Employer: Ovations Talent Sourcing * + 12 Months Contract Hybrid-Johannesburg Role Overview A Data Engineer designs, builds, and maintains scalable data pipelines and platforms that enable reliable data ingestion, storage, processing, and access. The role focuses on transforming raw data into high-quality, trusted datasets that support analytics, reporting, and data science use cases. Key Responsibilities - Design, develop, and maintain data pipelines (batch and/or streaming) Build and optimize data integration processes from multiple data sources Develop and manage data models for analytics and reporting - Ensure data quality, accuracy, and reliability through validation and monitoring Implement and maintain ETL/ELT workflows - Optimize data storage and query performance Collaborate with data analysts, data scientists, and business stakeholders - Maintain documentation for data pipelines, schemas, and processes - Enforce data governance, security, and compliance standards Troubleshoot and resolve data-related issues in production environments - Support platform scalability, resilience, and cost optimization Required Skills & Experience - Technical Skills Strong proficiency in SQL Experience with Python, Scala, or Java - Hands-on experience with data warehouses (e.g. Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Synapse) - Experience with ETL/ELT tools (e.g. Airflow, dbt, Azure Data Factory, Informatica) Knowledge of cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) - Understanding of data modeling (star schema, snowflake, dimensional modeling) Experience with version control (Git) Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines for data workloads Data & Platform Knowledge Relational and NoSQL databases File-based data formats (Parquet, Avro, JSON, CSV) Data streaming concepts (Kafka, Event Hubs, Kinesis – advantage) Performance tuning and query optimization Soft Skills Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities Ability to work independently and in cross-functional teams Clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders Attention to details