Technical Team Lead : Azure Data Management - 6 month contract

Ace Staffing; Johannesburg; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading digital consulting and delivery company seeks a Technical Team Lead to guide a team of Azure Data Engineers and Data Scientists. The role involves overseeing end-to-end Azure data solutions, ensuring delivery excellence, governance, and innovation across various projects. Ideal candidates should have strong technical leadership alongside advanced expertise in Azure data platforms and a passion for building high-performance solutions.

Qualifications

• 5+ years’ experience in data engineering, including leadership role.
• Expert in Azure Data Factory, SQL optimization, and CI/CD practices.
• Strong understanding of data security compliance standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of Azure Data Engineers and oversee data solutions.
• Define end-to-end data pipelines using Azure tools.
• Ensure compliance with data security and governance standards.

Skills

Azure Data Factory

SQL

Azure Databricks

Data Warehousing

Team Leadership

Agile Methodology

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Azure DevOps

GitHub Actions

Job description

POSITION INFO :

Location : Bryanston, Johannesburg (Hybrid)

Contract : 6 month project starting asap / 1 July 2025

Overview :

A leading digital consulting and delivery company is seeking an experienced Technical Team Lead to guide a team of Azure Data Engineers, Data Scientists, and BI Developers. The successful candidate will oversee end-to-end Azure data solutions, ensuring delivery excellence, governance, and innovation across projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and implement end-to-end data pipelines using Azure Data Factory (ADF).
• Architect scalable data platforms using Azure Databricks (Spark), Azure SQL Database, and Synapse.
• Design and govern semantic models and datasets in Power BI, including workspace access and dataset governance.

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team of data engineers, scientists, and BI developers.
• Manage task allocation, sprint planning, code reviews, and ensure timely delivery.
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies including daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and sprint reviews.

Development & Delivery

• Develop and manage complex ADF pipelines with mapping data flows and custom activities.
• Write and optimize T-SQL for stored procedures, transformations, views, and performance.
• Build scalable Databricks notebooks (PySpark / Scala) for large-scale processing.
• Design and deploy Power BI dashboards, reports, and implement row-level security (RLS).

Quality & Governance

• Enforce code quality and maintain CI / CD pipelines using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
• Implement data validation, monitoring, and alerting via Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.
• Ensure compliance with data security and privacy standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA).

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Gather and translate business requirements into scalable, technical data solutions.
• Collaborate with cloud architects and security / network teams on infrastructure alignment.
• Deliver demos, status reports, and maintain solution documentation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• 5+ years’ experience in data engineering, including 2+ years in a leadership or architecture role.
• Expert in Azure Data Factory: pipelines, data flows, triggers, and runtimes.
• Advanced SQL skills, including query tuning and indexing in Azure SQL DB and Synapse.
• Proficient in Azure Databricks (PySpark / Scala) and Delta Lake.
• Experience with CI / CD tools and branching strategies (Azure DevOps, Git).
• Solid understanding of data warehousing (star schema, normalization, CDM).
• Familiarity with Azure security: RBAC, AD integration, managed identities.

Advantageous Skills

• Experience with Azure Synapse Analytics or dedicated SQL pools.
• Knowledge of Data Lake Gen2, ADLS, and formats like Parquet and Avro.
• Experience with Databricks Delta, Unity Catalog, or Lakehouse architecture.
• Programming experience with Python, Scala, or .NET for ADF custom activities.
• Microsoft certifications (e.g., Azure Data Associate, Solutions Architect).

Ideal candidates will combine strong technical leadership with deep expertise in Azure data platforms and a passion for building high-performance, enterprise-grade solutions.