Director of Data Engineering

About the role

NHG is looking for a Director of Data Engineering, the senior technical leader who builds and runs its data and AI engineering capabilities. Reporting to the Chief Data Officer, the role turns strategy into reliable platforms, pipelines, APIs and AI/ML infrastructure used by clinical, research and operational teams. It is a hands-on leadership role covering engineering delivery, architecture and standards, and working with CDO, IT, analytics and clinical stakeholders.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the design of NHG's data strategy and turn it into an engineering roadmap, delivery plan and prioritised backlog aligned to clinical, operational, research and population health goals.
• Build and run secure, scalable platforms, pipelines, APIs and AI/ML infrastructure with DataOps/MLOps/AIOps capabilities.
• Set standards for performance, uptime, monitoring, incident response, documentation and continuous improvement of production services, including day 2 monitoring for AI.
• Embed security, privacy, data governance, responsible AI and audit evidence into engineering practice.
• Recruit, develop and lead a multi-disciplinary engineering team.
• Evaluate tools, platforms and vendors, including build-versus-buy options, with health-tech agencies.
• Partner with IT, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, infrastructure, procurement, data governance, clinical informatics and other stakeholders to deliver engineering solutions.

Required profile

• At least 12 years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, platform engineering or related technology leadership roles.
• At least 5 years leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams in complex enterprise environments.
• Proven experience delivering enterprise-grade platforms with strong reliability, security, supportability and governance.
• Experience communicating engineering strategy, trade-offs and risks to senior non-technical stakeholders, and managing engineering cost transparency and value-for-money reporting.
• Preferred: healthcare, public-sector or regulated industry experience; familiarity with healthcare interoperability, clinical safety and data protection; experience managing vendors and technology partners; Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field (Master's an advantage).

Required skills

• Data engineering, cloud infrastructure, API design, integration architecture and production operations.
• DevOps, DataOps, ALops or MLOps, including CI/CD, automated testing, monitoring, observability and infrastructure-as-code.
• Preferred: AI/ML platforms, MLOps, LLM-enabled or generative AI solutions in production.