Senior Data Engineer
Summary
Senior Data Engineer at Smart4 Cloud modernising a legacy data and reporting environment: building Snowflake data models and pipelines across AWS and Azure, with automated ingestion, testing and data-quality controls, plus a Power BI reporting layer. Hybrid role (3 days onsite) in Cape Town or Johannesburg, South Africa.
Location: Cape Town or Johannesburg, South Africa
Work Arrangement: Hybrid – 3 days onsite per week
Employment Type: Contract / Permanent
Seniority: Senior
We are looking for an experienced Senior Data Engineer to play a key role in modernising our data and reporting environment. This is an exciting opportunity for a South African citizen to help drive the migration from legacy reporting processes to a modern, scalable target architecture.
You will be responsible for delivering the future-state MVP, establishing strong data engineering foundations, and creating reusable standards and patterns that will support future phases of the programme.
Key Responsibilities
- Support the migration from legacy reporting processes to the target data architecture.
- Design and develop scalable Snowflake-based data models and data pipelines.
- Build automated ingestion and transformation processes across data sources.
- Work across AWS and Azure cloud environments.
- Implement automated testing, data quality controls and monitoring.
- Establish robust engineering foundations, standards and reusable development patterns.
- Collaborate with data, architecture, BI and business stakeholders to deliver the MVP.
- Develop and support the Power BI reporting layer for the MVP.
- Contribute to the design of the future-state architecture and ensure solutions are scalable for subsequent phases.
- Champion engineering best practices around CI/CD, version control, documentation, testing and data quality.
- Future-state MVP
- Snowflake-based data models and pipelines
- Automated data ingestion and transformation
- Automated testing and data quality controls
- Foundational architecture for future phases
- Reusable engineering standards and patterns
- Power BI reporting layer supporting the MVP
Must-Have Requirements
- South African citizenship
- Based in or able to work onsite in Cape Town or Johannesburg
- Willing and able to work onsite 3 days per week
- Strong senior-level experience in Data Engineering
- Extensive hands-on Snowflake experience
- Strong experience with AWS and Azure
- Proven experience designing and implementing data pipelines and data models
- Experience migrating from legacy reporting/data environments to modern data architectures
- Strong SQL and data transformation skills
- Experience with automated testing and data quality frameworks
- Experience supporting Power BI reporting solutions
- Solid understanding of cloud-based data architecture and engineering best practices
- Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across technical and business teams
What We’re Looking For
We need someone who can do more than build pipelines — someone who can help establish the engineering foundations for the next phases of the data transformation journey.
If you are a hands‑on Senior Data Engineer with strong Snowflake, AWS and Azure experience and enjoy building modern, scalable data platforms from the ground up, we would love to hear from you.
Location: Cape Town or Johannesburg | Hybrid: 3 days onsite per week