructures, creating pipelines which collate data from multiple sources and making it available for analysis by other stakeholders.

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• Contribute towards continual improvements to the Trust's Azure based Data engineering environment.
  
• Contribute towards aspects of Data engineering solution designs, SQL code, and the overall cloud architecture of the warehouse.
  
• Develop specialist datasets and oversee the data management and availability of clean and relevant datasets for appropriate teams in a timely and accurate manner.
  
• Ensure the continuation of the provision of high quality data to be used for reporting and analysis by the departments involved.
  
• Support evaluating key business intelligence reports, combining detailed operational awareness with knowledge of data and systems.
  
• Lead, when required, on the technical design, maintenance and development of special datasets based on specifications agreed with the departments.
  
• Engage with clinical and non-clinical stakeholders to map and improve data flows and quality.
  
• Lead on the communication of complex technical specifications and intelligence reports to Trust senior managers and executives.
  
• Quality assure key reports/applications before they are published and highlight exception performance issues to seniors.
  

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of England's top-performing and safest trusts. We operate two main acute hospital sites—Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital—along with award-winning clinics across North West London. Our nearly 7,500 staff care for a diverse population of 1.5 million, providing full clinical services, including maternity, A&E, and children's services, plus specialist HIV and sexual health clinics. The Care Quality Commission rates us 'Good' in safety, effectiveness, care, and responsiveness, and 'Outstanding' in leadership and resource use. We continually invest in our facilities, including a £30m expansion of critical care at Chelsea and Westminster and an £80m Ambulatory Diagnostic Centre at West Middlesex.

We welcome applications for flexible working arrangements, accommodating requests where possible to support our staff and patient needs.

Some roles may require weekend shifts at multiple sites.

The Trust is committed to equality and welcomes applications from all, regardless of background. Adjustments can be made for disabled candidates. Early application is advised as vacancies may close once sufficient applications are received. If you haven't heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, your application was likely unsuccessful. Employment is subject to a six-month probationary period.

In addition to the duties listed in the key responsibilities section, the post holder would be expected to do the following:

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• Maintain and improve data infrastructures and propagate product knowledge bases.
  
• Contribute towards enriching documentation of database architecture and standards for administration including conventions for naming tables and columns.
  
• Translate business data requirements into logical and physical data models, ensuring a strong understanding of source data.
  
• Ensure the data warehouse environment is operating at optimum performance and review data architecture, performance and efficiency.
  
• Work closely with ICT and Information Analysts to ensure the construction and structure of data supports their requirements and conforms to NHS Data Dictionary Standards.
  
• Deliver tasks vital to Digital, Information and Performance teams per Trust priorities.
  
• Meet with external and internal stakeholders to evaluate requirements and organise implementation solutions.
  
• Bring together through various reporting methodologies, the individual strands of External and Internal reporting for the two departments through making appropriate datasets available.
  
• Be responsible for dataset creation for complex clinical outcome benchmark models commissioned by the departments.
  
• Follow the Information Team strategy of using Azure SQL/DataBricks/Palantir Foundry to return datasets from the Trust's Data Warehouse.
  
• Receive, analyse and communicate a wide range of highly complex technical information to colleagues, including junior analysts and peers.
  
• Liaise with clinical and management leads to ensure regular provision of relevant information to support key work streams.
  
• Promote the corporate Patient Administration System (Cerner) as the principal source for data entry and analysis, working to improve data quality.
  
• Co‑ordinate pan‑organisation information processes and deliver strategic analysis and monitoring of compliance against Trust Performance Assurance Framework.
  
• Ensure that data is reliably reportable in an accurate, complete, consistent and timely manner.
  
• Work closely with, and influence, key executive members across the Trust.
  
• Provide guidance on data items catalogued in the NHS data dictionary.
  
• Support the development and appropriate usage of Trust‑wide clinical information systems.
  
• Line‑manage, mentor and support more junior members of the team.
  
• Maintain patient confidentiality at all times in accordance with Data Protection Act and Trust policies.
  
• Provide training and guidance to team on systems, standards and reporting.
  
• Carry out any other duties as requested by the General Manager for Digital or Head of Information.
  

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• Educated to Master levels (or equivalent experience) in computer science, data engineering or related subject.
  
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
  

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• Experience of requirements gathering for complex requests around specialist data & datasets creation.
  
• Experience leading and delivering complex change and strategy development programmes in a politically sensitive and complex environment.
  
• Ability to present complex technical ideas/solutions to non-technical audiences.
  
• Significant SQL scripting experience (creating/administrating stored procedures, scripts, functions, and other objects).
  
• Experience in working with databases, understanding of relational database design and dimensional data-modelling.
  
• Experience manipulating, transforming, exploring large multi-dimensional datasets.
  
• Knowledge and experience of Azure Data Factory pipelines.
  
• Knowledge and experience of Cloud Services (Azure Data Services).
  
• Python/Pyspark development experience or use of other programming languages.
  

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• Knowledge of information management gained through senior management experience.
  
• Understanding of NHS data standards, policies and data definitions.
  
• Excellent communication skills at all levels.
  
• Extensive knowledge of staff management.
  
• Proven track record of working under pressure to strict deadlines.
  
• Strong project management & MS Excel skills.
  
• Data engineering and reporting experience including Azure SQL & DataBricks.
  
• Understanding of software development lifecycle and version control.
  
• Knowledge of data modelling and architecture techniques.
  
• Highly data rational.
  
• Experience with data science techniques and statistics, Python/R.
  
• Experienced building reports and dashboards on Qlik, Palantir or similar.
  

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• Excellent stakeholder management and interpersonal skills.
  
• Intellectually flexible and creative.
  
• Highly developed negotiation and influencing skills.
  
• Ability to manage and self‑organise while dealing with multiple competing priorities.
  

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1975 and requires a Disclosure to DBS.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust