Job Description

Were Hiring: Data Engineer / Data Architect | Lesaka Technologies
Are you ready to design and scale world-class data infrastructure in a fast-growing fintech environment? Join Lesaka, a leader in financial technology, and play a pivotal role in enabling data-driven decision-making, supporting analytics and AI initiatives, and ensuring our data systems meet the highest standards of reliability, security, and compliance.
This role combines hands-on engineering with architectural leadership, working closely with product, analytics, and compliance teams to deliver scalable, secure, and future-proof data solutions.
Location: Johannesburg / Cape Town
Department: Data & Analytics
Reporting To: Head of Data / Analytics Manager
Why This Role Matters
You will:
Design and maintain scalable, secure, high-performance data architectures
Build robust ETL/ELT pipelines for batch and streaming data
Enable analytics, BI, and AI workloads through reliable data platforms
Ensure regulatory compliance and data governance for sensitive financial data
What Youll Do
Data Architecture & Design

• Design and maintain scalable, secure, and high-performance data architectures
• Define data models, schemas, and standards across transactional and analytical systems
• Architect data lakes, data warehouses, and real-time data pipelines
• Ensure alignment with fintech regulatory and compliance requirements

Data Engineering

• Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines for batch and streaming data
• Integrate data from internal systems, third-party APIs, and financial data providers
• Optimize data processing for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency
• Ensure data quality, consistency, and availability

Cloud & Infrastructure

• Develop and manage cloud-based data platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Implement infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD for data pipelines
• Monitor and troubleshoot data systems in production

Security & Governance

• Implement data security, access controls, encryption, and monitoring
• Support data governance, lineage, and metadata management
• Collaborate with compliance and risk teams on audits and regulatory needs

Collaboration & Leadership

• Work closely with product managers, analysts, and ML engineers
• Provide technical guidance and best practices for data usage
• Document architectures, workflows, and standards
• Mentor junior data engineers (if applicable)

Minimum Requirements
5+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or related roles
Strong proficiency in SQL and data modelling (dimensional and/or normalized)
Experience building data pipelines using tools such as Airflow, dbt, Spark, or similar
Strong programming skills in Python, Scala, or Java
Hands-on experience with cloud data services (BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake, Databricks)
Experience with both batch and streaming data systems (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub)
Solid understanding of data security, privacy, and governance principles
Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in fintech, banking, payments, or financial services
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks (PCI DSS, SOC 2, GDPR)
• Experience supporting analytics, BI, and machine learning workloads
• Knowledge of event-driven and real-time data architectures
• Prior experience leading architectural decisions or data platform migrations

Core Technical Competencies

• Data Architecture & Modelling Scalable, resilient designs for transactional and analytical workloads
• Data Engineering & Pipelines Reliable batch and streaming pipelines with strong data quality
• Cloud & Platform Engineering Proficient in AWS, GCP, or Azure with IaC and CI/CD
• Programming & Querying Advanced SQL and Python/Scala/Java expertise
• Data Security & Governance Encryption, access control, compliance readiness

Why Lesaka?
Were not just a fintech company were a movement. At Lesaka, youll join a team that values:

• Entrepreneurial Spirit
• Integrity
• Collective Wisdom
• Bias to Action

Preference will be made to support EE / AA measures.
Ready to architect the future of data?
Apply now or tag someone whod be perfect for this role!
#Hiring #DataEngineer #DataArchitect #DataAnalytics #Lesaka #FintechJobs #CareerOpportunity #SQL #CloudData

Skills Required