Senior Data Engineer

We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Engineer to join a high-impact greenfield data platform initiative within the healthcare and medical scheme administration environment.

This is a highly technical, delivery-focused role responsible for building the future-state MVP and establishing the foundational architecture, engineering standards and reusable patterns required to support the long-term scalability and automation of the data platform.

The successful candidate will be comfortable working independently, translating business and analytics requirements into robust technical solutions, and operating within a POPIA-sensitive health-data environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build the future-state data platform MVP, including scalable data pipelines and transformation processes.

• Develop and implement automated data ingestion and integration patterns.

• Build robust and reusable Snowflake data models aligned to business and analytics requirements.

• Develop transformation workflows using dbt, applying modern analytics engineering practices.

• Implement data ingestion using Fivetran and establish reliable integration patterns.

• Design and implement automated data quality checks, testing and validation frameworks.

• Establish monitoring and controls to ensure data accuracy, reliability, availability and performance.

• Apply CI/CD practices across data and analytics engineering workflows.

• Implement and promote DataOps practices to improve automation, deployment, monitoring and operational reliability.

• Support migration from legacy reporting processes to the target-state data architecture.

• Establish reusable engineering standards, frameworks, patterns and documentation for future phases of the platform.

• Develop and support the Power BI reporting layer required for the MVP.

• Collaborate with business, analytics and technical stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions.

• Ensure solutions are designed with appropriate security, governance, metadata management and POPIA considerations.

• Provide technical guidance and knowledge transfer to Medscheme staff, supporting the sustainable adoption of the new platform.

• Troubleshoot technical issues and continuously improve the performance, scalability and reliability of the data platform.

Requirements

Required Technical Skills

The successful candidate must have strong, hands-on experience with the following technologies and disciplines:

• Snowflake

• dbt

• AWS

• Fivetran

• Power BI

• Advanced SQL

• Data modelling

• Modern data engineering

• Automated data quality and testing

• CI/CD for analytics engineering

• DataOps

• Metadata management

• Data integration and pipeline development

Important: Candidates should have direct, practical experience across the required modern cloud data engineering stack. Adjacent or theoretical exposure will not be sufficient.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for a self-sufficient Senior Data Engineer who can take ownership of the technical build and deliver outcomes with minimal supervision.

The ideal candidate will:

• Have strong senior-level experience in modern cloud data engineering.

• Be highly proficient across the Snowflake, dbt, AWS and Fivetran technology stack.

• Have experience designing and implementing scalable data platforms and pipelines.

• Understand modern DataOps, CI/CD and automated data quality practices.

• Be capable of developing reusable frameworks and engineering standards rather than one-off solutions.

• Be comfortable translating business and analytics requirements into technical solutions.

• Have strong data modelling and SQL capabilities.

• Be able to work independently in a delivery-focused environment.

• Have strong problem-solving and analytical capabilities.

• Be comfortable working with sensitive and regulated data.

• Understand the importance of data governance, security, quality and metadata management.

• Be able to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Have the ability and willingness to transfer knowledge to internal Medscheme teams.

• Be outcome-oriented and accountable for delivering agreed technical outcomes.

Key Deliverables

The successful candidate will be expected to deliver:

• Future-state data platform MVP

• Snowflake-based data models and pipelines

• Automated data ingestion and transformation processes

• Automated testing and data quality controls

• Monitoring and reliability mechanisms

• Foundational architecture for future platform phases

• Reusable data engineering standards, frameworks and patterns

• Power BI reporting layer supporting the MVP

• Documentation and knowledge transfer to internal teams

Environment

The role will operate within a healthcare / medical scheme administration environment, where data may include sensitive health-related information. Strong attention to data security, governance, privacy and regulatory requirements is therefore essential.

Experience working with POPIA-sensitive or other regulated data environments will be highly advantageous.

Contract Details

Role: Senior Data Engineer

Industry: Healthcare / Medical Scheme Administration

Location: Waterfall, Midrand, Johannesburg

Work Model: Hybrid

Contract Duration: 5 months

Start Date: 1 October 2026

Application Requirements

Interested candidates should submit an updated CV clearly highlighting:

• Hands-on Snowflake experience

• dbt experience

• AWS experience

• Fivetran experience

• Advanced SQL and data modelling

• Data pipeline and platform engineering experience

• Automated data quality and testing

• CI/CD and DataOps implementation

• Power BI experience

• Experience working with regulated, sensitive or healthcare data, where applicable

• Availability from 1 October 2026

Candidates with strong hands-on experience across the complete required technology stack are strongly encouraged to apply.