Skills

Communication Leadership Python SQL Data Engineering CI/CD Kubernetes Architecture Data Architecture Machine Learning apache Autonomy Google Cloud Platform Analytics GCP CI/CD Pipelines Terraform

Job Specifications

Head of Data Engineering (Freelance)

Ghent, Belgium (hybrid)

Freelance / Fractional

We are currently supporting an early stage startup based in Ghent, who are looking for an experienced Head of Data Engineering to take ownership and scale their data engineering function. This is a senior, hands-on freelance role with a strong focus on building and scaling a modern data platform using Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping the data architecture and setting best practices in a dynamic startup environment.

Role & Responsibilities

Define and drive the data engineering strategy and roadmap in line with business needs
Design, build, and scale a cloud-native data platform on Google Cloud Platform
Develop and maintain reliable data pipelines (batch and, where relevant, streaming)
Take ownership of architectural decisions, balancing scalability, performance, and cost
Establish standards for data quality, data modelling, security, and governance
Collaborate closely with founders, product, engineering, analytics, and business stakeholders
Enable self-service analytics and data accessibility across the organisation
Prepare the data platform for future use cases such as advanced analytics or machine learning
Provide technical leadership and support future data engineering hires

Required Experience & Skills

Extensive experience in data engineering, ideally with leadership or senior ownership responsibilities
Strong hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform, including services such as:
BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Dataflow / Apache Beam, Pub/Sub, Cloud Composer (Airflow)
Excellent knowledge of SQL and Python
Proven experience designing and operating modern data warehouse or lakehouse architectures
Comfortable working in startup or scale-up environments with evolving requirements
Strong communication skills and the ability to work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Nice to Have

Experience with real-time or event-driven data architectures
Familiarity with tools such as dbt, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, or Kubernetes
Exposure to ML or AI data platforms on GCP
Previous experience supporting startups through growth phases

Contract Details

Freelance assignment (daily rate, long-term potential)
Hybrid working model with regular presence in Ghent
High level of autonomy and impact

About the Company

With vast recruitment experience, we know what we are doing when it comes to your staffing and career needs. With in depth knowledge of the UK, European & the United States recruitment markets, we offer Retained, Exclusive & Contingent Recruitment Solutions across the IT & Digital spectrum. What's different about Oakwell Hampton? We've recently secured a place in the Recruiter Top 100 - https://www.linkedin.com/redir/invalid-link-page?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshorturl%2eat%2FfovF3 We're a headline sponsor of the Manchester T... Know more