Head of Data (UK - Remote)

Location: UK Remote
Start date: ASAP
Languages: Fluent English required
Industry: FinTech / Financial Services / Data & Analytics

About the Role

Pragmatike is recruiting on behalf of a technology-driven financial services company that leverages data, AI, and modern engineering practices to deliver responsible digital financial products. As the organization continues to scale, data is becoming a core strategic capability, supporting everything from operational decision-making to customer experience and regulatory compliance.

We are seeking an experienced Head of Data to define and execute the company's enterprise-wide data strategy while building a modern, scalable data platform. This is a senior leadership role for someone who combines strategic vision with strong technical expertise and enjoys building high-performing teams, establishing governance, and driving data maturity across the business.

You will own the evolution of the data platform, lead the data engineering function, and partner closely with executive stakeholders to ensure data becomes a trusted foundation for analytics, operational excellence, AI initiatives, and business growth.

Your Responsibilities

• Define and execute the organization's long-term data strategy aligned with business objectives

• Own the architecture and evolution of the enterprise data platform, covering ingestion, transformation, storage, and data access

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing data engineering team while establishing engineering standards and delivery best practices

• Design and implement scalable data governance frameworks covering ownership, quality, lineage, metadata, and stewardship

• Ensure the platform remains secure, reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient while supporting both operational and analytical workloads

• Drive adoption of self-service analytics by enabling business teams to confidently access and leverage trusted data

• Partner with senior leadership to identify strategic data initiatives and translate business priorities into technical roadmaps

• Establish delivery processes, prioritization frameworks, and operating models that balance immediate business needs with long-term platform sustainability

• Evaluate and implement appropriate tooling, cloud technologies, and vendor solutions where required

• Champion a data-driven culture by improving data literacy, promoting best practices, and increasing organizational data maturity

• Communicate technical strategy, delivery progress, risks, and business impact clearly to executive and non-technical stakeholders

• Support the organization's AI and advanced analytics initiatives by building robust data foundations

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience leading enterprise data strategy and owning modern data platforms within complex organizations

• Extensive experience building and leading Data Engineering or Data Platform teams

• Strong expertise with modern cloud-based data architectures, data warehousing, ETL/ELT pipelines, and data platform design

• Demonstrated experience implementing data governance, data quality, lineage, metadata management, and stewardship frameworks

• Track record of scaling data capabilities and improving organizational data maturity

• Experience delivering self-service analytics capabilities and enabling business adoption of data products

• Strong understanding of cloud technologies and modern data engineering best practices

• Experience engaging executive stakeholders and influencing strategic business decisions through data

• Excellent leadership, communication, and organizational skills

• Fluent English communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building or transforming data functions in rapidly growing organizations

• Background within financial services, fintech, or other regulated industries

• Experience with domain-oriented data architecture or data product methodologies

• Hands-on experience with modern BI platforms such as Power BI, Looker, or Tableau

• Familiarity with data literacy initiatives and organization-wide enablement programs

• Understanding of AI/ML platforms and the data infrastructure required to support them

Why Join Us

• Lead the company's enterprise-wide data strategy and shape its long-term technology direction

• Build and scale a modern cloud-based data platform supporting analytics, operations, and AI initiatives

• Create and develop a high-performing engineering organization with significant influence across the business

• Work closely with executive leadership on strategic initiatives that directly impact company growth

• Drive meaningful organizational transformation by embedding data into decision-making at every level

• Join a collaborative, technology-first environment that values ownership, continuous improvement, and engineering excellence

Pragmatike is committed to a fair, transparent, and inclusive recruitment process. We do not discriminate based on age, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

In accordance with GDPR, your personal data will be processed lawfully, fairly, and securely, and used solely for recruitment purposes, including sharing it with our client(s) for employment consideration.