Senior BI Specialist - Lesaka (FinTech) at Lesaka Technologies

Job Description

• We’re Hiring: Senior Business Intelligence Specialist | Lesaka Technologies
• We are seeking an experienced, highly accountable, and influential BI professional to play a senior role within our Data Insights team. This role is designed for someone who has progressed beyond execution-focused BI work and is ready to own complex analytics initiatives, shape BI standards, influence strategic decision-making, and act as a trusted data partner to the business.
• As a Senior BI Specialist, you will be responsible not only for delivering high-quality insights and reporting, but also for raising the overall maturity of BI practices across the team. You will lead larger and more complex BI initiatives, guide analytical direction, mentor analysts, and proactively identify opportunities where data can drive meaningful business outcomes.
• Beyond technical excellence, this role is critical in shaping team culture. You will act as a role model for accountability, collaboration, and professionalism—bringing consistency, positive energy, and ownership to everything you do. We are looking for someone who elevates both what we deliver and how we work together.
• Location: Johannesburg
• Department: Merchant Division – Data Insights
• Reporting To: Head of Business Management

Why This Role Matters

This role is designed for a BI professional who has moved beyond execution and is ready to:

• Own end-to-end delivery of complex BI solutions
• Shape BI standards and governance
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders
• Elevate team capability through mentorship and leadership

What You’ll Do

Advanced BI Analysis & Strategic Delivery

• Translate complex business problems into well-defined analytical frameworks and reporting strategies.
• Own the end-to-end delivery of complex BI solutions, from discovery and data modelling through to stakeholder adoption.
• Design scalable, reusable, and future-proof reporting and semantic layers aligned to business strategy.
• Balance strategic initiatives, operational reporting, and ad-hoc analysis while maintaining delivery excellence.
• Proactively identify gaps, risks, and opportunities in existing reporting and propose improvements.
• Ensure data outputs are accurate, trusted, and delivered within agreed timelines.

Senior-Level Difference

• Move from delivering requested solutions to defining what should be built and why.
• Take accountability for delivery quality, prioritisation, and stakeholder outcomes across multiple initiatives.

Strategic Insights & Decision Enablement

• Deliver deep, insight-driven analysis that explains drivers, impacts, and trade-offs behind business performance.
• Produce actionable recommendations that influence tactical and strategic decision-making.
• Lead insight storytelling through executive-ready presentations and clear narratives.
• Partner closely with senior stakeholders across product, sales, finance, and operations.
• Proactively monitor KPIs, identify emerging trends, and initiate investigative analysis without prompting.

Senior-Level Difference

• Shift from influencing decisions to shaping strategy through data.
• Be recognised as a trusted advisor rather than a reporting function.

BI Leadership & Initiative Ownership

• Lead large or cross-functional BI initiatives from planning through delivery.
• Set analytical direction, timelines, and expectations across workstreams.
• Coordinate team capacity and dependencies in collaboration with BI leadership.
• Act as escalation point for complex delivery, data quality, or prioritisation challenges.
• Influence ways of working, tooling decisions, and BI roadmap evolution.
• Model clear communication, proactive risk management, and ownership.

Senior-Level Difference

• Move from coordinating tasks to owning outcomes and influencing direction.
• Lead through expertise, trust, and consistency rather than authority.

Mentorship, Coaching & Team Enablement

• Mentor Intermediate and Junior BI Analysts through coaching, reviews, and hands-on support.
• Raise analytical, technical, and storytelling capability across the team.
• Promote knowledge sharing through documentation, demos, and learning sessions.
• Support onboarding and capability ramp-up for new team members.
• Encourage ownership, confidence, and growth within the team.

Senior-Level Difference

• Transition from supporting occasionally to being a cornerstone of team capability.
• Multiply impact by enabling others to deliver at a higher standard.

Quality, Governance & BI Standards

• Own and enforce BI standards across data modelling, metrics, and dashboard design.
• Ensure all outputs are well-documented, tested, and aligned to agreed business definitions.
• Maintain and evolve data dictionaries, KPI frameworks, and semantic models.
• Partner with Data Engineering and Platform teams on data quality, performance, and scalability.
• Drive improvements in governance, version control, and BI best practices.

Senior-Level Difference

• Move from applying standards to defining, improving, and embedding them.
• Act as a custodian of data trust and consistency.

Culture Building & Data Advocacy

• Actively shape a high-performing, inclusive, and accountable team culture.
• Bring professionalism, positivity, and clarity to all interactions.
• Encourage psychological safety, open dialogue, and constructive feedback.
• Lead or propose engagement initiatives such as learning sessions, retros, or showcases.
• Serve as an ambassador for data literacy and data-driven decision-making across the business.

Minimum Requirements

• 5+ years’ experience in BI or data analytics
• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Engineering, Computer Science, or similar
• Advanced SQL and Power BI expertise (DAX, M, data modelling)
• Proven ability to deliver complex BI solutions end-to-end
• Strong stakeholder engagement and business analysis skills
• Experience mentoring and leading initiatives

Technical Skills

• SQL: Advanced joins, CTEs, window functions, performance optimisation
• Power BI: Advanced DAX, M query, UX-focused dashboard design
• Data Modelling: Dimensional modelling, semantic layers, metric standardisation
• Insights & Storytelling: Executive-ready narratives, KPI frameworks
• Governance: Data dictionaries, documentation, version control

Key Competencies

• Strategic thinking and proactive ownership
• Clear, confident communication and influence
• Emotional intelligence and team leadership
• Growth-oriented mindset and continuous improvement
• Reliability and consistency in delivery