Specialist Data Engineer

Absa Group; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Absa Group in Johannesburg is seeking a Specialist Data Engineer to contribute to data retrieval, processing, storage and distribution across squads. You will work embedded in squads to design, implement and optimise scalable data solutions that align with bank-wide architecture and governance.

You will build and test data pipelines, leverage relational and No-SQL databases, and create robust CI/CD pipelines while mentoring peers and ensuring security best practices across the data platform.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology or related field.
• Strong experience in data architectures and data engineering.
• Experience with CI/CD, automation and data platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design data architectures and pipelines for optimal retrieval, storage and distribution.
• Develop high quality data processing code and testable solutions.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and automation.
• Mentor engineers and participate in design reviews.
• Ensure security, governance and compliance of data assets.

Skills

Data Architecture

Distributed Data Processing

Problem Solving

Mentoring Others

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology

Tools

Jenkins

Ansible

Chef

NoSQL databases

Relational databases

Job description

## Specialist Data EngineerApply: Johannesburg: Full time: Posted Today: End Date: November 3, 2026 (6 days left to apply): R-15992146### **Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together...one story at a time.**With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.**Belonging at Absa***Absa is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from suitably qualified individuals from diverse backgrounds. In support of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) commitments and Employment Equity objectives, preference may be given to candidates from underrepresented designated groups, including persons with disabilities. We encourage applicants who may require reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process to let us know so that appropriate support can be provided.***Job Summary**Work embedded as a member of squad OR; across multiple squads to produce, test, document and review algorithms & data specific source code that supports the deployment & optimisation of data retrieval, processing, storage and distribution for a business area.**Job Description**Data Architecture & Data Engineering • Understand the technical landscape and bank wide architecture that is connected to or dependent on the business area supported in order to effectively design & deliver data solutions (architecture, pipeline etc.) • Translate / interpret the data architecture direction and associated business requirements & leverage expertise in analytical & creative problem solving to synthesise data solution designs (build a solution from its components) beyond the analysis of the problem • Participate in design thinking processes to successfully deliver data solution blueprints • Leverage state of the art relational and No-SQL databases as well integration and streaming platforms do deliver sustainable business specific data solutions. • Design data retrieval, storage & distribution solutions (and OR components thereof) including contributing to all phases of the development lifecycle e.g. design process • Develop high quality data processing, retrieval, storage & distribution design in a test driven & domain driven / cross domain environment • Build analytics tools that utilize the data pipeline by quickly producing well-organised, optimized, and documented source code & algorithms to deliver technical data solutions • Create & Maintain Sophisticated CI / CD Pipelines (authoring & supporting CI/CD pipelines in Jenkins or similar tools and deploy to multi-site environments – supporting and managing your applications all the way to production) • Automate tasks through appropriate tools and scripting technologies e.g. Ansible, Chef • Debug existing source code and polish feature sets. • Assemble large, complex data sets that meet business requirements & manage the data pipeline • Build infrastructure to automate extremely high volumes of data delivery • Create data tools for analytics and data science teams that assist them in building and optimizing data sets for the benefit of the business • Ensure designs & solutions support the technical organisation principles of self-service, repeatability, testability, scalability & resilience • Apply general design patterns and paradigms to deliver technical solutions • Inform & support the infrastructure build required for optimal extraction, transformation, and loading of data from a wide variety of data sources • Support the continuous optimisation, improvement & automation of data processing, retrieval, storage & distribution processes • Ensure the quality assurance and testing of all data solutions aligned to the QA Engineering & broader architectural guidelines and standards of the organisation • Implement & align to the Group Security standards and practices to ensure the undisputable separation, security & quality of the organisation’s data • Meaningfully contribute to & ensure solutions align to the design & direction of the Group Architecture & in particular data standards, principles, preferences & practices. Short term deployment must align to strategic long term delivery. • Meaningfully contribute to & ensure solutions align to the design and direction of the Group Infrastructure standards and practices e.g. OLA’s, IAAS, PAAS, SAAS, Containerisation etc. • Monitor the performance of data solutions designs & ensure ongoing optimization of data solutions • Stay ahead of the curve on data processing, retrieval, storage & distribution technologies & processes (global best practices & trends) to ensure best practice People • Coach & mentor other engineers • Conduct peer reviews, testing, problem solving within and across the broader team • Build data science team capability in the use of data solutions Risk & Governance • Identify technical risks and mitigate these (pre, during & post deployment) • Update / Design all application documentation aligned to the organization technical standards and risk / governance frameworks • Create business cases & solution specifications for various governance processes (e.g. CTO approvals) • Participate in incident management & DR activity – applying critical thinking, problem solving & technical expertise to get to the bottom of major incidents • Deliver on time & on budget (always)Added advantageDanodo, Spark/PySpark, Kafka, Hadoop, cloud, APIs and CI/CD.**Education**Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology