Senior Data Engineer

About Zepz

Zepz powers two leading global remittance brands, WorldRemit and Sendwave, to build the next generation of cross-border payments. Serving over 9 million customers across 4,000 corridors, Zepz is transforming how money moves across borders by making it faster, safer and more convenient. Its innovative digital solutions are designed to break down financial barriers and expand access to better financial tools. Zepz operates across a broad global footprint, connecting the global north and south and enabling migrants to support loved ones, fuel local economies and build better futures.

Come join us

Our Commitments:

• Velocity - We are fast

• Outcomes - We work for our customers

• Integrity - We do the right thing

About the Role

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Data Engineer to lead the development and management of our data platform. This pivotal role will focus on supporting critical data needs and developing foundational data models that are essential for advancing our cross-border remittances business. You will leverage your expertise in data warehousing, transformation, and modeling to build robust and scalable data solutions. Your responsibilities will encompass the entire build and deployment lifecycle of data movement and transformation, including managing users, scaling compute resources, and ensuring the platform operates optimally and efficiently. A key focus will be on maintaining robust data governance, ensuring data is well-defined, searchable, and trusted across the entire organization.

Key Responsibilities:

Data Modeling & Management

• Design, implement, and evolve data models for core datasets, including creating new models and enhancing existing ones to meet business requirements.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across the organization to translate commercial objectives into trusted data outcomes and dependable solutions.
• Establish and enforce data governance policies to guarantee data quality, security, and compliance.
• Implement and maintain data cataloging and metadata management solutions for easy data discoverability and self-serve.

Platform Operations & Optimization

• Manage all aspects of the build and deployment lifecycle for data movement and transformation processes.
• Oversee user access and resource allocation for compute infrastructure, ensuring efficient scaling and utilization.
• Ensure effective use of platform tools and resources for efficient ETL/ELT processing, providing customized tooling where appropriate.
• Manage the costs associated with all data platform technologies through effective tooling.

Technical Leadership & Innovation

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other data engineers within the team.
• Evaluate and integrate new data technologies and tools to enhance the capabilities and efficiency of the data platform.

What you'll bring to the table

• Experience: At least 7 years of experience in data engineering, with a strong emphasis on developing data platforms, data modeling, and managing data assets.
• Data Platform Expertise: In-depth, hands-on experience with technologies for data ingestion, job orchestration, data warehousing, and reporting.
• ETL/ELT: Proven ability to design, implement, and manage robust ETL/ELT pipelines using various tools (e.g., Spark, dbt).
• Cloud Platforms: Strong experience with cloud data platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure), including compute, storage, and database services.
• Programming: Proficient in SQL and advanced programming in at least one language (e.g., Python, Scala, Java).
• Orchestration: Experience with workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Astronomer, Apache Airflow).
• Data Governance: Solid understanding and practical experience with data governance principles, data cataloging, and metadata management.
• Performance Optimization: Demonstrated ability to optimize data platform performance and manage compute resources efficiently.
• Problem-Solving: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with meticulous attention to detail.
• Communication: Strong communication and interpersonal skills, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Bonus Points

• Experience in the financial services or FinTech industry, specifically with cross-border payments.
• End-to-end experience building data platforms, connecting all components from ingestion to reporting, using industry-standard tools. These include: Fivetran (ingestion), Databricks (lakehouse), Astronomer/Apache Airflow (orchestration), and Metaplane/Datadog (observability).
• Proficiency in data modeling tools and techniques (e.g., dbt).
• Familiarity with modern data lake formats such as Delta Lake and Iceberg.
• Experience with real-time data processing and streaming technologies (e.g., Flink, Epsio).
• Experience with infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform) for managing data platform resources.
• Familiarity with data observability and monitoring tools (e.g. Metaplane, Datadog).

• Proficiency in BI and data visualization tools; experience using Mode is preferred.

• Experience using Blackline or Autorek reconciliation software

What you'll get from us
Please note that the benefits below will apply to permanent roles.

We have five core benefits for our talent in the US, UK, Philippines, Poland, and South Africa. specifically:

• Unlimited Annual Leave: Feel free to make the most of your time off and maintain a healthy work-life balance
• Private Medical Cover: You can opt-in to a Private Medical Insurance scheme. This provides you with access to thorough medical coverage, so you can feel confident in your health and well-being.
• Retirement: We offer pension schemes to help you plan for and secure your future.
• Life Assurance: Life assurance is available to give you peace of mind and protect your loved ones in case of the unexpected.
• Parental Leave: We offer competitive parental leave schemes to ensure you are spending as much quality time with your new bundle of joy as possible.

We are also remote-first as an organisation, offering flexibility for you to work where you need to be most productive. In addition to the above, you will discover that we have a range of secondary perks (such as the cycle-to-work scheme and employee discounts) depending on your location, to help you thrive at Zepz

Why choose Zepz?

• Our team of over 800 employees is fully distributed across the world. We are working from coffee shops, homes, and co-working spaces — making us one of the larger fully distributed growth-stage startups in the world but we also offer workspace in our talent cluster locations - spaces we can meet, collaborate and connect.
• We are proud parents, community organizers, farmers, band members, yoga teachers, YouTube influencers, former Olympians, and serial entrepreneurs.
• We collectively speak over twenty languages, including Akuapem, Amharic, Bengali, Ewe, Fante, Ga, Igbo, Kalenjin, Luganda, Oromo, Somali, Swahili, Wolof, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
• At Zepz, embodying our commitments binds us together. We are collectively passionate about striving to achieve our vision and purpose - to continue to provide the best service to our users.

Ready to Apply?

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. If interested, please submit your resume along with a cover letter (optional), highlighting why your experience demonstrates you meet the requirements of the role. Please also indicate the countries in which you have work authorization.

Confidence can sometimes hold us back from applying for a job. But we'll let you in on a secret: there's no such thing as a 'perfect' candidate. Zepz is a place where everyone can thrive.

So however you identify and whatever background you bring with you, and if at all you might need any form of support to make the process as comfortable as possible, please let us know and give us a shot by applying. We want you to be excited to wake up to make an impact every day.

---