Team Lead - Cloud Data Engineer

Job Overview

The Team Lead – Cloud Data Engineer is a technical and leadership role responsible for managing a team of skilled data engineers while remaining hands-on in designing, developing, and optimizing modern data solutions on Microsoft Azure. You will lead the delivery of high-quality data pipelines and integration solutions using Azure-native services and Informatica, aligned to ING’s data mesh architecture. You will provide technical guidance, coach engineers, ensure engineering excellence, and build strong relationships with stakeholders to drive successful outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of data engineers, including performance evaluation, feedback, career development, recruitment, and capability building.

• Work with Product Owners, Customer Journey Experts, Architects, and Tech Leads to plan and manage backlogs while understanding and refining business requirements.

• Design, build, and optimize data integration pipelines using Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks/Spark, Azure Event Hubs, Azure Synapse, and Azure Data Lake Storage.

• Deliver ETL/ELT solutions using Informatica PowerCenter, ensuring compliance with ING development standards.

• Analyze source systems to identify required data, address data quality gaps, and implement data quality rules and monitoring.

• Engineer solutions aligned with ING’s data mesh architecture, promoting reusability, scalability, and federated ownership.

• Implement automation to improve reliability, observability, deployment, and data quality.

• Optimize system and pipeline performance through tuning, refactoring, and platform improvements.

• Own and drive Build & Run activities, including production support, incident management, and the delivery of secure, reliable, and maintainable solutions.

• Conduct and enforce code reviews, ensure comprehensive documentation, and uphold engineering standards.

• Identify and mitigate project risks, remove delivery bottlenecks, and proactively resolve technical or operational challenges.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with business, operations, and technology stakeholders.

• Provide regular reporting, insights, and recommendations to the IT Area Lead.

• Stay hands-on by contributing to coding, refactoring, automation, and engineering tooling.

Key Capabilities/Experience

• Strong leadership experience, with the ability to coach, develop, and inspire high-performing engineering teams.

• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.

• Ability to drive end-to-end delivery across requirements analysis, solution design, development, testing, deployment, and production support.

• Skilled at managing ambiguity, shifting priorities, and complex delivery environments.

• Data-driven decision-making and strong analytical thinking.

• Demonstrated ownership mindset, accountability, and ability to collaborate across teams.

Minimum Qualifications

• 7+ years in data engineering or data warehousing roles.

• 5+ years in data integration, ETL/ELT development, or similar domain.

• 3+ full lifecycle BI/data project deliveries.

• Hands-on expertise in Microsoft Azure for data engineering (Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks/Spark, Data Lake, Event Hubs, Synapse, etc.).

• Strong expertise in Informatica PowerCenter and related integration tools.

• Experience with big data technologies such as Kafka, Spark, Hadoop, Flink, or Beam.

• Experience with open source and applications orientated languages within a data focused environment – with preference to Python, Java, Scala, R and Spark.

• Strong SQL skills and experience with relational databases (preferably MS SQL Server).

• Proficient in logical and physical data modeling (dimensional, relational, flat-file).

• Familiar with Kimball or Inmon data warehouse methodologies.