Job Description

African Parks is developing an innovative solution that would enable decision making based on data from its ecological, social, financial and management systems visualized in a single environment. To that end, we are offering an exciting opportunity for a data engineer passionate about conservation to build out the very foundation of African Parks' data warehouse in Microsoft Fabric & Azure. You will be expanding the existing infrastructure by ensuring the data from key systems are flowing through effective ETL pipelines to enable decision-driving dashboards and data products, built by the data analysts in your team.
You will be working within the Business Intelligence Unit of African Parks as the technical lead on data warehousing and its associated ETL pipelines. Your direct colleagues will be looking to you for making the data available they need to build these comprehensive impact dashboards and other data products that will inform important decision making. You will function as a bridge between these needs of the BI Unit, the system administrators of key systems and the technology department, ensuring the process is smooth and well documented for all, together with the enterprise architect. Our ideal candidate thus brings in not only technical expertise, but also an affinity with data-based decision making in conservation and skills in engaging key stakeholders and documenting processes & principles.
Responsibilities

• Configure, expand and maintain Data Architecture on Micosoft Fabric & Azure Data Lakes & Warehousing, ensuring adherences to best practices when it comes to data governance, security & integrity.
• Data pipeline design for all key data systems. You will be building out the end-to-end ETL pipelines by connecting to African Parks' key data systems via the APIs set up with AP's enterprise architect. Key systems include EarthRanger, ESRI (Survey123), ERPNext, SAGE, Jet Analytics, Salesforce, ResRequest, TallOrder and Sharepoint;
• Data transformations, cleaning & validating as well as modeling for dashboard enablement. You'll be developing and optimizing the models, including the retrieval & storage processes, that make the data ready for exposing it in Microsoft PowerBI and/or ArcGIS by our data analysts;
• Collaboration & Stakeholder engagement. Liaise with the data & GIS analysts, as well as the system owners to translate the requirements mapped out by the AP Enterprise Architect into technical solutions, and collaborate with the enterprise architect to map out data rules, governance frameworks and roadmaps.

Required competencies & skills

• Proven experience with data engineering & building out data pipelines using Microsoft Fabric & Azure;
• Solid handle on designing APIs & ETL processes, and modelling data through dimensional & normalized approaches;
• A real affinity with enabling data-driven decision making, particularly within the conservation space;
• A proven ability to grasp complex datasets and prepare them for actionable dashboards;
• A good communicator and listener, that is able to understand, document and solve for the needs of different departments coming together;
• You are a self-starter and problem-solver, capable to lead on the solutions required in a small team
• Basic understanding of PowerBI dashboards models and ArcGIS workflows.

Note, the scope and weight of this role is expected to grow significantly over the coming years, matching the growth of the organization. Training will be offered and required to make sure you can help African Parks mature its data models and be fit for future as the leading conservation organization on the continent.
Qualifications

• Bachelor or Master's degree in data science or engineering, computer science, statistics or related field. Having enabled data-driven decision making, especially for making impact, would be a strong plus;
• At least 2 years worth of experience in building data engineering and/or data warehousing solutions, through which you worked with a variety of datasets and have demonstrably built solutions that informed decision making, for example as a data analyst, engineer, or architect;
• Proficient using Python, SQL, Dax and Microsoft Fabric & Azure Environments.

Key Relationships

• The role sits within African Parks' Business Intelligence Unit, dedicated to bolstering the use of impact data in decision making for African Parks. The data analysts and head of unit are dependent on you to build the connections with the data collections systems and make the data ready for analysis and visualization;
• The technology department, primarily via the CTO and heads of Conservation Technology and IT, are important colleagues to enable and support your solutions from a technical perspective. The role has a dotted reporting line to the CTO, accompanied with technical coaching & support;
• You will have to engage and collaborate with the administrators or 'Superusers' of the systems that AP uses to collect its core data. This ensures you can pull the data through and have an understanding of the structure and nature of the data housed;
• Lastly, you will need to keep an eye on the objectives of the project you're enabling, which is to help (park) management teams make better decisions by leveraging the data you have made available. It is critical you have an affinity with the work and understand the reality and questions these teams have, and how data can play an optimal role in making our decision making as effective as possible.

The role is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. For non South African citizens to be considered, you will need to have a South African working VISA to secure this job. The initial contract will be for 1 year, with the intent to extend upon delivery against key performance indicators.
*Research shows that women and people from underrepresented groups often hesitate to apply unless they meet nearly every listed qualification. We know that great candidates sometimes don't tick every