Data Engineer

About the role

You will work on data platforms and pipelines inside client organisations where the same metric currently has four different values. The work spans ingestion, modelling, contracts and the governance needed to keep it trustworthy.

This is an initial contract engagement with a strong path to a permanent role if it suits both sides.

About OneCluster

OneCluster is a product and engineering company that embeds inside regulated institutions across Africa: banks, telcos, health systems, logistics operators and energy companies. We were founded in 2026 by practitioners who spent their careers inside those organisations.

We work embedded in our customers’ own teams rather than alongside them. That means their repository, their CI, their on-call rotation, and their constraints: regulatory scrutiny, legacy integration, and a business that cannot absorb a bad release. Every piece of work has a partner on it, in the standup rather than on the proposal.

The measure of our work is that the customer keeps running the practice after we leave. That shapes how we hire: we look for people who can raise the standard of the team around them, not only ship their own work.

The team you join

You will work inside the client's data function, usually alongside analysts and platform engineers who own the systems you feed.

What you will do

• Design and build batch and streaming pipelines feeding analytical and operational use.
• Model data in the warehouse and transformation tooling the client already runs.
• Define data contracts between producing and consuming systems.
• Instrument quality, lineage and freshness so failures surface before users find them.
• Work with the client's analysts and engineers to make the platform theirs.

Minimum qualifications

• Four or more years in data engineering on production systems.
• Strong SQL, and fluency in at least one language used for data work.
• Experience with streaming — Kafka, Kinesis or similar — not only batch.
• Understanding of data governance in a regulated setting.
• Ability to work independently across a distributed team.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with financial or clinical data models.
• Infrastructure as code and CI for data pipelines.
• Exposure to data privacy obligations under NDPA or GDPR.

Your first three months

1. Ship a pipeline to production in your first month, however small.
2. Establish where data quality actually breaks, and instrument it.
3. Take ownership of a domain end to end by month two.
4. By month three, be trusted with the numbers the business reports externally.

Compensation and benefits

Rates are agreed per engagement and depend on scope and seniority. We discuss numbers openly on the first call, before you spend time on a practical.

• Rates are agreed per engagement and discussed openly on the first call, before you spend time on a practical.
• Remote across Africa, with on-site weeks where the engagement calls for them.
• Work embedded inside regulated institutions, on systems with real consequences, alongside senior engineers who review your work and expect you to review theirs.
• Small crews and direct access to partners, with no layers between you and the decisions.
• Long relationships. We would rather work with the same capable people across engagements than hire for a single project.
• Straight answers. We tell you what we can and cannot offer before you commit, and we do not promise what we cannot deliver.

How we interview

The whole process is normally two to three weeks, and we work around your current job.

1. Application review. A partner reads every application. You hear back either way, usually within two working days.
2. Intro call, 45 minutes. Your background, what you want next, and honest answers about the work, the rate and the constraints.
3. Practical session, 2 hours. A realistic problem close to what the role actually involves, scheduled around you and sized to respect your time. We tell you the shape it takes when we book it.
4. Practical review, 60 minutes. We walk through what you built, why, and what you would change with more time.
5. Partner conversation, 45 minutes. Scope, expectations, terms, and your questions.
6. Decision, normally within two working days of the last conversation.

How to apply

Send an application through the form. A partner reads every one, and you will hear back either way. If you are unsure whether you qualify, apply anyway and say what you are unsure about.

We will tell you what we can and cannot offer before you commit to anything.

Apply for this role →