Principal - Technical Business Analyst, Data Products & Platforms

Internetwork Expert; Sydney; On-site; AUD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Simple Machines is seeking a senior, technically credible analyst-advocate for data platform and data product engagements. You will act as the customer’s proxy inside delivery, understand data movement and business meaning, and translate insights into actionable requirements and documentation.

SQL fluency is essential to verify data and guide the solution with the tech lead. This consulting role spans data platform, data product, and governance initiatives, requiring strong elicitation,

Qualifications

• A data-focused technical BA, engagement analyst or consultant, or an engineer/analyst who moved into the analyst seat.
• Deep data understanding: how data moves, is structured, where it comes from and what it means in business terms.
• SQL-fluent (must-have): explores, profiles and validates data independently.
• Reads and reasons about data models and source-to-target mappings; knows a modern cloud data stack and ETL/ELT.
• Strong requirements craft: elicitation, workshops, acceptance criteria, backlog, RAID.
• Not a software, process or ERP BA; user-story-only BAs without SQL are not a fit.

Responsibilities

• Act as the customer’s proxy inside delivery and shape the solution with the tech lead.
• Translate business intent into clear requirements and documentation to keep engagements moving.
• Think in data-product terms: outcomes, prioritisation and value when appropriate.
• Work across data platform, data product and governance initiatives.

Skills

Data fluency

Requirements elicitation

Stakeholder proxy

Critical thinking

Business-technical translation

Workshop facilitation

Tools

Databricks

Snowflake

BigQuery

dbt

Jira

Confluence

Job description

We are looking for a senior, technically credible analyst-advocate on data platform and data product engagements, acting as the customer’s proxy inside delivery. This is a data specialist, not a software or process BA: the person understands how data moves, how it is structured, where it comes from and what it means in business terms, reads data models and source-to-target mappings, and gets into the data to verify it. SQL fluency is essential. You will understand the client’s problem more deeply than anyone in the room, form and defend a clear point of view, shape the solution alongside the tech lead, and turn that into the requirements and documentation that keep engagements moving. Because this is a consulting role, you can also step beyond requirements into a data product lens, thinking in outcomes, prioritisation and value when an engagement calls for it. It flexes across data platform, data product and governance initiatives.

Required background:

• A data-focused technical BA, engagement analyst or consultant, or an engineer / analyst who moved into the analyst seat, or wants to
• Deep data understanding: how data moves, is structured, where it
• comes from and what it means in business terms
• SQL-fluent (must-have): explores, profiles and validates data independently
• Reads and reasons about data models and source-to-target mappings; knows a modern cloud data stack and ETL / ELT
• Strong requirements craft: elicitation, workshops, acceptance criteria, backlog, RAID
• Not a software, process or ERP BA; user-story-only BAs without SQL are not a fit

Core capabilities:

• Data fluency: how data moves, is structured, sourced, and what it means in business terms
• Requirements elicitation, analysis and prioritisation
• Customer advocacy and stakeholder proxy
• Critical thinking, problem solving and logical reasoning
• Translation between business intent and technical delivery
• Workshop facilitation, acceptance criteria, validation and UAT

Technologies and ecosystems, exposure to - not mandatory:

• SQL (must-have, fluent: explore, profile, validate)
• Data modelling and source-to-target mapping
• Modern stack: Databricks / Snowflake / BigQuery, dbt, Azure / AWS / GCP
• Pipelines and ETL / ELT; Jira / Confluence
• Written and communication capabilities:
• Strong, structured written craft: status reports, proposals, specs
• Clear executive communication; produces high-quality material independently

About Simple Machines

Simple Machines is a global, independent technology consultancy operating across Sydney, New Zealand, London, Poland and San Francisco. We design and build modern data platforms, intelligent systems, and bespoke software at the intersection ofData Engineering, Software EngineeringandAI.

We help enterprises, scale-ups, and government turn complex, high-value data into products, platforms, and decisions that drive real impact.

We don't do generic. We build things that matter -We engineer data to life.