Engineer Lead

What will you do?

The Engineering Lead is responsible for defining, designing, and governing scalable BI and data engineering solutions that support Sanlam’s business intelligence capabilities. The role establishes reusable technology components, solution patterns, and engineering standards aligned with SBI architecture frameworks and the Data & ML Platform Tribe. You will translate business requirements into robust, secure, and sustainable technical solutions. This includes ensuring high standards of data quality and governance across BI environments, as well as reliable availability and performance for team-owned BI solutions. As a senior technical leader, you will guide engineering delivery in complex and evolving environments, working closely with Analyst Leads, Solution Leads, architects, platform teams, and business stakeholders. The role is accountable for the engineering delivery outcomes of the team, applying fit-for-purpose agile practices to enable predictable, high-quality delivery, while partnering with other leads who own requirements definition and solution intent.

What will make you successful in this role?

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Solution Design
• Define and maintain engineering standards, design principles, and reusable solution patterns
• Design end-to-end BI and data engineering solutions aligned to enterprise architecture
• Translate business requirements into scalable, secure, and maintainable technical designs
• Contribute to architecture decisions and present solutions at internal architecture forums

Data Engineering and Platform Oversight
• Oversee the design, implementation, and optimisation of data vaults, data transformations, and data loads
• Ensure data availability, performance, and reliability aligned to defined SLAs for team-owned BI solutions
• Monitor, fine-tune, and troubleshoot BI and integration solutions in production
• Identify and implement performance, reliability, and automation improvements within team-owned solutions, in alignment with platform capabilities
• Actively manage engagement with the Data & ML Platform Tribe to ensure effective communication, timely escalation, and resolution of platform-related dependencies and issues impacting team-owned BI solutions
• Oversee and ensure the reliable execution of recurring operational runs (e.g. monthly, and evolving to more frequent cadences), including readiness, monitoring, issue resolution, and continuous improvement of run processes.

Quality, Governance and Security
• Implement approved information governance and data quality standards in partnership with the Information Management Lead
• Establish structured ways of working including code reviews, quality checks, and release practices
• Ensure solutions comply with Sanlam governance, security, and risk management standards
• Proactively identify inefficient processes and drive continuous improvement, including automation where appropriate

Delivery and Stakeholder Engagement
• Orchestrate external alignment and cross-team dependencies across engineering, BI, platform, and business stakeholders
• Engage with enterprise and solution architects, platform teams, and technology vendors as required
• Escalate and manage platform or application issues impacting BI environments and solutions

Delivery Coordination and Ways of Working 
• Accountable for the delivery health and predictability of engineering work within agreed priorities and solution designs
• Coordinate closely with Product Owner, Analyst and Solution Leads to align engineering execution with requirements and solution intent
• Define and evolve team ways of working using fit-for-purpose agile practices, without reliance on a dedicated Scrum Master
• Maintain visibility of engineering dependencies, capacity, and risks, escalating where required

People Leadership
• Manage and mentor data engineers and BI developers, including day-to-day delivery and longer-term development
• Support engineers in building high-quality data and reporting models
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, learning, and collaboration

Key Outputs and Accountabilities

• Well-designed, documented, and communicated technical solutions that meet business requirements
• Stable, high-performing BI solutions and data assets, with low production error rates, operating effectively on supported platforms
• Reliable data availability aligned to agreed SLAs and business-critical reporting needs
• High data quality, integrity, and consistency across team-owned BI solutions operating on supported platforms
• Consistent application of engineering standards, governance controls, and security policies across BI solutions
• Reusable engineering artefacts that improve delivery speed, consistency, and solution reliability
• Clear technical standards and best practices embedded and adopted across BI teams
• Effective collaboration across engineering, architecture, platform, and business stakeholders
• A capable, engaged, and continuously improving data engineering team
• Predictable and transparent delivery of engineering commitments, coordinated with Product Owner, Analyst and Solution Leads

Qualifications and Experience

Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Informatics, Information Systems, Engineering, Statistics, or another quantitative field OR National Diploma in an IT-related discipline

Experience
• 5+ years’ experience in data engineering, BI engineering, or application engineering roles
• Strong SQL background with hands-on experience in BI or data engineering environments
• Proven experience designing and delivering data architectures and BI solutions
• Experience working in cloud-based BI environments (AWS / Snowflake advantageous)
• Experience in the Sanlam BI environment is advantageous

Technical Knowledge and Expertise

Core Requirements
• Strong understanding of BI and data engineering SDLC, including code management, release practices, and integration patterns
• Solid knowledge of data warehousing principles (Kimball and/or Data Vault)
• Structured data modelling concepts (entities, relationships, hierarchies, metadata)
• Data quality management and multi-source data integration
• Security and role-based access control in data warehouse or data lake environments

Tools & Technologies (Experience in several of the following is expected)

• SQL and relational databases (DB2 and/or other RDBMS) 
• Hadoop / Cloudera
• SAP HANA 
• ETL / Data Integration tools (DataStage, SAP Data Services, SSIS, or similar) 
• Data warehouse automation tools (WhereScape preferred – including Data Vault design) 
• Orchestration / automation tools (Automic preferred) 
• Cloud platforms and integration (AWS preferred, Including EC2, Snowflake, Glue and DBT Cloud) 
• Scripting languages (Python preferred, Spark advantageous) 
• BI reporting and data exploration tools

Skills and Competencies

• Technical leadership and complex problem-solving
• Data analysis and modelling
• Quality assurance, governance, and risk management
• Project and delivery oversight
• Stakeholder communication and influence
• People leadership, coaching, and mentoring
• Time management and prioritisation
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences

Core Competencies

Turnaround time

The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers. 

Closing date: 22 May 2026

Build a successful career with us

We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping  our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.

Our commitment to transformation