Senior Data Engineer (Healthier Futures)
Job summary
The post holder will focus on data engineering-led transformation and development work required to support delivery of the Trust's Healthier Futures programme for the new digital hospital. This includes developing and maintaining high quality, reliable and scalable data solutions to support population health management, service transformation and improved patient outcomes. The role will ensure data from multiple clinical and operational systems is effectively integrated, modelled and made available to support insight-driven decision making.
Working within the Data Warehouse team, the post holder will design, build and optimise robust data pipelines, data models and reporting foundations, initially within the Trust's current SQL-based data warehouse environment, while supporting the transition towards a more modern, scalable data platform, including use of SQL and established data warehousing tools, and evolving cloud-based data engineering approaches over time.
They will take lead responsibility for one or more key data domains aligned to Healthier Futures priorities, acting as a subject matter expert in data engineering, performance optimisation and data quality. The post holder will work closely with analysts, clinicians and operational leads to deliver well-governed, trusted data products aligned to agreed data architecture standards, while supporting best practice and continuous improvement across the team.
Main duties of the job
Design, build and optimise data models and ETL/data pipelines using expert T-SQL skills, ensuring pipelines are performant, scalable and resilient.
Optimise queries and ETL performance through indexing, partitioning and other SQL Server tuning techniques, and use a metadata-driven ETL framework to automate and standardise data flows.
Validate ETL processes after system upgrades to ensure data continuity and integrity, maintaining test suites and validation scripts.
Design and maintain dimensional models (star/snowflake schemas) to support efficient and reusable analytics, and perform data profiling to identify data quality issues, anomalies and lineage.
Liaise with service users and BI teams to understand reporting requirements and translate them into data models and data solutions.
Support advanced analytics by preparing high-quality datasets and enabling analytical workflows where appropriate.
Promote and support automation (e.g. CI/CD pipelines), APIs and modern data platform techniques, and contribute to DevOps practices including version control and release management.
Assist with DBA-related activities such as backup and recovery, index and statistics maintenance, capacity planning, and participate in patching and upgrades of SQL Server instances.
About us
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides comprehensive hospital and community services for East Cheshire (population 399K) and West Cheshire and Chester (population 357K). Our services include planned and unplanned/emergency care, cardiac and critical care, child health, maternity, and intermediate care across Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Victoria Infirmary in Northwich, and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre in Winsford. Through our community arm, Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership, we deliver extensive services in 26 medical centres and schools in collaboration with Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS FT and the South Cheshire and Vale Royal GP Alliance. With 500 beds and around 5,500 staff, we are one of the area's largest employers.
Since the formation of Integrated Care Systems in July 2022, the Trust has become a key partner in Cheshire East & Cheshire West and Chester and in two provider collaboratives, aligning our strategic goals with the Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care System. As part of the national New Hospital Programme, we're reimagining Leighton Hospital to create a new health and care neighbourhood, transforming healthcare delivery for a Healthier Future. Learn more on our Healthier Futures website.
At Mid Cheshire, our mission is to inspire hope and provide unparalleled care for the people and communities of Cheshire, helping them to enjoy life to the fullest.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Role Duties & Responsibilities
Support the maintenance of the data warehouse, monitor ETL and SQL Server Agent jobs, troubleshoot issues, and tune performance.
Participate in out-of-hours support for monitoring critical processes, respond to alerts, and restore services.
Work collaboratively across the Data Engineering team to design, build, and optimise data models and ETL/data pipelines, applying expert T-SQL skills. Ensure pipelines are performant, scalable, and resilient.
Optimise queries and ETL performance through indexing, partitioning, and other SQL Server tuning techniques.
Use a metadata-driven ETL framework to automate and standardise data flows.
Validate ETL processes after system upgrades to ensure data continuity and integrity; maintain test suites and validation scripts.
Design and maintain dimensional models (star/snowflake schemas) to support efficient and reusable analytics.
Perform data profiling to identify quality issues, anomalies, and lineage
Liaise with service users and BI teams to understand reporting requirements and translate them into data models.
Support advanced analytics by preparing high-quality datasets, building pipelines for predictive modelling, and enabling Python/R-based analytical workflows.
Promote and support the adoption of automation (e.g., CI/CD pipelines), APIs, and modern data platform techniques.
Contribute to DevOps practices: use DevOps tickets, repositories, version control, and branching strategies.
Assist with DBA tasks such as backup/recovery, index/statistics maintenance, and capacity planning; ensure database health, security, and compliance.
Participate in patching, upgrades, and version control of SQL Server instances.
Governance
Ensure all development work complies with agreed processes, including peer review, documentation, change management, and proof-of-concepts.
Maintain detailed documentation: data lineage, source-to-target mappings, metadata repository, standard operating procedures, and runbooks.
Uphold data governance, architecture standards, and NHS data requirements.
Share knowledge and good practice to reduce single points of failure and promote consistency
Document incidents and contribute to post-incident reviews and continuous improvement.
Managerial / Leadership
Deputise for the Data Warehouse Manager including supervising other members of the team, leading daily standups, allocating and monitoring tasks.
Lead technical delivery for a specific source system or domain, taking ownership of its data pipeline architecture.
Promote coding standards, continuous improvement, and a safe, compliant working environment.
Ensure a healthy, safe and secure working environment, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, maintaining accurate documentation and reporting any concerns.
Education /Learning
Take responsibility for own learning and development by recognising and taking advantage of all opportunities to learn, including full participation in KSF/appraisal, supervision, action learning and by maintaining a professional/personal portfolio of learning.
Support the training of colleagues by sharing knowledge in SQL Server, data modelling.
Maintain awareness of advancing technologies, specialist work areas and wider NHS data initiatives.
Communications
Communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders, including engineers, BI developers, analysts, IT teams, clinical and operational managers, and external organisations.
Engage in technical discussions (ETL performance, schema design, database optimisation) and translate complex information for non-technical audiences.
Translate business requirements into technical data solutions and provide regular updates on pipeline status, risks, and improvements.
Produce written technical reports to support informed decision-making.
Communicate sensitive or complex information clearly, including data load delays affecting dashboards or statutory submissions.
Person Specification
Education/Qualifications
- Masters degree in relevant subject (Data science, computing, Mathematics, Health Informatics) or equivalent experience
- Evidence of continuing development in data and analytics
- Relevant Microsoft accreditation (Data Engineering, SQL Server, Azure Cloud Certification)
- Formal qualification in Health Informatics / Business Intelligence.
Previous Experience
- Significant hands-on experience in data engineering / data warehouse development, ideally in a healthcare or complex environment.
- Experience working with a metadata-driven ETL framework.
- Experience designing and maintaining dimensional data models (star/snowflake schemas).
- Experience validating ETL processes, particularly during source system upgrades or changes.
- Experience scheduling and managing SQL Server Agent jobs.
- Basic-to-moderate DBA experience (backup/restore, indexing, statistics, capacity planning).
- Experience mentoring or supporting more junior data engineers or developers.
- Experience in high-availability or large-scale SQL Server environments.
- Experience of Python
- Experience with large, complex healthcare datasets.
- Experience of mentoring or coaching junior staff.
- Experience in responding to production issues and out-of-hours incidents.
Skills/Knowledge
- Expert T-SQL and SQL Server skills, including query optimisation and performance tuning.
- Strong data profiling, analysis, and data quality skills.
- Strong knowledge of dimensional modelling, and reporting layer design.
- Awareness of Agile methods (Scrum, DevOps).
- Understanding of SDLC, version control, peer review, documentation, and change management.
- Ability to design and run tests to ensure data quality and accuracy
- Strong problem-solving skills; able to triage and resolve complex data issues.
- Familiarity with NHS data systems and governance (e.g. NHS data standards, data security, NHS IG).
- Awareness of MS Azure Cloud tools, such as Azure DevOps, Data Factory, Fabric and Azure Databricks
- Knowledge of clinical systems relevant to work area (Meditech, EMIS)
- Knowledge of APIs and integrating data via API-based ingestion.
- Knowledge of HL7 standards.
- Awareness of modern data architecture approaches such Data Lakehouse, streaming data, unstructured data management.
Additional Information
- Willingness to work occasional out-of-hours as part of rota for monitoring data warehouse processes.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.
Employer details
Employer name
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Infinity House (with regular travel to Leighton)
Mallard Way
Crewe
CW1 6ZQ
Employer's website
https://www.mcht.nhs.uk/