Senior Data Engineer – Platform & AI Leader (Flexible)

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi; Dunedin; On-site; NZD 134,000 - 163,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and benefits

5 weeks annual leave

Flexible working arrangements

Life, Income Protection and Critical I

Job summary

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to join our Data Chapter, leading complex delivery initiatives and helping establish engineering practices that ensure scalable, secure and reliable data solutions across the organisation.

You’ll work across squads and stakeholders to design and deliver modern data products and pipelines, mentor engineers, contribute to standards and patterns, and help evolve our enterprise data platform as we pursue analytics, AI and data

Qualifications

• Designing, building and operating enterprise‑scale data platforms and pipelines.
• Advanced SQL and Python with Databricks delivery experience.
• Experience with cloud data platforms and modern data architectures.
• Proven ability to deliver analytics, BI, ML and AI use cases.
• Strong DataOps, automation, observability and operational excellence.
• Understanding of data governance, privacy, security and compliance.
• Ability to influence stakeholders across teams and disciplines.
• Experience identifying technical debt and balancing priorities.
• Strong communication and relationship management skills.
• Mentoring others and contributing to engineering excellence.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex delivery initiatives and establish engineering practices.
• Design and deliver modern data products and pipelines.
• Support evolution of the enterprise data platform across squads.
• Balance technical leadership with hands‑on delivery.
• Develop capability across the Data Community of Practice.
• Coach engineers and share knowledge to lift performance.

Skills

Significant experience designing,

building and operating enterprise‑

data platforms and pipelines

Advanced SQL and Python skills

delivery on Databricks

Cloud‑based data platforms

Lakehouse and medallion architecture

Analytics, BI, ML and AI use cases

DataOps, automation, observability

Data governance, privacy, security

Influence stakeholders across squads

Identify and manage technical debt

Relationship management & comms

Mentoring and engineering excellence

Tools

Databricks

Job description

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to join our Data Chapter, leading complex delivery initiatives and helping establish engineering practices that ensure scalable, secure and reliable data solutions across the organisation.

You’ll work across squads and stakeholders to design and deliver modern data products and pipelines, mentor engineers, contribute to standards and patterns, and help evolve our enterprise data platform as we pursue analytics, AI and data