Lead Data Engineer

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

Leveraging a thorough understanding of the business data requirements & own data subject matter expertise (ahead of trend), set data architecture direction & lead the agile solution design, deployment, implementation & ongoing optimization of enterprise wide data retrieval, storage and distribution across an estate.

Job Description

Job Summary

As a Lead Data Engineer you will serve as a cornerstone of technical leadership and strategic execution within the Absa Treasury IT department. This is a pivotal role that combines deep, hands-on engineering with design ownership and team mentorship. You will take "one-stop shop" accountability for Treasury's data ecosystem within your stream, from strategic design to operational excellence.

Leveraging your subject matter expertise, you will contribute to the data architecture direction, lead agile solution design, and oversee the deployment and continuous optimization of enterprise-class data solutions. While your focus will be on mastering and evolving our in-house ETL platform (LUM) to drive business value, you will also be expected to stay ahead of industry trends, championing best practices in data engineering, governance, and automation.

You are not just a senior engineer; you are a strategist, a mentor, and the go-to expert who will drive the quality, scalability, and value of your streams data assets within Treasury.

Key Accountabilities / Job Description

1. Strategic Data Architecture & Ecosystem Ownership:

• Design/Architectural Alignment: Align your stream to the data architecture vision for the Treasury domain. Create and champion a strategic roadmap that ensures the streams data landscape is scalable, resilient, and aligned with long-term business goals.
• Full Ecosystem Accountability: Assume ultimate ownership for the entire data lifecycle within your domain—from data sourcing and retrieval to its transformation, storage, security, and distribution—ensuring its integrity and performance.
• Technology Evangelism & Strategy: Stay at the forefront of the data industry, evaluating emerging technologies, relational/NoSQL platforms, and streaming technologies. Drive the business case for adopting new tools and methodologies that deliver a tangible competitive advantage.
• Commercial Acumen: Go beyond technical delivery to strategically monitor the performance, cost, and commercial value of data products. Ensure all initiatives deliver a clear return on investment and contribute directly to Treasury's success.

2. Engineering & Solution Delivery:

• Architect and Implement: Lead the end-to-end solution design process, from initial blueprinting in design thinking workshops to overseeing the final implementation of mission-critical data solutions.
• Mastery of Data Integration: Serve as an ultimate authority on data integration and ETL development. Architect and build our most complex, high-volume data pipelines on the LUM platform and other strategic toolsets, establishing best practices for the entire team.
• Performance Architecture: Set the standard for process excellence. Tackle the most challenging data transformation and analysis problems and architect solutions for optimal process performance across big datasets.
• Drive a Data-First Culture: Champion the principle that data is a critical enterprise asset. Actively advocate for data-driven decision-making across Treasury and ensure that all engineering solutions are designed to make data accessible, reliable, and central to business processes.

3. Analytical Acumen & Quality Stewardship:

• Establish Data Quality Frameworks: Design and own the data quality, validation, and reconciliation frameworks for the domain. Ensure these are embedded in every data pipeline to guarantee the highest level of data integrity.
• Final Point of Escalation: Act as the final point of escalation for critical data integrity and performance issues, leading deep-dive root cause analyses and implementing permanent, strategic solutions.
• Empower Data Consumers: Strategically design and provide curated, high-value data assets and tools that empower analytics and data science teams to accelerate their work and derive new insights.

4. Technical Leadership & Team Enablement:

• Uplift Team Capability: Lead by example in solving the most challenging technical problems. Actively mentor and coach fellow engineers, fostering their growth through constructive code reviews, knowledge sharing, and setting a high bar for engineering excellence.
• Talent Development: Help shape a highly performing team by defining the technical standards and competencies required for success, and by playing a lead role in the professional development and upskilling of data engineers within the team.

5. Governance, Risk & Strategic Influence:

• Drive the Risk Agenda: Proactively identify, articulate, and mitigate significant technical risks. Lead the technical response during major incidents and disaster recovery activities, demonstrating critical thinking under pressure.
• Build Strategic Partnerships: Move beyond simple stakeholder management to build strategic partnerships with senior business stakeholders and technology peers, navigating complex organizational dynamics to achieve alignment and drive results.

Required Education & Experience

• Education: Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field. A Master's degree is a plus.
• Experience Level: 7+ years of progressive experience in data engineering, with a proven track record of leading the design and delivery of complex, large-scale projects.
• Work Experience: Extensive experience in a complex enterprise environment is essential. Deep experience within financial services (Treasury, Capital Markets, Risk) is highly preferred.

Skills:

Core Technical Expertise

• Expert SQL & Performance Architecture (Non-negotiable): Mastery of complex SQL and the ability to architect for performance across large-scale data warehouses.
• Advanced ETL/ELT Architecture: Proven expertise in architecting and building robust, scalable, and mission-critical data pipelines for enterprise use.
• Data Modelling & Database Design: Deep, authoritative knowledge of data warehousing architecture, dimensional modelling, and experience with both relational and NoSQL databases.
• Programming/Scripting/Tools (Advantageous): High proficiency in at least one relevant language (e.g., Python, Scala, C#, DAX, SAS, R, Java). Experience with enterprise ETL/BI toolsets (e.g., Informatica, SSIS, SAS, Oracle Data Integrator, AWS Glue, IBM InfoSphere, SAP Data Services, PowerBI, and Qlikview/Qliksense).

Analytical Acumen & Quality Stewardship

• Data Profiling and Discovery: Mastery in performing deep data analysis to understand complex source systems and architect sound data solutions.
• Data Validation and Reconciliation: Authority on data validation and reconciliation techniques, with experience designing and implementing quality frameworks.
• Mastery of Root Cause Analysis: Elite troubleshooting skills, with the ability to trace data lineage across complex systems to definitively solve data integrity issues.
• Advanced Query Performance Tuning: Deep expertise in interpreting complex execution plans and re-architecting solutions for optimal performance.

Leadership & Strategic Competencies

• Architectural Vision: The proven ability to design and own the data architecture for a complex business domain, creating a clear and actionable roadmap.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: A passion for uplifting a team's technical capability through coaching, setting high standards, and leading by example.
• Communication & Influence: The ability to articulate complex technical strategy and influence decisions with senior business and technology leaders.
• Commercial and Strategic Acumen: A strong ability to connect technical solutions to business value, drive strategic planning, and understand the commercial implications of data.
• Ultimate Ownership & Accountability: A leader who takes ultimate ownership of outcomes, demonstrates resilience, and drives complex projects to successful completion.

Education

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised