Data Engineering Lead - Elite HFT Firm - Trading Systems - WFH - London - Up to £600k TC

Data Engineering Lead – Elite HFT Firm - Trading Systems - WFH - London - Up to £550k TC

I'm representing a leading diversified trading firm with more than three decades of success combining sophisticated technology with exceptional talent to compete in markets worldwide. With offices across the US, Europe, Canada, and Asia, they are active in Fixed Income, ETFs, Equities, FX, Commodities, and Energy, as well as expanding into real estate, venture capital, and cryptoassets.

This is a high-performance environment that values autonomy, agility, and innovation. My client is now looking to hire a Data Lead in their London office to spearhead data engineering initiatives for the C/FICCO Data Engineering team.

The Role

As Data Lead, you'll be both a hands-on builder and a team leader. You will guide a group of 5–7 engineers while staying closely involved in the technical work yourself. The expectation is not for a manager but for a seasoned data expert who can architect, build, and scale systems in a business-critical trading environment.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading and mentoring a team of 5–7 engineers, while remaining deeply hands-on.
• Designing, building, and maintaining large-scale data infrastructure across both batch and streaming systems.
• Driving development of APIs and data access methods for fast, intuitive retrieval of historical and live datasets.
• Partnering directly with traders, researchers, and other engineers to ensure seamless data flow for trading operations.
• Owning data products end-to-end, from concept through to stable production.
• Supporting critical trading systems with occasional on-call responsibilities.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a career data engineer with a passion for building at scale:

• Deep experience with big data platforms, data pipelines, and scalable infrastructure.
• Strong hands-on expertise in Python (primary) and some Java.
• Proven track record leading small teams while staying technically engaged.
• Background in financial markets, ideally across delta one, store of value, or FICC options trading.
• Experience with Linux-based, concurrent, low-latency systems.
• Familiarity with Airflow/Dagster (pipeline orchestration), Kafka (streaming), Delta Lake/Apache Iceberg (data lakes), and relational databases.
• Exceptional communication skills, comfortable working directly with both engineers and business stakeholders.
• Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or equivalent work experience.

Why This Role?

This is a unique opportunity for a hands-on data leader to step into a role where their work directly powers trading strategies across global markets. You'll be leading a talented team, driving the buildout of next-generation data infrastructure, and staying close to the technology — not just managing, but building.