Data Engineer

Derby County are seeking to recruit a Data Engineer to join the Sporting Intelligence Department in a hybrid role, based at Moor Farm Training Centre.

Working for Derby County Football Club offers a unique opportunity to be part of one of England’s most historic and passionately supported clubs. With a proud legacy, a dedicated fan base, and an exciting vision for the future, Derby County offers a dynamic and rewarding work environment both on and off the pitch. Whether you're joining the team in coaching, administration, marketing, or operations, you'll be contributing to a culture rooted in ambition, community, and progress. Employees benefit from a collaborative work environment and opportunities for professional development.

 

The successful candidate will take ownership of designing, building, and maintaining robust, scalable data pipelines and tools across the club’s market-leading platforms, delivering high-quality, reliable and accessible data to stakeholders across the First Team and Academy to power insight-led decision-making in scouting, recruitment, match analysis and sport science.

 

This is a pivotal role where you will balance long-term strategic development of our data infrastructure with hands-on day-to-day engineering delivery, driving innovation, optimising systems, and embedding best-in-class practices to ensure our performance environments are underpinned by world-class data foundations that directly influence success on and off the pitch.

 

Key Role Responsibilities:

·         Lead the design and evolution of data engineering standards, patterns, and best practices to ensure pipelines and tools are scalable, maintainable, and high-quality.

·         Develop and manage the club’s centralised data platform, driving reliability, performance, and continuous improvement.

·         Build and maintain robust pipelines integrating APIs and internal systems into Palantir Foundry.

·         Automate and optimise workflows to improve efficiency and reduce manual processes.

·         Implement testing, validation, documentation, and version control to ensure reliable, reproducible outputs.

·         Design and manage data models and master datasets, including unified player, team, and competition entities that align provider identifiers to create a trusted single source of truth for football analysis.

·         Support advanced analytical workflows, including the use of Palantir AIP tools.

·         Monitor pipeline performance, troubleshoot issues, and proactively identify and integrate new data sources and relevant technologies.

·         Ensure strong data governance, security, compliance, and proactive performance monitoring.

·         Collaborate with the Data and Analytics Lead and wider data analytics team to deliver scalable, insight-driven solutions to football challenges.

 

Personal characteristics and experience:

·         Proven experience in data engineering, building and maintaining scalable data pipelines across the full development lifecycle.

·         Hands-on experience with ETL/ELT development in production environments, including testing, version control, and CI/CD

·         Strong proficiency in Python, PySpark, and SQL for data processing and transformation

·         Experience working with large, complex datasets and integrating multiple data sources

·         Experience implementing monitoring, logging, or observability practices

·         Familiarity with APIs, workflow automation, and cloud storage solutions

·         Experience with dimensional data modelling (e.g., star schemas, conformed dimensions) for building reliable analytical data structures

·         Ability to collaborate effectively with the Data and Analytics Lead and football departments, explaining technical decisions and concepts clearly

·         Strong understanding of modern paradigms (ELT, streaming, orchestration, testable data pipelines, modular frameworks)

·         Demonstrated experience building or operating cloud‑native data platforms (e.g., Foundry, Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery, Synapse).

·         Strong communication skills for liaising with external data providers and internal stakeholders

·         Proactive problem-solving and troubleshooting under pressure in a fast-paced, performance-driven environment

·         Experience with Palantir Foundry or similar data platforms is desirable

·         Understanding of mathematical modelling, statistical analysis, or hypothesis testing is desirable

·         Experience in sports analytics or working with performance data is desirable

 

Qualifications:

Essential

·         Degree in a relevant field or equivalent professional training, apprenticeships, or industry-recognised qualifications

 

Desirable

·         Postgraduate qualification in a relevant field is desirable but not essential

 

Salary is competitive, dependent on experience.

 

This is a full‑time role. Due to the demands of professional football, some weekend and evening work may be required.

 

The role will be a flexible hybrid working model, splitting your time between home and both of our sites. The exact arrangement will be tailored and agreed upon with the successful candidate.

 

Who are Derby County…

 

Derby County Football Club, established in 1884, is one of the founder members of the English Football League and has a rich and varied history, including two First Division titles in 1972 and 1975 and an FA Cup success in 1946. The club are currently playing in the Sky Bet Championship, the second tier of English Football following their promotion from League One in the 2023/24 season and is under the management of Head Coach John Eustace. The club also boasts a successful and respected Category One Academy, a status which has been held since 2014, and a Women’s side competing in the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier Division. Derby County recently embarked on an exciting new era following the change in ownership to Clowes Developments (UK) Limited, in the summer of 2022. Our track record of producing talent is outstanding, and we intend to protect that proud legacy, investing in key roles within the club to build on the foundations in place for success.

 

Everything we do as a Club is built around the three pillars of stability, integrity and progress. Our core values are:

 

·         We are proud of who we are and what we do

·         We are positive, inspired and passionate

·         We are ambitious and driven

·         We are prepared, honest and humble

·         We are the heartbeat of our community

·         We are the club of opportunity

 

Derby County employee benefits include:

 

·         25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

·         Two complimentary staff season tickets

·         Two complimentary staff away memberships, subject to availability

·         20% discount at DCFC Megastore

·         Company Pension with Aviva

·         Discounts with select Club partners and sponsors

·         Healthshield Cash Health Plan to support employee health and well-being and Perks for great deals and discounts

·         Participating in our employee forum, ‘The Herd’ and Staff Events!

·         Training and development opportunities

·         Access to programmes and volunteering opportunities with Derby County Community Trust

·         Subsidised lunchtime meals at Moor Farm

 

How to apply…

 

Derby County Football Club is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

As part of the Club's commitment to providing a safe environment for children and young people, applicants should be aware that this post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Criminal Record Check.

 

Derby County Football Club is an Inclusive Club for all and is committed to Equality and Diversity.

 

To apply for this role, please complete an application form, which can be found HERE.

 

Alternatively, please copy and paste - http://thera.ms/apply - to your chosen browser.

 

More information can be found at https://www.dcfc.co.uk/page/jobsandcareers

 

The closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday, 15 March 2026. We reserve the right to close the vacancy early.

 

Strictly no agencies please.

 

Derby County Football Club’s Job Applicant Privacy Policy can be found at dcfc.co.uk.