Data Engineer at Talent Safari · Cape Town

About the Company

Paystack’s mission is to power African ambition. Over 300,000 businesses across Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya use Paystack’s modern payments gateway, including Qatar Airways, UPS, AXA Mansard Insurance, Greenspoon, Jumia, Kenpoly, Old Mutual, and many others.

Over the last 10 years, we’ve built products that have helped shape online payments in Africa, from automated recurring payments to direct bank payments and automated chargebacks. Acquired by Stripe in 2020, the company has grown payment volume more than twelvefold since then and is now expanding deliberately beyond payments into banking, consumer finance, and cross-border infrastructure as part of The Stack Group (TSG), a family of technology brands building modern infrastructure across payments, banking, consumer products, and emerging technologies.

At Paystack, we hire talented people, treat them with genuine respect, and give them the space, resources, and support to do the best work of their lives. And we’d love your help!

About the Role

Data engineering at Paystack focuses on building and extending platforms for managing data at scale. This involves data ingestion, processing, storage, and egress. Data engineers are also responsible for creating and maintaining the infrastructure on which our data platforms run.

Data engineers operate across a diverse tech stack. They are expected to be adaptable and drawn to learning new skills and technologies.

The role requires a proactive individual who can work independently and collaboratively within a remote-first environment, has a strong software engineering background with good experience building and maintaining data pipelines, expertise in Python, and experience in streaming technologies.

What You Will Do

• Data Pipeline Development: Design, develop, and maintain robust data pipelines using ETL and ELT methodologies to process and integrate data from various sources into a data lake, a central data warehouse, operational data stores, analytical data marts, and various application interfaces.
• Streaming Data Processing: Implement and manage real-time data streaming solutions utilising Kafka, Debezium, and Kafka Connect.
• Workflow Orchestration: Build, schedule, and maintain custom workflows using Apache Airflow to ensure timely and accurate data processing and delivery.
• Database Management: Work with a variety of database technologies, including relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL), NoSQL databases (MongoDB), and analytical/big data systems (Redshift, BigQuery, SingleStore).
• Infrastructure as Code: Employ tools like Terraform, Kubernetes, and Helm to manage and provision infrastructure efficiently.
• CI/CD Implementation: Develop and maintain continuous integration and deployment pipelines to streamline development processes.
• Testing and Quality Assurance: Conduct unit and integration testing to ensure high code quality, data integrity, and system reliability.
• Collaboration: Engage with cross-functional teams, including data scientists, analysts, and business stakeholders, to understand data needs and deliver solutions.
• Documentation: Maintain clear and comprehensive documentation of data processes, workflows, and systems.
• Monitoring and Support: Monitoring system performance and addressing faults and failures in production systems as part of an on-call rotation

What You Have

• Educational Background: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Programming Skills: Proficiency in Python is essential. Knowledge of JavaScript and Scala is advantageous.
• Data Engineering Experience: Minimum of 3 years of experience in data engineering roles, with a focus on building and managing data pipelines.
• Software Engineering Experience: Minimum of 2 years of experience in software and/or application development roles (can be concurrent with data engineering experience)
• Streaming Technologies: Hands-on experience with Kafka, Debezium, and Kafka Connect.
• Data pipeline orchestration tools: Proficiency in a data pipeline orchestration tool or suitable workflow orchestration tool like Apache Airflow (preferred), Databricks, Dagster, or Airbyte.
• Database Expertise: Strong understanding and hands-on experience working with various database technologies, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Redshift (BigQuery and SingleStore advantageous)
• Infrastructure Tools: Experience with Terraform, Kubernetes, and Helm for infrastructure management.
• Cloud Computing: Solid knowledge of cloud computing concepts, with experience in AWS services being advantageous.
• SQL Proficiency: Ability to write complex SQL queries across different dialects.
• Testing Practices: Familiarity with unit and integration testing methodologies.
• CI/CD Pipelines: Experience in setting up and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Data Science Tools: Exposure to analytical systems and basic data science tooling. Familiarity with basic machine learning and analytical modelling concepts advantageous.
• BI Reporting Platforms: Exposure to self-service reporting tools like Tableau, Looker, and DOMO.

Who You Are

• A strong communicator: Good verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• A Collaborator: Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively within a team and across departments.
• Adaptable: Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities, technologies, and tooling. Life-long learners will do well here.
• A Problem-Solver: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Our Core Values

• Transparency: We encourage open sharing of work, seeking feedback and having honest conversations promptly.
• Clear Communication: We simplify ideas, communicate directly and confirm understanding to ensure clarity.
• Kindness: We value positive vibes, generosity and empathy, both within the team and with customers.
• High Standards: We insist on delivering consistent excellence, taking ownership and striving to be domain experts.
• Pursue Growth and Learning: We view every situation as a learning opportunity, encouraging experimentation and continuous improvement.
• Embrace the Mission: We find joy in our work and recognise the company's broader impact.