Job Description

About SPARK Schools

Watch our Vision Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOU0TYnNsZo

Take a tour of our Website:

https://sparkschools.co.za/


SPARK Schools is a network of independent schools that provides affordable, globally competitive education through Africa's first blended learning model. This innovative model elevates student achievement and provides the tools teachers need to serve their students effectively.


This blended learning model, which combines classroom teaching and online instruction, allows teachers to anticipate student needs and equips schools to provide personalized education at an affordable cost. SPARK Schools is pioneering this transformative education model to ensure the accessibility of university and careers for all.


SPARK Schools has a culture of collaboration, because getting South Africa to lead global education takes a team effort. We are innovators who strive for excellence through persistence and a sense of urgency to achieve SPARK Schools' vision, mission and social transformational objectives. Our work environment is vibrant/cheerful, fast-paced/dynamic, engaging/stimulating, tech-enabled and data driven.



SPARK Schools is a high growth, mission and values-driven, entrepreneurial organisation, operating 21 primary schools and 5 high schools and serving over 16,000 families in 2025. We are looking for dynamic people to join our team.

Requirements

Reports To: Chief Information Officer

Responsibilities:

Solve new and challenging data problems across the SPARK Schools ecosystem, including establishing a single source of truth, data management, and defining organisational data processes. Partner with business units to scope and prioritise projects, maintain infrastructure, and drive data-driven decision-making across departments. Build and run end-to-end Azure data pipelines (Data Factory, Databricks, ADLS Gen2, Azure SQL), implementing orchestration, scheduling, and dependency management. Design and implement modern data warehouse solutions (Kimball modelling, conformed dimensions, SCD Type-2, incremental/CDC patterns). Deliver enterprise-grade Power BI solutions at scale, including dataset modelling, DAX optimisation, RLS/OLS, dataflows, deployment pipelines, and administration. Apply engineering best practices: Git-based CI/CD (Azure DevOps), Infrastructure-as-Code (ARM templates), automation/runbooks, and environment promotion. Ensure data quality, governance, and compliance (validation tests, lineage, POPIA/GDPR, monitoring and alerting). Optimise performance and cost: query tuning (SQL & Spark), storage/compute optimisation, and ensuring reliability/observability. Mentor and support other analysts, simplify complex topics for non-technical audiences, and provide ad-hoc analyses when required.

Qualifications and Criteria:

The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications and criteria:

Completed relevant bachelor's degree in mathematics, engineering, computer science, or another relevant field. Master's degree preferable. 5 to 7 years of experience as a Data Analyst -- 2 of which must be in a Senior Data Analyst role. Expert knowledge of SQL. Expert level usage of BI tools (Power BI & Excel/Google Sheets). Proven experience in Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Delta Lake, ADLS Gen2, and Azure SQL. Strong knowledge of data modelling (Kimball, conformed dimensions, SCD Type-2, incremental/CDC). Experience with CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps), Infrastructure-as-Code (ARM), and automation. Experience in data governance, testing, compliance, and monitoring. Analytics experience across multiple company domains such as Product, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and Finance. Experience with web analytics and optimisation tools (Mixpanel, Google Analytics, etc.). Experience in designing and setting up experiments to analyze the impact of new products and features a plus (hypothesis testing, multivariate analysis, or Bayesian). Experience working with developers. Experience with databases. Familiarity with version-control systems. Strong interpersonal and communication skills are required. Excellent command of the English language, both written and spoken. Experience with a BI transformation tool is a plus.

Competencies:

SQL Server T-SQL SSIS, SSAS, SSRS Azure (Data Factory, Databricks, ADLS, SQL) Power BI (datasets, DAX, RLS/OLS, deployment pipelines, administration) Git / Azure DevOps Infrastructure-as-Code (ARM templates)

Qualities:

Grit: Persistence through challenges. Excellence: A track record of high expectations personally and professionally. Mission and Vision Alignment: Understanding of and passion for the SPARK Schools mission to provide excellent education at an affordable cost. Self Reflection: Finding the capacity to bring your best self to challenges and opportunities.

Values:

Service, Persistence, Achievement, Responsibility, Kindness

Benefits

SPARK offers:

fair market linked remuneration performance-based annual bonuses and increases above average/good annual leave life, disability and funeral cover employee wellness support educational support & study leave individualised professional development, support and mentorship employee discount on school fees opportunities for career growth

Compensation: Commensurate with experience.

Position Type: Permanent

Location: Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

SPARK schools is an equal opportunities employer and preference will be given to candidates from designated groups with due consideration of the company's Employment Equity goals and targets.

SPARK schools encourages persons with disabilities to apply.

SPARK Schools may expire the posting of this advertisement at their own discretion.

Kindly note that should you have not heard from us within two weeks of the closing date please consider your application unsuccessful.