[Hiring] Senior Analytics Engineer @Imagine Worldwide

Role Description

The Senior Analytics Engineer builds, runs and improves Imagine’s analytics platform: the infrastructure, pipelines and core data models that the organisation’s reporting and analysis depend on. The central task is to scale the platform as data volumes grow, keeping costs under control without giving up performance.

• Data comes from many sources, primarily tablets in over 1,500 schools across Malawi, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone.
• Data recorded includes billions of records that require context to be meaningful.
• Role reports to the Director of Analytics and involves taking initiative and making evidence-based proposals.

Key Responsibilities

• Data Platform and Infrastructure
  • Build and maintain the platform’s AWS infrastructure.
  • Manage infrastructure as code in Terraform.
  • Administer the ClickHouse Cloud warehouse.
  • Host and maintain self-hosted tools like Apache Superset and Apache Airflow.
  • Contribute to architectural decisions for platform evolution.
• Large-Scale Data Processing and Pipelines
  • Build and maintain ingestion pipelines from various sources.
  • Implement incremental loading patterns.
  • Develop and optimise Spark jobs for processing device events.
  • Bring in and model programme context for event data.
  • Design and maintain Iceberg tables for performance and cost.
  • Validate data at ingestion and surface quality issues.
  • Evaluate new processing approaches as volumes grow.
• Orchestration and Transformation
  • Build and maintain Airflow workflows.
  • Develop and maintain dbt staging and core models in ClickHouse.
  • Implement incremental models for high-volume tables.
  • Write and maintain dbt tests and model contracts.
  • Document core models and their definitions.
  • Collaborate with the Senior BI & Data Analyst and Data Scientist.
• Reliability, Cost and Engineering Practice
  • Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines in GitHub Actions.
  • Implement monitoring and alerting across pipelines and tools.
  • Respond to platform incidents and data issues.
  • Apply and maintain access controls and security practices.
  • Monitor platform costs and track performance over time.
  • Maintain and periodically test backup and recovery procedures.
  • Participate in code review and write clear documentation.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 7 years in data engineering, software engineering or platform engineering roles.
• Experience building and running distributed data processing in production.
• A track record of responsibility for a production data platform.
• Experience with large datasets and efficient processing.
• Experience managing cloud infrastructure for data workloads.
• Experience in small teams with limited supervision.
• Experience working with remote teams across multiple countries.
• Experience in the non-profit or social sector is advantageous.

Requirements

• Strong Python skills with production standards.
• Advanced SQL skills for analytical databases.
• Experience with Spark (PySpark) and performance tuning.
• Understanding of data lake design and columnar formats.
• Hands-on AWS experience with data services.
• Infrastructure as code experience using Terraform.
• Linux administration and Docker skills.
• Experience with dbt in production.
• Workflow orchestration experience with Airflow or similar.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.

Location

The Senior Analytics Engineer must be based in Africa. This is a full-time remote position with reliable internet access. Occasional international travel may be required.

Company Description

Imagine Worldwide is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.