Azure Data Engineer / Backend Data Services Engineer (Contract)
6 month contract
Overview
On behalf of my client I'm seeking a highly capable, Azure-focused Data Engineer with strong backend engineering expertise to design, build, and productionise new data services.
Key Responsibilities
* Design, build, and maintain new data services within an Azure environment, including the creation of databases and associated pipelines.
* Extract, manipulate, and structure raw, real-time data into production-ready datasets.
* Develop efficient, high-performance SQL queries and manage relational database structures.
* Build data pipelines that reliably ingest and transform data with minimal dependency on other engineering teams.
* Deliver BI-friendly outputs and dashboards that support product, operational, and stakeholder decision-making.
* Develop backend systems that enable consistent and accessible data consumption across the organisation.
* Operate independently to retrieve, organise, and productionise data without relying on dedicated cloud engineering support.
* Support the long-term data architecture roadmap, with scope to contribute to future advanced analytics or data science initiatives.
Required Skills & Experience
* Strong backend engineering background with hands-on experience building data services end-to-end.
* Expertise across the Azure data ecosystem (e.g., Azure SQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Storage, Azure Functions).
* Advanced SQL capability, including complex query development and relational schema design.
* Experience building data ingestion and transformation pipelines from the ground up.
* Ability to create BI-ready datasets and dashboards (e.g., Power BI) with strong data visualisation and presentation skills.
* Proven ability to work autonomously and retrieve or manipulate data without dependency on other teams.
* Strong problem-solving capabilities and comfort working with evolving or ambiguous technical requirements.
* Experience operating within blended teams that include contractors and cloud engineers is beneficial.
Nice to Have
* Exposure to additional data visualisation tools beyond standard BI platforms.
* Experience in product-oriented or rapidly scaling cloud environments.
* Broader understanding of data architecture and operationalising live datasets for future analytics or data science use.