Junior Data Engineer

Lesaka Technologies Inc.; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 300,000 - 520,000; Full time

Job summary

Lesaka Technologies is seeking a Junior Data Engineer for EasyPay in Cape Town. You’ll join the data team to build and maintain pipelines moving transaction, merchant and reconciliation data from source systems into our warehouse, enabling product, finance and risk teams to access trusted data.

The role is hybrid and permanent, reporting to the Head of Data. You will 1–2 years in a data engineering or backend data role, with strong SQL, Python, and experience with a modern data warehouse.

Qualifications

• Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines ingesting transactional data into the warehouse.
• Write and optimise SQL to transform raw data into well-modelled tables.
• Monitor pipeline health and fix data quality issues before downstream users.
• Support data engineers and analysts with clean datasets.
• Contribute to version-controlled, tested data pipeline code.
• Maintain data pipeline documentation and lineage.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines that ingest transactional data into our warehouse.
• Write and optimise SQL to transform raw data into usable, well‑modelled tables.
• Monitor pipeline health and fix data quality issues before they reach downstream users.
• Support data engineers and analysts with clean, documented datasets.
• Contribute to version‑controlled, tested data pipeline code.
• Help maintain data pipeline documentation and lineage.

Skills

SQL

Python

Git

ETL/ELT pipelines

CI/CD

Data warehousing

Data quality

Big data

Tools

Snowflake

BigQuery

Redshift

Git

Airflow

Job description

About Lesaka

Lesaka Technologies is a Southern African fintech building the connected ecosystem for financial inclusion — transactional banking, lending, insurance, payments and cash management for merchants, consumers and enterprise clients across the region. We’re publicly listed (Nasdaq: LSAK / JSE: LSK) and growing fast. EasyPay powers airtime, data, electricity, lotto and 600+ bill payments through the largest retail footprint in South Africa.

Job Description

Junior Data Engineer — EasyPay

• Location: Cape Town, hybrid
• Type: Permanent, full-time
• Reports to: Head of Data

The role

EasyPay’s transaction volumes generate data at serious scale, and that data needs to be clean, reliable and fast to query. You’ll join the data team to build and maintain the pipelines that move transaction, merchant and reconciliation data from source systems into our warehouse — giving product, finance and risk teams data they can trust.

What you’ll own

• Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines that ingest transactional data into our warehouse
• Write and optimise SQL to transform raw data into usable, well‑modelled tables
• Monitor pipeline health and fix data quality issues before they reach downstream users
• Support data engineers and analysts with clean, documented datasets
• Contribute to version‑controlled, tested data pipeline code
• Help maintain data pipeline documentation and lineage

What you bring

• 1‑2 years’ experience in a data engineering, analytics engineering, or backend data role
• Strong SQL skills — comfortable writing and debugging complex queries
• Working knowledge of Python for scripting and data transformation
• Exposure to a modern data warehouse (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, or similar)
• Understanding of version control (Git) and basic CI/CD concepts
• Comfortable working with large, messy, real‑world transactional data

Nice to have

• Experience with orchestration tools (Airflow, Dagster, or similar)
• Exposure to streaming data (Kafka, Kinesis)
• Interest or background in payments, fintech, or transaction processing

Our culture — what we expect from you

• Ownership. You don’t wait to be asked. If something is broken or unclear, you call for the ball and fix it.
• Fast adaptation. Priorities shift, markets move, regulations change. You don’t flinch — you re‑plan and move.
• Execution mindset. Ideas are cheap. Shipping is the job. You walk slow, run fast: think it through, then move with urgency.
• Customer first. The merchant, consumer or enterprise client is why we exist. Your decisions trace back to them.