Senior Data Engineer

Smart4 Cloud; Wes-Kaap; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Smart4 Cloud is seeking a hands-on Senior Data Engineer to lead the migration from legacy reporting to a scalable Snowflake-based data platform. You will design data models, pipelines, and automated testing while supporting a Power BI reporting layer for the MVP.

Based in Cape Town or Johannesburg, this hybrid role requires 3 days onsite per week and collaboration with BI, architecture and business teams to deliver foundational engineering patterns for future phases.

Qualifications

• Senior data engineering experience in modern data platforms.
• Hands-on Snowflake with data modeling and pipeline design.
• Proven ability to implement end-to-end data ingestion, transformation, and quality checks.
• Experience migrating from legacy to modern data architectures.

Responsibilities

• Migrate legacy reporting to target data architecture.
• Design Snowflake-based data models and pipelines.
• Build automated ingestion and transformations across sources.
• Work across AWS and Azure cloud environments.

Skills

Senior-Level Data Eng

Snowflake

AWS

Azure

Power BI

SQL

Data Pipelines

Tools

Snowflake

Power BI

AWS

Azure

Job description

Location: Cape Town or Johannesburg, South Africa

Work Arrangement: Hybrid – 3 days onsite per week

Employment Type: Contract / Permanent

Seniority: Senior

We are looking for an experienced Senior Data Engineer to play a key role in modernising our data and reporting environment. This is an exciting opportunity for a South African citizen to help drive the migration from legacy reporting processes to a modern, scalable target architecture.

You will be responsible for delivering the future-state MVP, establishing strong data engineering foundations, and creating reusable standards and patterns that will support future phases of the programme.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the migration from legacy reporting processes to the target data architecture.
• Design and develop scalable Snowflake-based data models and data pipelines.
• Build automated ingestion and transformation processes across data sources.
• Work across AWS and Azure cloud environments.
• Implement automated testing, data quality controls and monitoring.
• Establish robust engineering foundations, standards and reusable development patterns.
• Collaborate with data, architecture, BI and business stakeholders to deliver the MVP.
• Develop and support the Power BI reporting layer for the MVP.
• Contribute to the design of the future-state architecture and ensure solutions are scalable for subsequent phases.
• Champion engineering best practices around CI/CD, version control, documentation, testing and data quality.
• Future-state MVP
• Snowflake-based data models and pipelines
• Automated data ingestion and transformation
• Automated testing and data quality controls
• Foundational architecture for future phases
• Reusable engineering standards and patterns
• Power BI reporting layer supporting the MVP

Must-Have Requirements

• South African citizenship
• Based in or able to work onsite in Cape Town or Johannesburg
• Willing and able to work onsite 3 days per week
• Strong senior-level experience in Data Engineering
• Extensive hands-on Snowflake experience
• Strong experience with AWS and Azure
• Proven experience designing and implementing data pipelines and data models
• Experience migrating from legacy reporting/data environments to modern data architectures
• Strong SQL and data transformation skills
• Experience with automated testing and data quality frameworks
• Experience supporting Power BI reporting solutions
• Solid understanding of cloud-based data architecture and engineering best practices
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across technical and business teams

What We’re Looking For

We need someone who can do more than build pipelines — someone who can help establish the engineering foundations for the next phases of the data transformation journey.

If you are a hands‑on Senior Data Engineer with strong Snowflake, AWS and Azure experience and enjoy building modern, scalable data platforms from the ground up, we would love to hear from you.

Location: Cape Town or Johannesburg | Hybrid: 3 days onsite per week