Head Data Engineering

We are recruiting on behalf of a client for a Head: Data Engineering to define the direction of its enterprise data platforms and lead the delivery of trusted, governed and reusable data products. This senior leadership role will drive the evolution of enterprise data warehouses, lakehouse platforms, ingestion frameworks and cloud-native engineering capabilities within a complex, regulated environment.

Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the enterprise data engineering and platform strategy in partnership with executive technology and data leaders.
• Lead multiple engineering squads across the full lifecycle of data platforms, pipelines and shared data products.
• Shape scalable, secure and resilient architectures for batch, streaming and cloud-based data solutions.
• Drive the modernisation of legacy data environments and the adoption of lakehouse, DataOps, observability and FinOps practices.
• Establish engineering standards, reusable frameworks, data contracts and governed development patterns.
• Ensure compliance with POPIA, security, data governance, audit and regulatory requirements.
• Improve platform reliability, data quality, delivery speed, cost efficiency and business adoption.
• Mentor senior technical talent and build a high-performing, inclusive engineering culture.

Requirements:

• An NQF Level 8 qualification in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or a related quantitative discipline.
• A postgraduate qualification is preferred, while relevant cloud, data engineering or architecture certifications would be advantageous.
• 12–15+ years’ experience in data engineering, enterprise data platforms or data warehousing.
• At least five years’ experience leading engineering teams delivering solutions at enterprise scale.
• Proven experience designing and operating production-grade batch and streaming data pipelines.
• Strong knowledge of SQL, Python, Spark, dbt, orchestration tools, CI/CD, Kafka or similar streaming technologies.
• Experience with Data Vault 2.0, dimensional modelling, semantic layers, data contracts and master data management.
• Working knowledge of Azure, AWS or GCP, together with modern technologies such as Databricks, Fabric, Synapse, Delta Lake, Iceberg or Hudi.
• Strong executive influence, stakeholder management, strategic judgement and people leadership capabilities.
• Experience within financial services or another regulated environment would be advantageous.

EE Disclaimer:

All positions will be filled in accordance with the company's Employment Equity plan. We encourage people with disabilities to apply.

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REF: PG01