Data Engineer at Virgin Active South Africa

Your Purpose...

• Is to “change people’s lives for the better through wellness”;
• We deliver social wellness experiences that enable people to meet their personal wellness goals, through holistic physical, mental nutritional and social wellbeing.
• This role focuses on designing, building, and optimizing scalable cloud-based data solutions using Microsoft Azure technologies. You will be responsible for batch and real-time data ingestion, transformation, and integration to support analytics, reporting, and advanced data use cases.
• You will work closely with business stakeholders, data analysts, and platform teams to deliver reliable, secure, and high-performing data pipelines.

Your Duties and Responsibilities...

Data Engineering & Pipeline Development

• Design, develop, and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines using Azure Data Factory (ADF).
• Build and optimize large-scale data processing solutions using Azure Databricks (Spark).
• Implement real-time data ingestion using Azure Event Hubs.
• Develop and maintain scalable data models for analytics and reporting.
• Perform data transformation, cleansing, and enrichment processes.

Cloud and Data Platform Engineering

• Support and enhance Azure-based data lake and data warehouse architectures.
• Optimize data storage, partitioning, and performance strategies.
• Ensure high availability, scalability, and cost-efficiency of data solutions.
• Automate workflows and support CI/CD for data pipelines.

Data Integration & Streaming

• Integrate structured and unstructured data from multiple enterprise systems.
• Design solutions for both batch and streaming data pipelines.
• Collaborate with integration teams on event-driven architectures.

Data Quality, Governance and Security

• Implement data validation, monitoring, and reconciliation processes.
• Apply data governance and security best practices across Azure services.
• Document data lineage, transformations, and architecture components.

Collaboration and Delivery

• Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Partner with analytics and BI teams to deliver trusted datasets.
• Participate in agile delivery cycles and code reviews.

Our Minimum Requirements...

We can’t live without…

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related field.
• 3–5 years of hands-on experience in data engineering roles.

Strong expertise in:

• Azure Data Factory
• Azure Databricks
• Azure Event Hubs
• SQL (advanced level)
• Python (preferred)
• Experience designing data lakes and data warehouse solutions.
• Strong understanding of ETL/ELT design patterns.
• Experience working with Azure cloud services and security models.
• Knowledge of data modeling (dimensional and normalized models).
• Experience with Delta Lake and Spark optimization.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines.
• Exposure to event-driven architecture concepts.
• Strong troubleshooting and performance tuning skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.

Core Interpersonal Skills:

• Emotional Intelligence- proven ability to anticipate the needs of others before they are voiced
• Active Listening- Able to genuinely hear concerns with the ability to defuse tense situations and ensuring members and staff feel heard and valued
• Cultural Awareness and Fluency- understand international norms, etiquette and diverse backgrounds to provide a welcoming environment for our international and VIP members
• Empathy – be able to understand, or and be aware of, someone else’s feelings especially during stressful situations, such as travel delays or billing disputes

Operational & leadership Skills Required:

• Attention to Detail, noticing the small things
• Resilience and Composure, be able to remain calm and optimistic under extreme pressure, during peak or periods or system failures
• Problem solving and conflict resolution – be able to turn challenges into opportunities by thinking and acting quickly to resolve issues before they impact a member’s experience
• Adaptability: be flexible to handle unpredictable shifts in processers, resource changes, last minute VIP guest arrivals, or sudden changes in event plans.
• Relatability – the capacity to connect with diverse stakeholders across all backgrounds
• Situational Awareness – constantly monitoring the environment to identify members who need support or help
• Curiosity- the ability to seek out and transform standard transactions into personalised stories and memorable experiences
• Time Management – the ability to efficiently meet stringent deadlines while maintaining a relaxed and unhurried demeanor for guests.
• Digital Fluency – must be proficient in new age technology and systems

Closing Date 09 March 2026