Senior Data Platform Engineer

Job Title

Senior Data Platform Engineer

Department

TSD Cloud & Infrastructure Platforms-BG-UK

Overview of Department

Purpose of Role

Join our Data Platform team at an important point in its evolution and help shape the platforms that underpin how Baillie Gifford stores, manages and uses data.

As a Senior Data Platform Engineer, you’ll take a leading technical role across a broad and evolving estate spanning Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, working across both cloud and on-premises environments. You’ll have the opportunity to influence how these platforms are engineered, automated, operated and introduce new technologies such as AI and help define the standards that support their effective use.

This is a senior engineering role for someone who combines deep expertise with curiosity and a strong service mindset. We don’t expect you to be an expert in every technology. We’re looking for deep expertise in one or more of Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake, PostgreSQL combined with the appetite to broaden your expertise, solve complex problems and help other engineers develop.

Responsibilities

• Act as a senior technical contributor across data platform services, providing engineering leadership and trusted technical guidance within your areas of expertise 

• Help shape the technical direction of the data platform estate, identifying where engineering approaches, tooling or platform capabilities should evolve and addressing technical debt where simplification will improve reliability, supportability and long-term sustainability. 

• Actively use and promote AI to improve engineering productivity, automation, problem solving, and service quality. 

• Design, implement, and continually improve secure, scalable, and resilient data platform solutions. 

• Take technical ownership of platform products and services throughout their lifecycle, including deployment, configuration, patching, upgrades, capacity, and performance. 

• Develop and maintain engineering standards, principles, patterns, operational procedures and technical documentation that support consistent and safe delivery. 

• Provide technical leadership for availability, resilience, backup, recovery and disaster-recovery arrangements, including regular validation that recovery capabilities work as intended. 

• Monitor platform health, availability, performance and capacity, identify risks and drive preventative and corrective measures. 

• Lead or contribute to the diagnosis of complex incidents and recurring problems, ensuring root causes are understood and corrective actions implemented. 

• Design and improve automation, Infrastructure as Code and related engineering practices to reduce manual effort, improve repeatability and increase service quality. 

• Work with customers to understand technical requirements and consumption patterns, helping them select and use appropriate data platform products and services effectively. 

• Evaluate new and existing data platform technologies and tooling. 

• Mentor and coach engineers, share knowledge and reduce dependency on individual subject-matter experts through documentation, pairing and cross-skilling. 

• Work effectively with technology vendors and external support providers.  

• Participate in appropriate on-call or out-of-hours support arrangements where required for critical services. 

What success looks like 

• Data platform services are secure, resilient, performant and well engineered, with clear technical ownership across their lifecycle. 

• Engineering standards, patterns and technical direction support consistent, maintainable and safe delivery across the platform estate. 

• Complex incidents, recurring problems and technical debt are addressed effectively, with root causes understood and simplification used to improve reliability and supportability. 

• Automation, Infrastructure as Code and appropriate use of AI reduce manual effort, improve repeatability and strengthen engineering productivity and service quality. 

• Engineers across the team build greater capability through effective technical leadership, mentoring, documentation, and knowledge sharing. 

Your knowledge and experience 

• Significant experience engineering, administering or developing enterprise data platform technologies in production environments. 

• Deep technical expertise in one or more relevant platforms, such as Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake or PostgreSQL, with the ability and willingness to develop capability across a broader and evolving platform estate. 

• Strong understanding of data platform architecture, performance, capacity, availability, resilience, backup, and disaster recovery. 

• Experience diagnosing complex technical and performance problems and using evidence to identify root cause and appropriate remediation. 

• Experience applying security principles to data platforms, including authentication, authorisation, privileged access, encryption and data protection. 

• Experience with automation and scripting, using technologies such as PowerShell, Python, Shell or equivalent, together with source control, CI/CD and automated deployment or configuration practices. 

• Experience working with cloud infrastructure or managed data services, preferably Azure or another major cloud platform and an understanding of dependencies such as compute, storage, networking, identity, monitoring and observability. 

• Ability to communicate complex technical issues, options, risks and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical audiences. 

• Experience providing technical leadership, mentoring or coaching engineers without relying on formal line-management authority. 

• Experience defining or improving engineering standards, patterns and practices to support consistent, secure and maintainable platform delivery. 

• You will bring a strong service mindset and consider how technical decisions affect the reliability, usability and supportability of the platforms customers depend on. 

The Type of Candidate We’re Looking For 

We’re looking for an experienced engineer who combines strong technical depth with sound engineering judgement and curiosity. You will be comfortable making pragmatic decisions in complex or ambiguous situations, using evidence to understand problems and constructively challenging established approaches when there is a better way. 

You should enjoy working across technology disciplines rather than within narrow technical boundaries, building trusted relationships with colleagues, customers, and technology partners. You will be able to explain complex technical subjects clearly, listen to different perspectives, and turn those perspectives into practical engineering decisions and improvements. 

 You will enjoy sharing knowledge and enabling others to succeed, while remaining curious and continuing to develop as the data platform estate evolves. 

Critical skills 

• Systems Thinking 

• Improvement Mindset 

• Enabling Others 

• Team Working 

• Adaptability 

Closing Date

November 18, 2026

Should you choose to use AI tools to support your application, we ask that you do this thoughtfully. We encourage you to ensure your application reflects your own voice, experience, and motivations. We value authenticity and want to understand your individual strengths and perspectives.

At Baillie Gifford, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful culture in which each of our colleagues can thrive and develop. We believe that our clients are best served by a diverse workforce with the experiences, ideas and perspectives that this brings.

If you are currently working at Baillie Gifford as an employee or contractor please apply to this job from the firm's Workday internal career site.