Data Engineer (Azure & AI) - August Start

At Embelo, we’re dedicated to helping founders of consulting businesses start and scale efficiently. Backed by our UK-based investors and clients, we deliver exceptional client services to a growing group of UK businesses, combining technical expertise, South African spirit, and the latest in AI-powered services. One of those is Inference Group, a fast-growing data and AI consultancy on a mission to help businesses unlock their true potential and drive sustainable growth.

Role Overview

We’re expanding our AI and Data capability in Cape Town and are looking for a hands‑on Data Engineer to join the team.

The immediate focus of this role will be data pipelines and orchestration – designing, building and optimising reliable data pipelines that move and transform data across modern Azure and Databricks environments.

You’ll work across Python, SQL, Databricks, dbt, Delta Lake, Azure Data Factory and Spark, taking ownership of technical delivery while also helping shape how solutions are designed and built.

This is a consulting role, so alongside strong engineering capability, we’re looking for someone who can understand a business problem, work through the technical options and communicate their thinking clearly to clients and colleagues.

You’ll also have the opportunity to work closely with our wider Data and AI teams as we continue building modern, AI‑enabled solutions for our clients.

Location: Hybrid - Cape Town (3-4 days per week in the office) If applying from another city, relocation to Cape Town will be required and should be arranged personally.

What You’ll Do:

Design, build and maintain scalable data pipelines and orchestration frameworks.
Develop ETL/ELT pipelines using Python, SQL, Azure Data Factory, Databricks and dbt.
Build and optimise lakehouse solutions using Databricks, Spark and Delta Lake.
Design ingestion and transformation processes across multiple data sources and systems.
Troubleshoot and optimise pipeline performance, reliability and scalability.
Develop reusable engineering patterns and help improve technical standards across the team.
Translate business requirements into practical technical designs and data solutions.
Work directly with clients and internal teams to understand problems and shape the right approach.
Review technical solutions and support other engineers through mentoring and knowledge sharing.
Work with AI and analytics teams to ensure data is trusted, accessible and ready for downstream use.
Contribute to data quality, testing, monitoring and CI/CD practices across the data platform.

What We’re Looking For:

You’ll have strong hands‑on Data Engineering experience and be comfortable owning solutions from technical design through to delivery.

4-7 years' experience in Data Engineering, Data Platform Engineering or a similar role.
Proven experience building cloud‑based data solutions in Microsoft Azure.
Hands‑on experience designing and developing solutions using Databricks.
Core technical (Python, SQL, Databricks, dbt, Apache Spark / PySpark, Delta Lake, Azure Data Factory, ETL / ELT, data pipeline development and orchestration
Experience working with large‑scale structured and unstructured datasets.
Exposure to client‑facing consulting environments is advantageous.

It will be great if you also have:

Unity Catalog and Databricks governance frameworks.
PySpark.
CI/CD for data platforms.
MLOps and AI data pipelines.
Snowflake experience.

We are looking for people who are:

Curious and passionate about data engineering and emerging technologies.
Enjoy solving complex technical problems and finding practical solutions.
Comfortable working in a fast‑paced consulting environment.
Strong communicator who can engage effectively with both technical and business stakeholders.
Takes ownership, delivers with pace and has a strong attention to detail.
Collaborative team player who enjoys sharing knowledge and learning from others.

Working With Us:

At Inference Group, we’re a young and fast‑growing consultancy built by people who are naturally curious and passionate about lifelong learning. If you’re driven and want to help shape the early stages of a dynamic business, we’d love to have you on board. You’ll be part of a team exploring the limitless opportunities of data and AI, driving excellence, growing together, and we’ll be having plenty of fun along the way.

We’re committed to hiring future leaders who will help shape our next chapter, and we’ll invest in your growth through access to the latest technology, hands‑on experience, mentorship and ongoing training and certifications. As AI continues to evolve, we promise our clients a team of people who stay ahead of the curve, equipped with the most up‑to‑date knowledge and skills to deliver truly innovative solutions. Our Values are:

> We Geek Out Loud: we excel in our data and AI domain, using our expertise to deliver solutions that realise value. We share our wisdom and experience proudly, no egos, just pure tech passion.

> We Act Boldly, and Collaborate Openly: we explore uncharted territories, working on the new to deliver operational solutions at scale. We don’t tread over old ground. We collaborate openly with full transparency, learning from each other as a community.

> We are the Connectors: we bridge the gaps between business value, data engineering, data science and deployment. Working seamlessly as one unified team internally and externally to deliver working solutions for our clients.

> We Empower our Customers: we equip our clients with the skills and knowledge to fully leverage, scale and deploy data and AI solutions. We prioritise delivering operational success over prototypes and proof of concepts to provide long term value. We build trust.

> We Love our Work: we are proud of the work we do and take ownership of it. We work on the things we love and care about, we work with passion with people we respect.

> We are Data Jedis: we work on hard problems and aim to deliver working solutions at scale. We don’t have time for politics, backbiting, gossiping, game playing or selfish behaviour. We work as one team with a mission to deliver and we will only achieve that together.

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