Turaco is a micro-insurtech company changing healthcare financing in emerging markets. We provide simple, affordable health and life insurance to low-income earners, distributing our products through partnerships with leading businesses in Kenya and Uganda. Our mission is to act as a safety net, freeing people from the fear of health-related financial shocks.

Senior Data Engineer

We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Engineer to architect, build, and optimize our data infrastructure. In this role, you will move beyond simple execution to provide technical leadership—designing scalable systems that handle sensitive financial data with speed and accuracy. You will proactively implement methods to improve data reliability while ensuring our architecture meets the rigorous security standards of the FinTech industry.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Pipeline Development

• Design and Architect: Lead the design of optimal data pipeline architecture for both batch and real-time streaming (using tools like Kafka or Spark) to support immediate financial transaction processing.
• Scale Infrastructure: Identify and implement internal process improvements, focusing on re-designing infrastructure for greater scalability and automating manual processes.
• Advanced ETL/ELT: Build, test, and maintain robust database pipeline architecture for optimal extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) from a wide variety of data sources, including core banking systems and third-party APIs.

Data Quality & Governance (FinTech Focus)

• Security Compliance: Ensure strict compliance with data governance, security policies, and financial regulations (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS).
• Reliability: proactively implement methods to improve data reliability and quality, ensuring financial reporting and customer balances are 100% accurate.
• Root Cause Analysis: Perform deep root cause analysis on internal and external data processes to answer specific business questions and resolve data anomalies immediately.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Mentorship: Act as a technical mentor to junior data engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and "low ego" collaboration.
• Stakeholder Management: Work with cross-functional teams (Product, Risk, Finance) to translate complex financial requirements into technical data solutions.
• Strategic Insight: Build analytics tools that provide actionable insights into customer acquisition, operational efficiency, and key business performance metrics

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes

• Live Turaco’s values – care and protect, do the right thing, have fun, and low ego
• Experience: 5+ years of experience in Data Engineering, ideally within Financial Services or FinTech.
• Education: Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, IT, or similar field.
• Programming: Advanced proficiency in Python, Java, or Scala.
• Database Mastery: Expert-level SQL skills and hands-on experience with database design and data modeling. Experience with modern data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift).
• Big Data Tech: Working knowledge of message queuing (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and stream processing.
• Orchestration: Experience with workflow management tools (Airflow, DBT, Luigi).

• Design and Architect: Lead the design of optimal data pipeline architecture for both batch and real-time streaming (using tools like Kafka or Spark) to support immediate financial transaction processing.
• Scale Infrastructure: Identify and implement internal process improvements, focusing on re-designing infrastructure for greater scalability and automating manual processes.
• Advanced ETL/ELT: Build, test, and maintain robust database pipeline architecture for optimal extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) from a wide variety of data sources, including core banking systems and third-party APIs.
• Security Compliance: Ensure strict compliance with data governance, security policies, and financial regulations (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS).
• Reliability: proactively implement methods to improve data reliability and quality, ensuring financial reporting and customer balances are 100% accurate.
• Root Cause Analysis: Perform deep root cause analysis on internal and external data processes to answer specific business questions and resolve data anomalies immediately.
• Mentorship: Act as a technical mentor to junior data engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and "low ego" collaboration.
• Stakeholder Management: Work with cross-functional teams (Product, Risk, Finance) to translate complex financial requirements into technical data solutions.
• Strategic Insight: Build analytics tools that provide actionable insights into customer acquisition, operational efficiency, and key business performance metrics

• Advanced proficiency in Python, Java, or Scala.
• Expert-level SQL skills and hands-on experience with database design and data modeling.
• Experience with modern data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift).
• Working knowledge of message queuing (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and stream processing.
• Experience with workflow management tools (Airflow, DBT, Luigi).

• Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, IT, or similar field.