Senior Data Engineer Level 1

Derivco; Durban; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Derivco is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to own end-to-end data platforms, pipelines, and standards. You will design and operate scalable data solutions, mentor engineers, and partner with Analytics, Data Science, and Software teams to deliver robust data products.

The role focuses on building modern data platforms in Snowflake with dbt, AWS, and Airflow, driving quality, performance, and cost efficiency across production systems.

Qualifications

• 5-9 years' experience in Data Engineering with a proven track record of owning production data systems end-to-end.
• Deep expertise in SQL and strong proficiency in Python development.
• Extensive hands-on experience with Snowflake, including performance tuning, warehouse management, RBAC, clustering, and cost optimisation.
• Advanced experience with dbt, including custom macros, testing frameworks, incremental models, and reusable engineering patterns.
• Strong experience working with cloud platforms, particularly AWS, including services such as S3, Lambda, IAM, and networking fundamentals.
• Experience operating within mature software development environments, including CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), and Git-based workflows.
• Experience with orchestration tools such as Openflow, Airflow, or similar technologies.
• Proven experience implementing and operating data quality, monitoring, and observability frameworks in production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and elevate technical standards across a team.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Owning the design, development, and operation of scalable ELT pipelines and curated data products across one or more business domains.
• Defining and implementing data modelling approaches across staging, intermediate, and mart layers within Snowflake.
• Leading the onboarding and integration of new data sources to support strategic business initiatives and product development.
• Driving data quality, monitoring, and observability standards across the data platform.
• Optimising query performance, storage strategies, and cost efficiency within Snowflake.
• Managing schema evolution, data lineage, and technical documentation within your area of ownership.
• Contributing to platform architecture, engineering standards, and tooling alongside Lead Engineers and platform teams.
• Supporting production environments through incident management, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Mentoring Data Engineers through code reviews, technical coaching, and best practice adoption.
• Collaborating with Analytics Engineers, Data Scientists, AI/ML Engineers, Software Engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver end-to-end data solutions.
• Championing automation, AI-assisted development practices, and modern engineering approaches to improve delivery, quality, and efficiency.
• Evaluating emerging technologies and contributing to the future direction of Derivco's data platform.

Skills

SQL

Python

Snowflake

dbt

AWS

CI/CD

Terraform

Airflow

Data quality

Mentoring

Stakeholder mgmt

Tools

Openflow

Airflow

Snowflake

dbt

Terraform

Job description

Are you passionate about building scalable data platforms, leading technical excellence, and delivering high-impact data solutions that enable business growth? Do you enjoy solving complex engineering challenges, mentoring others, and working with modern cloud technologies?

We're looking for a Senior Data Engineer Level 1 to join our Advanced Data Products Team and help shape the data platforms, pipelines, and standards that power analytics, AI/ML, experimentation, reporting, and data-driven decision-making across Derivco.

What You'll Be Doing

As a Senior Data Engineer Level 1, you will play a key role in designing, building, and operating scalable data solutions while providing technical leadership within your domain. This is a hands-on role where you'll take ownership of end-to-end data engineering systems, influence platform direction, and help raise engineering standards across the team.

You'll work closely with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable, high-quality data products and mentor engineers to support continuous improvement and innovation.

Your Responsibilities Will Include:

• Owning the design, development, and operation of scalable ELT pipelines and curated data products across one or more business domains.
• Defining and implementing data modelling approaches across staging, intermediate, and mart layers within Snowflake.
• Leading the onboarding and integration of new data sources to support strategic business initiatives and product development.
• Driving data quality, monitoring, and observability standards across the data platform.
• Optimising query performance, storage strategies, and cost efficiency within Snowflake.
• Managing schema evolution, data lineage, and technical documentation within your area of ownership.
• Contributing to platform architecture, engineering standards, and tooling alongside Lead Engineers and platform teams.
• Supporting production environments through incident management, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Mentoring Data Engineers through code reviews, technical coaching, and best practice adoption.
• Collaborating with Analytics Engineers, Data Scientists, AI/ML Engineers, Software Engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver end-to-end data solutions.
• Championing automation, AI-assisted development practices, and modern engineering approaches to improve delivery, quality, and efficiency.
• Evaluating emerging technologies and contributing to the future direction of Derivco's data platform.

What We're Looking For

You're an experienced and technically strong data engineer who thrives on ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement. You enjoy solving complex problems, influencing technical direction, and enabling others to succeed through knowledge sharing and mentorship.

Core Requirements

• 5-9 years' experience in Data Engineering with a proven track record of owning production data systems end-to-end.
• Deep expertise in SQL and strong proficiency in Python development.
• Extensive hands-on experience with Snowflake, including performance tuning, warehouse management, RBAC, clustering, and cost optimisation.
• Advanced experience with dbt, including custom macros, testing frameworks, incremental models, and reusable engineering patterns.
• Strong experience working with cloud platforms, particularly AWS, including services such as S3, Lambda, IAM, and networking fundamentals.
• Experience operating within mature software development environments, including CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), and Git-based workflows.
• Experience with orchestration tools such as Openflow, Airflow, or similar technologies.
• Proven experience implementing and operating data quality, monitoring, and observability frameworks in production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and elevate technical standards across a team.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Nice to Have

• Experience leading data modernisation or legacy platform migration initiatives.
• Experience designing platform-level patterns such as data contracts, reusable frameworks, and reference architectures.
• Exposure to analytics, experimentation, and AI/ML data workloads at scale.
• Experience working within regulated industries such as iGaming, financial services, or healthcare.
• Contributions to open-source projects, internal engineering communities, technical publications, or conference speaking engagements.

Why Join Derivco?

At Derivco, you'll have the opportunity to work on large-scale, cloud-native data platforms that support critical business capabilities across a global technology organisation. You'll collaborate with talented engineers, influence technical direction, and help drive innovation through modern data and AI technologies while continuing to grow your own expertise.