Job Description

Empowering Africa's tomorrow, together...one story at a time.
With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.
Job Summary
Join our dynamic Treasury IT team at Absa as a Specialist Data Engineer and play a crucial role in shaping the future of Treasury's data landscape. We are seeking a data driven engineer who can bridge the gap between business requirements and technical execution. This role blends deep, hands-on engineering with strategic business vision, empowering you to design, build, and optimise the critical data solutions that drive our financial and risk operations.



This position has a strong focus on ETL development, and you will become an expert user of Absa's in-house ETL platform, LUM and other strategically aligned toolsets. You will leverage your deep expertise in modern data practices, risk-tech, and exceptional SQL skills to build and manage robust, scalable, and resilient data pipelines.



As an Absa Data Engineer, you are a key value enabler and a technical champion. You will not only solve complex data challenges but also champion engineering best practices, mentor fellow engineers, and contribute to a culture of innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement.

1. Strategic Data Engineering & Solution Design:Solution Design: Champion the design of scalable and maintainable data solutions. Architect complex ETL processes, data models, and database structures that align with Treasury's long-term strategic objectives. Strategic Thinking: Look beyond immediate requirements to understand the broader business context. Proactively identify opportunities to leverage data for business strategic advantage and operational efficiency.

2. Hands-On Development & Operational Excellence:ETL Mastery: Excel as a subject matter expert for data integration. Develop, test, and deploy complex data pipelines on our in-house LUM platform, ensuring the highest standards of data quality and performance. Expert SQL Development: Write highly performant, complex SQL for data transformation, aggregation, and analysis. Be a go-to expert for query optimisation and performance tuning. Dev Testing Culture: Embrace a "you build it, you own it" philosophy. Create and manage effective testing frameworks, taking full ownership of your code from development to production. Continuous Improvement: Proactively monitor data pipeline performance and accuracy, troubleshoot issues, and implement optimisations to enhance efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, and ensure operational resilience.

3. Business & Stakeholder Partnership:Effective Communication: Translate complex technical concepts into clear, understandable language for business stakeholders. Confidently present findings, recommendations, and project updates through professional presentations. Requirements Elicitation: Collaborate closely with Treasury business users, quants, and analysts to conduct deep-dive requirements gathering sessions, ensuring a thorough understanding of the underlying business needs. Stakeholder Influence: Act as a trusted advisor to the business. Guide stakeholders towards optimal data solutions, manage expectations, and build consensus around technical decisions. Customer Focus: Maintain a relentless focus on customer excellence by delivering reliable, accurate, and timely data products that empower your internal clients to make informed decisions.

4.Mentorship & Professional Growth:Technical champion: Act as a role model for engineering excellence. Champion best practices in coding, testing, and documentation within the team. Mentorship: Coach and mentor fellow engineers, conduct constructive peer code reviews, and actively contribute to raising the technical bar for the entire team. Continuous Learning: Demonstrate a passion for learning and adaptability. Stay at the forefront of emerging trends in data engineering, modernised computing, and financial technology, and share your knowledge with the team.

5. Governance, Risk & Data Quality:Proactive Risk Management: Embed risk management into the development lifecycle. Identify, assess, and mitigate potential risks related to data security, quality, and compliance. Data Governance: Champion and enforce data governance standards. Ensure all solutions include robust data quality checks, error handling, and align with Absa's enterprise-wide policies. Full SDLC Adherence: Rigorously follow the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), ensuring comprehensive documentation, testing, and change management for all initiatives.

Required Education & Experience:Education: Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field. Experience Level: 3-5 years of hands-on experience in a data engineering, ETL development, or similar data-focused role. Work Experience: Proven experience in a complex technical environment is essential. Experience within a financial services or banking environment, particularly in Treasury or a related domain, is highly advantageous.

Skills:

Core Technical ExpertiseExpert SQL (non-negotiable): Mastery of complex SQL for large-scale data transformation and analysis. ETL Development: Proven experience designing, building, and productionising complex data pipelines. Data Modelling & Database Design: Strong proficiency in data warehousing concepts, database design, and dimensional modelling. Programming/Scripting/Tools (advantageous): High proficiency in at least one relevant language (e.g., Python, Scala, C#, DAX, SAS, R, Java). Experience with ETL/BI toolsets (e.g. Informatica, SSIS, SAS, Oracle Data Integrator, AWS Glue, IBM InfoSphere, SAP Data Services, PowerBI, Qlikview/Qliksense)

Data Analysis & Quality AssuranceData Profiling and Discovery: Ability to perform deep data profiling and discovery to understand source systems, identify data characteristics, and define transformation logic. Data Validation and Reconciliation: Strong skills in data validation, quality assurance, and reconciliation techniques to ensure data integrity post-transformation. Root Cause Analysis: Experience in root cause analysis for data-related issues, tracing data lineage to identify and resolve discrepancies accurately. Query Performance Tuning: Proficiency in analysing SQL query performance, interpreting execution plans, and implementing optimisations for large datasets. Trend and Anomaly Detection: Adept at identifying trends and anomalies within large datasets to support data validation and business understanding.

Professional & Strategic CompetenciesAdvanced Problem-Solving: Exceptional analytical and reasoning skills with a talent for solving complex, ambiguous problems. Stakeholder Influence & Communication: The ability to clearly communicate technical concepts and influence decisions across stakeholder levels. Ownership & Accountability: A proactive, self-starting attitude with a strong sense of ownership and a drive for results. Collaboration & Mentorship: A true team player who enjoys mentoring others and thrives in a collaborative, agile environment. Strategic & Business Outcome Oriented Mindset: The ability to connect technical solutions to business value and strategic outcomes.
Education
Bachelor's Degree: Information TechnologyAbsa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised