Manager: Data Engineering at Road Accident Fund

Key Performance Areas 

Policy review and implementation

• Contribute to the development and implementation of departmental policy, procedures and processes.
• Establish data governance policies for unstructured data to ensure data security, privacy, and compliance.

Designing and securing scalable data pipelines and data stores

• Design and develop data pipelines for structured, semi-structured and unstructured data.
• Design and develop data pipelines for batch, streaming and event-driven data flows.
• Design and develop integration to internal and 3rd party systems.
• Ensure automation and orchestration of data pipelines and integrations.
• Administering the end-to-end management of data engineering projects, from inception through agile delivery.

Data Pipeline Performance

• Implementing a strategic review and optimisation process for existing data pipelines to enhance efficiency and performance.
• Establishing metrics and monitoring systems to continuously assess pipeline health and performance.
• Review of pipeline monitoring reports (latency, success rates).
• Ensure the analysis of data pipeline logs and error messages.
• Leading the exploration and integration of new tools and technologies to improve pipeline scalability and reliability.

Data Quality

• Developing and enforcing data quality standards and processes across all data engineering projects.
• Initiating regular data audits and implementing data cleaning practices to maintain high data integrity.
• Ensure the review of data quality reports and error rates.
• Approval of data validation and cleansing processes.
• Collaborate with a range of stakeholders on data quality expectations.
• Provide oversight of data quality monitoring tools and alerts.
• Evaluation of data lineage and traceability practices.
• Championing a culture of quality-first in data handling and processing.
• Collaborating with the Data Governance function to align data quality initiatives with RAF standards.

Unstructured Data Management

• Developing strategies for the efficient handling and storage of unstructured data, including the use of Enterprise Content Management systems, intranet sites, and web channels.
• Implementing policies and tools for tagging, categorising, and indexing unstructured data to enhance searchability and access.
• Leading initiatives to integrate unstructured data with structured databases and analytics tools.
• Collaborating with T&D and Business Units to ensure unstructured data management solutions meet RAF needs and compliance requirements.
• Evaluation of business needs for unstructured data management.
• Planning for integration of ECM solutions with data pipelines to ingest intranet, web, and other unstructured data.
• Monitoring of the effectiveness of unstructured data management processes for intranet, web, and other data sources.

Technology Adoption

• Leading the evaluation and adoption of cutting-edge data engineering technologies and methodologies.
• Ensuring alignment of technology adoption with RAF’s strategic goals and data strategy.
• Ensuring alignment of technology and adoption with the RAF’s strategic goals and data strategy.
• Advocating for and securing resources for team training on new technologies.
• Establishing partnerships with technology providers and industry groups to stay ahead of technology trends.

Effective Communication

• Conduct needs assessments to understand the target audience, their preferred communication styles, and information gaps.
• Develop clear and concise communication materials tailored to different audiences and channels (e.g., email, presentations, videos).
• Utilise multimedia platforms and interactive tools to enhance engagement and knowledge retention.
• Organise training sessions and workshops to equip employees with the necessary skills to effectively communicate technical information.
• Establish feedback mechanisms (e.g., surveys, focus groups) to gather feedback and continuously improve communication effectiveness.

Reporting

• Ensure preparation and submission of Regulation reports.
• Report quarterly on progress with implementation of operational plans.
• Ensure development of functional reporting systems, project or performance reporting for management.
• Ensure the development of reports/ policies/ procedures and guide the process through the alignment of these documents to the overall RAF’s Strategy.
• Ensure regular and periodic reports are prepared and submitted as and when required to provide progress updates and/or inform management decisions.

Stakeholders

• Facilitating cross-functional collaboration to ensure data pipelines meet the needs of various stakeholders.
• Communicate with all levels of stakeholder contact.
• Ensure clear understanding and alignment with stakeholders in the impact and value of adopted technologies.

People Management

• Ensure the sourcing, development and retention of a high-performance team.
• Manage the recruitment of the operational workforce in line with employment equity targets.
• Manage staff in the department to ensure that they achieve their objectives in line with the strategic objectives of the RAF.
• Manage the implementation of people management processes and procedures to control/regulate workplace conflict and/or institute corrective measures and consultation processes to address deviations from standards.
• Allocate, direct, motivate and evaluate subordinates to help them achieve their individual goals.
• Establishing partnerships with technology providers and industry groups to stay ahead of technology trends.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree/Advanced Diploma in Information Technology or a Computer Science or Business Administration or Commerce/Business or Engineering.
• Postgraduate in Information Technology/Computer Science/Business Administration/ Commerce/ Engineering related qualification will be advantageous.
• Professional certification in and Data Platform/Technology framework(s) will be an added advantage.
• Relevant 6-8 years’ experience in IT, or Business Development, or a related field of which 2 years must on management/area of expertise/ supervisory level.
• Experience in developing and building databases, warehouses, reporting and data integration solutions.
• Experience in building and optimising big data pipelines, architectures, and data sets.
• Experience in Cloud -native data.
• Experience in Infrastructure -as-code, CI/CD.