Data Engineer / Data Architect

Lesaka Technologies Inc.; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A fintech company in Johannesburg is looking for a Data Engineer / Data Architect to design and maintain scalable data architectures. In this critical role, you will build robust ETL/ELT pipelines and ensure data security and compliance for sensitive financial data. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of experience in data engineering, strong SQL and programming skills, and hands-on experience with cloud data services. This role offers opportunities for growth in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or related roles.
• Strong programming skills in SQL and languages like Python or Scala.
• Hands-on experience with cloud data services and data pipeline tools.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable, secure data architectures.
• Build robust ETL/ELT pipelines for batch and streaming data.
• Implement data security and compliance measures for sensitive data.

Skills

SQL

Data modelling

Python

Cloud data services

Data security principles

Tools

Airflow

Spark

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Role Overview

Join to apply for the Data Engineer / Data Architect role at Lesaka Technologies Inc.

Are you ready to design and scale world‑class data infrastructure in a fast‑growing fintech environment? Join Lesaka, a leader in financial technology, and play a pivotal role in enabling data‑driven decision‑making, supporting analytics and AI initiatives, and ensuring our data systems meet the highest standards of reliability, security, and compliance.

This role combines hands‑on engineering with architectural leadership, working closely with product, analytics, and compliance teams to deliver scalable, secure, and future‑proof data solutions.

Department: Data & Analytics

Reporting To: Head of Data / Analytics Manager

Why This Role Matters

• Design and maintain scalable, secure, high‑performance data architectures
• Build robust ETL/ELT pipelines for batch and streaming data
• Enable analytics, BI, and AI workloads through reliable data platforms
• Ensure regulatory compliance and data governance for sensitive financial data

What You'll Do

• Data Architecture & Design: Design and maintain scalable, secure, and high‑performance data architectures; define data models, schemas, and standards across transactional and analytical systems; architect data lakes, data warehouses, and real‑time data pipelines; ensure alignment with fintech regulatory and compliance requirements; build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines for batch and streaming data; integrate data from internal systems, third‑party APIs, and financial data providers; optimize data processing for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency; ensure data quality, consistency, and availability.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Develop and manage cloud‑based data platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure); implement infrastructure‑as‑code and CI/CD for data pipelines; monitor and troubleshoot data systems in production.
• Security & Governance: Implement data security, access controls, encryption, and monitoring; support data governance, lineage, and metadata management; collaborate with compliance and risk teams on audits and regulatory needs.
• Collaboration & Leadership: Work closely with product managers, analysts, and ML engineers; provide technical guidance and best practices for data usage; document architectures, workflows, and standards.

Qualifications & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or related roles
• Strong proficiency in SQL and data modelling (dimensional and/or normalized)
• Experience building data pipelines using tools such as Airflow, dbt, Spark, or similar
• Strong programming skills in Python, Scala, or Java
• Hands‑on experience with cloud data services (BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake, Databricks)
• Experience with both batch and streaming data systems (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub)
• Solid understanding of data security, privacy, and governance principles

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in fintech, banking, payments, or financial services
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks (PCI DSS, SOC 2, GDPR)
• Experience supporting analytics, BI, and machine learning workloads
• Knowledge of event‑driven and real‑time data architectures
• Prior experience leading architectural decisions or data platform migrations

Values

• Integrity
• Collective Wisdom
• Bias to Action
• Preference will be made to support EE / AA measures

Location

Johannesburg Metropolitan Area, Gauteng, South Africa

Application

Ready to architect the future of data? Apply now: or tag someone who might be perfect for this role!

Job Details

Seniority level: Associate | Employment type: Full‑time | Job function: Information Technology

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