Head of Data Engineering

Company: The Health Foundation
Apply for the Head of Data Engineering
Location: London
Job Description:

Salary: Up to £81,869 plus

Contract Type: Permanent, full time or part time

Hours per week: 37.5 hours per week. All staff are required to work in person for a minimum of two days per week, in line with our hybrid working policy. The post-holder may be required to undertake some work outside normal working hours.

About the Health Foundation

Health is our most precious asset. Good health enables us to live happy, fulfilling lives, fuels our prosperity and helps build a stronger society. Yet good health remains out of reach for too many people in the UK, and health and care services are struggling to provide access to timely, high-quality care.

The Health Foundation is an independent charitable organisation with a mission to build a healthier UK. We work to achieve this by generating high‑quality research and analysis; developing practical solutions to the biggest problems in health and health services; engaging, convening and building coalitions to build understanding, inform debate and drive action; and developing the long‑term capability needed to transform health and care.

Our Values

We expect everyone who works with us to be committed to our values and to share our commitment to becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation. Our values are impact, evidence, integrity, and collaboration. You can read more about them in our five‑year strategy.

About the Role

This role is head of our Data Engineering and Data Management team, working closely with the Deputy Directors and Director of Analysis. You will work alongside senior analytical experts in the Analysis directorate, and other colleagues across the Foundation to design and implement robust data management and data engineering capabilities that support current and future analytical projects.

You will be responsible for leading a team of five data engineers and data managers. Your team will provide access to analysis‑ready data, ensure compliance with data protection, information governance and security requirements across all of our systems. You will act as the owner of our data analytics platform, and as the customer for any external data engineering suppliers.

Key Responsibilities

  • Ensuring compliance with data protection, information governance and security requirements across all systems.
  • Acting as owner of our data analytics platform, and as the customer for external data engineering suppliers.
  • Leading the development and maintenance of secure, well‑documented databases, data pipelines and platforms, ensuring accessibility, reproducibility and governance.
  • Working closely with colleagues across the directorate to understand their data needs and ensuring our data infrastructure enables efficient, collaborative analysis.
  • Managing and supporting a team of data engineers and managers, promoting a culture of continual improvement, innovation, reliability and technical excellence.

How to Apply

Our priority is to find the right individual for each opportunity. We are dedicated to building an inclusive workplace that values diversity. If you would like to apply, please submit your CV and a supporting statement that answers the following application questions:

  • Why would you be well suited to this role? What skills, knowledge and experience would you bring to it? (max. 300 words)
  • Data engineers prioritise speed and agility, while data management demands strict governance and compliance. Using examples of where you’ve done this in the past, outline your strategy for embedding data governance directly into modern engineering workflows. (max. 300 words)
  • Using examples, please describe how you would manage the competing demands of a range of stakeholders to translate the strategic aims of the Health Foundation into a deliverable work programme for the data engineering and data management team. For example, how would you prioritise the onboarding of different data assets? (max. 300 words)
  • Please share an example of your technical leadership, outlining how you have mentored team members to build solutions, enabling them to create solutions themselves and providing them with the understanding to apply this knowledge broadly going forward. (max. 300 words)

Our Commitment to Equality, Inclusion and Diversity

We are committed to an inclusive hiring process, where every candidate has the chance to showcase their unique skills and experience in an accessible and supported environment, to ensure that we can make the best appointment for each opportunity on merit. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and encourage those from underrepresented groups in this field to apply to us.

We have identified three key areas to improving diversity. Our aim is to achieve a more balanced representation across our organisation, with a particular focus on increasing the number of women in leadership, enhancing the representation of people from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds and welcoming more people with disabilities. As part of this commitment, we strongly encourage applications from these groups.

Apply to join our team and let’s work towards building a more diverse and inclusive workplace together.

Closing date: 15th June 2026, 23:59

#J-18808-Ljbffr…

Posted: May 31st, 2026