Data Principal Engineer
takealot.com2 months ago
Cape Town, South AfricaStaff+
Responsibilities
- Create and maintain a master blueprint of the Group’s data architecture, sources, flows, models, and KPI mappings while leading ecosystem simplification and technical debt reduction.
- Design and build an event-driven real-time data layer for logistics, supply chain, distribution centre, and operational analytics use cases.
- Establish and own technical standards for data quality, lineage, documentation, data management, contracts, security, privacy, and governance.
- Build and maintain a central architecture repository covering data flows across hundreds of systems and 15–20+ business units.
- Define platform guardrails and integration patterns for AI tools, copilots, agents, RAG systems, and safe data consumption.
- Design automation for governance and platform operations, including maturity telemetry, self-service onboarding, dashboards, scripts, and AI-assisted copilots.
- Create structured onboarding paths, architecture guides, specialist training, and governance learning content.
- Act as the highest technical authority in the data domain, resolve complex cross-functional design challenges, advise the Engineering Director, and mentor senior and staff engineers.
Requirements
- A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field is preferred; equivalent demonstrated experience at the required scale and seniority may substitute for formal qualifications.
- At least 8 years of data engineering experience, including at least 3 years at principal or architect level in a complex, high-scale environment.
- Track record designing and delivering large-scale lakehouse or warehouse platforms, real-time event streaming, and data ingestion frameworks.
- Experience leading platform simplification or technical debt reduction and contributing technical standards to a formal data governance programme; DMBOK familiarity is a plus.
- Hands-on experience with AI or ML data infrastructure, including feature stores, model-serving pipelines, data contracts, and drift monitoring.
- Experience integrating AI or LLM tooling such as copilots, agents, or RAG with data platforms, semantic layers, access patterns, and data contracts.
- Experience building automation, internal tooling, dashboards, scripts, or copilots that reduce manual operational work.
- Deep GCP expertise, particularly BigQuery and Dataform, plus experience with Kafka, Pub/Sub, or equivalent stream-processing frameworks.
- Strong command of dimensional and event-driven data modelling and working knowledge of Looker or LookML.
- Experience with Terraform or equivalent Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD for data pipelines.
- Strong Python and SQL skills, with familiarity with dbt-style transformation frameworks and orchestration tools.
- Understanding of POPIA obligations, auditability, data lineage, compliance requirements, architecture documentation, and build-versus-buy trade-offs.
- Experience advising senior stakeholders, translating technical trade-offs into business terms, standardising technology choices, and mentoring engineers.
- Exposure to logistics, e-commerce, or supply chain data is a plus.
Benefits
- Market-related total remuneration package with flexibility according to individual needs.
- Hybrid working model based in Cape Town.
- Mentorship programme and access to the Naspers Tech Community.
- Free access to MyAcademy, Udacity, Coursera, and other online learning resources.
- Regular social and out-of-office activities.
- Staff discount across Takealot’s product categories.
- Birthday leave.
- Confidential counselling, legal support, and financial guidance.
- Free parking.
Tech Stack
Apache KafkadbtGoogle BigQueryGoogle CloudGoogle Cloud PlatformKotlinKubernetesPythonReactRedisScalaSQLSwiftTerraform
Categories
Data Engineering
About takealot.com
Takealot.com is a South African e-commerce marketplace and first-party retailer offering general merchandise, electronics, and household goods to consumers nationwide. It operates its own logistics and warehousing to support marketplace sellers and direct sales, monetizing through product margins and seller commissions. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Cape Town, it is part of the Naspers/Prosus group.