BURO HAPPOLD ENGINEERS LIMITED
Wage: £26,228 a year
Training course: Data engineer (level 5)
Hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm
Start date: Monday 11 May 2026
Duration: 1 year 7 months
Positions available: 1
At Buro Happold, people are at the heart of everything we do - and understanding our people through data is key to shaping a better, more informed organisation.
Wage £26,228 a year Check minimum wage rates (opens in new tab) Training course Data engineer (level 5) Hours Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm 37 hours 30 minutes a week Start date Monday 11 May 2026 Duration 1 year 7 months Positions available 1
As a People Data Engineering Apprentice, you’ll play an active role in building and maintaining the systems that help us transform raw data into meaningful insights. Over the course of your Level 5 Data Engineer apprenticeship, you’ll develop your technical and professional skills while working on real projects that make a difference globally. You’ll be supported by experienced colleagues, a structured on-the-job learning plan, and a strong early careers community, helping you develop the technical, professional, and problem solving skills to thrive in data.
What will I be doing?
You’ll be part of the People Data & Solutions team, supporting the end-to-end data lifecycle: ingestion, storage, transformation, and quality - so that analysts, data scientists, and business teams can rely on trusted insights.
Data Engineering & Technical
Work with people data models to understand how data is structured and used. Help design, build, and maintain data pipelines from structured, semi structured, and unstructured sources. Support ETL processes: clean, validate, and transform data for downstream use. Monitor pipelines, investigate issues, identify root causes, and support fixes. Contribute to data quality frameworks (accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness). Support deployment of new data processes and maintain technical documentation.
Data Governance & Compliance
Follow data governance, privacy, and security standards. Maintain accurate records and audit logs. Analyse data flows to identify gaps, risks, or inconsistencies. Handle confidential information with professionalism.
Operational & Administrative
Help prepare routine people data reports and dashboards. Respond to data access and data quality queries in a timely manner. Assist with small-scale data projects, meeting deadlines with strong attention to detail. Support the HR Systems Specialist with data-related system updates and improvements.
Collaboration & Continuous Improvement
Work closely with analysts, data scientists, HR, and business teams to understand data needs. Contribute ideas that improve processes, tools, and documentation. Stay curious about data engineering, cloud, and AI—bringing new ideas to the team.
PinesgateLower Bristol RoadBathBA2 3DP
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Course contents Collate, evaluate and refine user requirements to design the data product.Collate, evaluate and refine business requirements including cost, resourcing, and accessibility to design the data product.Design a data product to serve multiple needs and with scalability, efficiency, and security in mind.Automate data pipelines such as batch, real-time, on demand and other processes using programming languages and data integration platforms with graphical user interfaces.Produce and maintain technical documentation explaining the data product, that meets organisational, technical and non-technical user requirements, retaining critical information.Systematically clean, validate, and describe data at all stages of extract, transform, load (ETL).Work with different types of data stores, such as SQL, NoSQL, and distributed file system.Identify and troubleshoot issues with data processing pipelines.Query and manipulate data using tools and programming such as SQL and Python. Manage database access, and implement automated validation checks.Communicate downtime and issues with database access to stakeholders to mitigate the operational impact of unforeseen issues.Evaluate opportunities to extract value from existing data products through further development, considering costs, environmental impact and potential operational benefits.Maintain a working knowledge of data use cases within organisations.Use data systems securely to meet requirements and in line with organisational procedures and legislation.Identify new tools and technologies and recommend potential opportunities for use in own department or organisation.Optimise data ingestion processes by making use of appropriate data ingestion frameworks such as batch, streaming and on-demand.Develop algorithms and processes to extract structured data from unstructured sources.Apply and advocate for software development best practice when working with other data professionals throughout the business. Contribute to standards and ways of working that support software development principles.Develop simple forecasts and monitoring tools to anticipate or respond immediately to outages and incidents.Identify and escalate risks with suggested mitigation/resolutions as appropriate.Investigate and respond to incidents, identifying the root cause and resolution with internal and external stakeholders.Identify and remediate technical debt, assess for updates and obsolescence as part of continuous improvement.Develop, maintain collaborative relationships using adaptive business methodology with stakeholders such as, business users, data scientists, data analysts and business intelligence teams.Present, communicate, and disseminate messages about the data product, tailoring the message and medium to the needs of the audience.Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of prototype data products and how these integrate within an organisation’s overarching data infrastructure.Assess and identify gaps in existing tools and technologies in respect of implementing changes required.Identify data quality metrics and track them to ensure the quality, accuracy and reliability of the data product.Selects and apply sustainable solutions to contribute to net zero and environmental strategies across the various stages of product and service delivery.Horizon scanning to identify new technologies that offer increased performance of data products.Implement personal strategies to keep up to date with new technology and ways of working.Collate, evaluate and refine user requirements to design the data product.Collate, evaluate and refine business requirements including cost, resourcing, and accessibility to design the data product.Design a data product to serve multiple needs and with scalability, efficiency, and security in mind.Automate data pipelines such as batch, real-time, on demand and other processes using programming languages and data integration platforms with graphical user interfaces.Produce and maintain technical documentation explaining the data product, that meets organisational, technical and non-technical user requirements, retaining critical information.Systematically clean, validate, and describe data at all stages of extract, transform, load (ETL).Work with different types of data stores, such as SQL, NoSQL, and distributed file system.Identify and troubleshoot issues with data processing pipelines.Query and manipulate data using tools and programming such as SQL and Python. Manage database access, and implement automated validation checks.Communicate downtime and issues with database access to stakeholders to mitigate the operational impact of unforeseen issues.Evaluate opportunities to extract value from existing data products through further development, considering costs, environmental impact and potential operational benefits.Maintain a working knowledge of data use cases within organisations.Use data systems securely to meet requirements and in line with organisational procedures and legislation.Identify new tools and technologies and recommend potential opportunities for use in own department or organisation.Optimise data ingestion processes by making use of appropriate data ingestion frameworks such as batch, streaming and on-demand.Develop algorithms and processes to extract structured data from unstructured sources.Apply and advocate for software development best practice when working with other data professionals throughout the business. Contribute to standards and ways of working that support software development principles.Develop simple forecasts and monitoring tools to anticipate or respond immediately to outages and incidents.Identify and escalate risks with suggested mitigation/resolutions as appropriate.Investigate and respond to incidents, identifying the root cause and resolution with internal and external stakeholders.Identify and remediate technical debt, assess for updates and obsolescence as part of continuous improvement.Develop, maintain collaborative relationships using adaptive business methodology with stakeholders such as, business users, data scientists, data analysts and business intelligence teams.Present, communicate, and disseminate messages about the data product, tailoring the message and medium to the needs of the audience.Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of prototype data products and how these integrate within an organisation’s overarching data infrastructure.Assess and identify gaps in existing tools and technologies in respect of implementing changes required.Identify data quality metrics and track them to ensure the quality, accuracy and reliability of the data product.Selects and apply sustainable solutions to contribute to net zero and environmental strategies across the various stages of product and service delivery.Horizon scanning to identify new technologies that offer increased performance of data products.Implement personal strategies to keep up to date with new technology and ways of working.
This training schedule has not been finalised. Check with this employer if you’ll need to travel to a college or training location for this apprenticeship.
GCSE in:
English and Maths (grade Level 2)
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Attention to detailOrganisation skillsProblem solving skillsMicrosoft OfficeInterest in dataStrong communicatorProfessional and approachablePrioritising multiple tasksAble to adapt to changeCollaborative and respectfulProactiveAccountable
Buro Happold are a global practice of engineers, designers and advisers committed to delivering elegant, sustainable solutions that positively impact communities and the environment. Join us in shaping a transformative future.
starting salary of £26,228 per annum. Benefit highlights include 25 days holiday + POETS day (early finish on the last Friday of the month), and other competitive benefits.
Prospects of permanent contract after completion of apprenticeship or support in pursuing further apprenticeships if desired.
Interested in this role?