Data Engineer

Role Overview

You will own the technical backbone that moves data from internal systems, lending platforms, surveys, and external sources into a governed, analytics-ready environment. Day to day, you will write and maintain Python and SQL code that loads, transforms, and tests data, while also responding to pipeline failures, improving data freshness, and collaborating with colleagues who depend on reliable information. Your work directly supports the organisation’s mission of building sustainable livelihoods and job creation across East and Central Africa, because every decision made by program, product, and business teams relies on the datasets you keep accurate and trustworthy.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and operate dependable, auditable data pipelines that combine approved enterprise, lending, program, survey, and external sources, following the architecture and reusable integration patterns established by the Senior Data Engineer.
• Design every load to be idempotent and checkpointed so an interrupted run resumes cleanly, and document each pipeline as code alongside the implementation itself.
• Apply column-level minimisation when ingesting data — only bring in personal fields that downstream models genuinely need, and flag any gaps in existing integration patterns openly rather than working around them.
• Build and maintain data quality controls including tests, contracts, and freshness checks; ensure failures block downstream publication and trigger alerts to the right people, then participate in blameless root-cause analysis and document clear fixes.
• Monitor pipeline health, performance, and cost using the platform’s observability tooling, and respond to incidents within agreed service-level targets.
• Implement components of the client entity resolution layer according to the Senior Data Engineer’s design, including match logic, survivorship rules, and audit trails of merge decisions; investigate ambiguous or conflicting matches and present evidence instead of guessing.
• Apply the technical controls required by the Data Governance Framework — classification, access, lineage, retention, encryption, minimisation, and auditability — across everything you build, and work within centrally managed access and protection controls.
• Collaborate with technology enablement, product, innovation, MERL, and business system owners on upstream system changes and data dependencies, while actively engaging in code review, pairing, and a structured growth plan with the Senior Data Engineer.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or a related field; equivalent demonstrated experience accepted.
• Two to four years of data engineering or backend engineering experience with substantial data work in a production environment.
• Strong Python and SQL skills — you write pipelines as tested software, not one-off scripts.
• Solid PostgreSQL experience; exposure to SQL Server is a plus.
• Hands-on dbt experience and familiarity with a modern orchestrator; Dagster preferred, Airflow background welcome.
• Working understanding of incremental and idempotent load patterns; familiarity with Kafka and Spark is valued but not required.
• Daily habits of Git discipline, CI/CD, and containerization such as Docker, plus documentation you would want to inherit.
• Awareness of handling sensitive personal data responsibly; experience with regulated, financial, or humanitarian data is a strong plus.
• Evidence of seeking and acting on feedback, since structured mentorship is central to this role.
• Clear written communication — you can explain what a pipeline does, what broke, and what you changed without ambiguity.

What We Offer / Why Join

This position sits inside a high-growth, mission-driven social enterprise, offering you the chance to build data infrastructure that directly enables job creation and economic opportunity. You will work alongside a diverse regional team in an inclusive, entrepreneurial culture, with a competitive salary and performance-based bonus potential.

• Meaningful work tied to sustainable livelihoods across East and Central Africa.
• A collaborative team environment committed to innovation, equity, and inclusion.
• Health insurance coverage for you and your family.
• Staff savings and provident fund arrangements with negotiated bank rates for long-term employees.
• Generous annual leave, parental leave, and sabbatical options.