Lead Data & AI Engineer

We’re looking for a Lead Data & AI Engineer to join our team in the UK in a hybrid working mode. In this role, you will design and deliver advanced data solutions and AI-assisted capabilities on modern cloud platforms. You’ll build scalable data pipelines, optimize data quality and governance and enable ML feature engineering for analytics and intelligent applications. The role requires hands-on technical expertise in data engineering and AI integration while driving reliability, performance and security for enterprise-scale systems.

Responsibilities Design and implement robust data architectures using cloud-native technologies Build large-scale ETL/ELT workflows to process heterogeneous datasets Create data models optimized for AI/ML pipelines and advanced analytics Develop streaming and batch pipelines leveraging tools like Azure Data Factory and Databricks Operationalize ML solutions, integrating feature stores, model registries and inference endpoints Collaborate with data scientists to deploy and monitor AI models using enterprise MLOps frameworks Integrate GenAI-assisted development methods into data workflows for automation and efficiency Ensure data governance, lineage, cataloging and quality frameworks across platforms Optimize platform performance, manage compute cost efficiency and enable observability for critical workloads Contribute to best practices, mentoring engineering teams in advanced data and AI engineering Requirements Minimum 8+ years working in data engineering, with proven architecture and leadership experience Advanced proficiency in SQL for performance tuning at large scale Strong programming skills in Python, with applied experience in data engineering workflows Expertise in PySpark for distributed data processing Hands-on experience with Databricks, including Delta Lake and performance optimization Knowledge of Azure Data Factory for orchestration of pipelines (ETL/ELT) Familiarity with AI/ML pipeline development, including integration of models into production Demonstrated exposure to Gen AI-assisted development workflows for accelerating data engineering tasks Strong understanding of CI/CD processes for data and ML pipelines such as GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps Ability to manage enterprise-scale solutions across global environments with compliance in mind Nice to have Experience in commodity trading and supply operations, ideally within the energy sector Prompt Engineering knowledge and experience building RAG workflows Familiarity with Microsoft Foundry platforms Version control and CI/CD experience with GitHub Understanding of ETL/ELT optimization patterns beyond Azure stack Knowledge of data mesh or lakehouse architectural concepts Hands-on exposure to dbt (data build tool), MKDocs and similar developer productivity tooling UK EPAM Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) Protection benefits including life assurance, income protection and critical illness cover Private medical insurance and dental care Employee Assistance Program Competitive group pension plan Cyclescheme, Techscheme and season ticket loans Various perks such as free Wednesday lunch in-office, on-site massages and regular social events Learning and development opportunities including in-house training and coaching, professional certifications, and courses If otherwise eligible, participation in the discretionary annual bonus program If otherwise eligible and hired into a qualifying level, participation in the discretionary Long-Term Incentive (LTI) Program *All benefits and perks are subject to certain eligibility requirements