Head: Data Engineer ● REF NO: FPR 36/26
Summary
Lead the City of Cape Town's data engineering team, heading the design, development, and operation of the data infrastructure, pipelines, platforms, and data products powering analytics and AI across the organisation. The stack is built predominantly on open-source technologies across cloud and on-premise environments.
(Candidates who previously applied for FPR 24/26 need not to reapply)
LOCATION: Civic Centre, Cape Town
How do you turn data into something that improves life in a city of millions? That's the question this role exists to answer.
The City of Cape Town is looking for a Head: Data Engineering to lead a team of data engineers. Sitting within the City’s Data Analytics Hub, you'll lead the design, development and operation of the data infrastructure, pipelines, platforms and data products that power analytics and AI across the organisation; and ultimately deliver real benefit to the residents of Cape Town.
Our stack is built predominantly on open-source technologies, so you'll be leading a team that works in the open, embraces community-driven tooling and chooses the right tool for the job.
This is a leadership role for someone who's as comfortable shaping architecture as they are growing a team and influencing strategy at the highest levels of the organisation.
Requirements:
- A relevant tertiary qualification (honours or 4-year degree), preferably in Computer Science, Engineering or a related technical field
- At least 8 years’ relevant experience
- Solid hands-on experience working with open-source technologies and software across the data engineering lifecycle
- Deep technical grounding in modern data engineering (infrastructureas- code, containerisation, observability, APIs) paired with proven leadership
- Strong communication skills and the ability to tailor your message to technical, operational and executive audiences
Key Performance Areas:
- Lead the architecture and delivery of scalable, reliable, cost-effective data platforms (ingestion, transformation, storage and serving) across cloud and on-premise environments
- Drive the development, deployment and monitoring of data products and APIs that answer the City’s most important questions
- Establish governance, standards and best practice for the City’s data analytics and AI community, including the City Data Product