Senior Data Engineer

Why You’d Like It

Opportunities to build a modern data platform completely from scratch don't come around every day. This is a true greenfield contract role where a Senior Data Engineer can establish the foundational data architecture for a highly successful Auckland-based business. If building a high-impact, modern data ecosystem with full technical ownership sounds exciting, this initial 6-month contract offers the perfect blend of autonomy and execution.

The Story

This business has a mature, highly successful suite of SaaS products, but their current reporting foundation relies heavily on legacy setups and dispersed business logic that impact data freshness and maintainability. To solve this, they have thoroughly mapped out a modern data platform strategy, backed by an external architectural assessment. With a clear technical roadmap and a recommended modern technology stack already validated, they are ready to bring this capability to life. They now need a seasoned data specialist to turn this vision into a scalable, high-performing reality.

Company Profile

Operating a successful portfolio of specialised SaaS solutions across lease accounting, fleet, and property management, this organisation boasts a highly capable, modern in-house engineering team. Their current core operational environment is built primarily on AWS and backed by PostgreSQL systems. With established delivery practices, deployment workflows, and observability already in place, the company provides a collaborative and technically robust environment for a data expert to thrive.

Your Role

Reporting directly to the Head of Engineering, the Senior Data Engineer will take complete technical ownership of the greenfield data build.

Key responsibilities include:

• Standing up the core data platform within the first 8–12 weeks using the chosen modern stack.
• Implementing a layered medallion data architecture featuring bronze, silver, and gold layers.
• Delivering an initial end-to-end "thin slice" reporting use case that joins operational data from ingestion through to a production-ready output.
• Establishing repeatable patterns to bring further analytics and reporting use cases online.
• Embedding strict data quality controls, lineage mapping, monitoring, and governance as the practice matures.
• Ensuring smooth knowledge transfer to the internal engineering team to enable a durable internal data practice.

Benefits

• True Technical Ownership: The opportunity to establish the foundation that all future reporting will be built upon, with a well-scoped roadmap already in hand.
• Modern Tech Stack: Work with a preferred toolset including Snowflake, dbt Cloud, and modern ELT platforms.
• Collaborative Environment: Partner alongside an exceptional in-house engineering team that already has mature delivery workflows sorted.

Your Fit

• Proven experience designing and building production-grade cloud data platforms from the ground up.
• Advanced, hands-on expertise with dbt for data modelling, testing, and version control, alongside expert SQL skills.
• Deep production experience utilizing Snowflake or directly comparable cloud data warehouses.
• Strong familiarity with modern ingestion tools like Airbyte or Fivetran, including change data capture (CDC) from PostgreSQL data sources.
• Solid understanding of layered architectures (medallion) and dimensional modelling practices.
• A background dealing with multi-tenant SaaS data, regional data residency constraints, or GDPR compliance is highly desirable.
• Excellent documentation habits and a natural ability to share knowledge and uplift the wider technical team.

Applicants must be legally entitled to work in New Zealand. If you are not a NZ Citizen, you must have the right of permanent residence or a valid work visa.

Does this sound like it could be the next role for you? Get in touch with Dan for a confidential discussion email [email protected] or call on 021331559