Remote Lead Data Engineer

Placements24; Kimberley; Hybrid; CAD 84,000 - 118,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Performance bonus

Medical aid

Retirement contributions

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Remote Lead Data Engineer to spearhead the design, development, and maintenance of scalable data infrastructure. This fully remote role allows you to work from anywhere in South Africa, collaborating with a distributed team to unlock data potential from your home office.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years of data engineering experience, strong skills in Spark, Hadoop, Kafka, SQL and cloud data services (AWS/Azure/GCP), plus Python or Scala and Airflow.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of data engineering experience designing large-scale data solutions.
• Proven expertise with Spark, Hadoop, Kafka and SQL.
• Experience with cloud data services across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Strong Python or Scala programming skills and Airflow familiarity.
• Demonstrated leadership and team management ability.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable ETL/ELT data pipelines.
• Develop and manage data warehouses and data lakes.
• Implement data quality checks to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• Optimize data processing and querying for performance and cost-efficiency.
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and software engineers to understand data needs.
• Evaluate and recommend new data technologies and tools.
• Lead and mentor a team of data engineers.
• Implement data governance and security best practices.
• Automate data infrastructure tasks and deployments.

Skills

Spark

Hadoop

Kafka

SQL

AWS

Azure

GCP

Python

Scala

Airflow

Leadership

Education

Master's or Bachelor's in CS/Engineering

Tools

S3

Redshift

BigQuery

Databricks

Job description

About the Role

Our client, a data-driven technology firm, is seeking a Remote Lead Data Engineer to spearhead the design, development, and maintenance of their data infrastructure. This fully remote position allows you to work from anywhere in South Africa. You will be responsible for building scalable data pipelines, managing large datasets, and ensuring the efficiency and reliability of our data warehousing and analytics platforms. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in data engineering, a strong understanding of big data technologies, and proven leadership capabilities. Join us in shaping the future of data at our company, working collaboratively with a distributed team to unlock the power of data from your home office.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable and robust ETL/ELT data pipelines.
• Develop and manage data warehouses and data lakes.
• Implement data quality checks and ensure data accuracy and consistency.
• Optimize data processing and querying for performance and cost-efficiency.
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and software engineers to understand data needs.
• Evaluate and recommend new data technologies and tools.
• Lead and mentor a team of data engineers.
• Implement data governance and security best practices.
• Automate data infrastructure tasks and deployments.

Requirements

• Master's or Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, with a focus on building large-scale data solutions.
• Proven experience with big data technologies such as Spark, Hadoop, Kafka.
• Proficiency in SQL and experience with data warehousing concepts.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and their data services (e.g., S3, Redshift, BigQuery, Databricks).
• Strong programming skills in languages like Python or Scala.
• Experience with orchestration tools like Airflow.
• Demonstrated leadership and team management experience.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.

Benefits

Our client offers a competitive remote salary, flexible working hours, performance bonuses, and a comprehensive benefits package including medical aid and retirement contributions. You will have access to cutting-edge technology and opportunities for continuous learning and professional development. This role provides the flexibility to work from anywhere in South Africa , fostering a healthy work-life balance within a progressive, remote-first company. Take the lead in data engineering and make a lasting impact.