Specialist- Big Data Development and Operation ( Internal/ External)

Specialist- Big Data Development and Operation ( Internal/ External)

About Us

At Safaricom Ethiopia, we are a purpose-led technology company dedicated to transforming lives through digital connectivity and inclusive financial services. In under four years, we have grown to serve over 10 million customers, with our network now reaching 55% of Ethiopia’s population – a testament to our bold vision and trusted partnerships

Guided by core values such as customer obsession, innovation, integrity, and get it done together, we are building a workplace that is dynamic, inclusive, and empowering. We believe our greatest strength lies in our people. That’s why, for two consecutive years, we have proudly get earned the Top Employer Award – in recognition for our unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive, innovative, and inclusive environment to people.

Join Safaricom Ethiopia and be part of a team that is shaping the digital future of Ethiopia. Here, your work has meaning, your voice matters, and your growth is our priority. Together, we are transforming lives for a digital future    

Responsibilities

Key accountabilities and decision ownership: 

• Design, develop, and optimize scalable data pipelines using Apache NiFi, Kafka, Spark, and custom scripts, ingesting data from diverse sources (databases, APIs, SFTP, flat files) into HDFS and exposing through Hive/Trino tables.
• Apply partitioning, bucketing, schema evolution, and best practices to ensure performance, while enforcing data quality checks, validation frameworks, and maintaining data lineage and governance.
• Build and maintain reporting and summary tables, reusable SQL views, and materialized views using Trino, Hive, or Presto to support business reporting and near real-time KPI pipelines, including automated report delivery via email/SMS.
• Collaborate with business analysts to define metrics, reporting layers, and business logic, and continuously optimize query performance for consistent insights.
• Prepare and transform datasets for machine learning, perform feature engineering, and operationalize ML models into production workflows with automated retraining, monitoring, and version control of datasets and artifacts to ensure model accuracy and lifecycle management.
• Manage and operate the core big data platform components (HDFS, YARN, Hive, Spark, NiFi, Kafka, Trino, Airflow) to ensure stability, scalability, and high availability.
• Automate deployments and platform configurations using Helm, Bash, and Ansible, while implementing monitoring and observability with Prometheus and Grafana.
• Troubleshoot pipeline failures, job errors, and infrastructure issues, ensuring proactive resolution and continuous system optimization.
• Enforce data retention, backup strategies, security policies, and RBAC compliance to meet governance and operational standards.
• Core competencies, knowledge and experience:
• Business Competencies:
• Strong understanding of big data systems and advanced analytics.
• Experience delivering customer-centric solutions in a telecom or data-intensive environment.
• Ability to align business requirements with technical solutions through innovation and best practices.
• Collaboration with cross-functional teams for data product development.
• Creativity and Innovation
• Ability to communicate and drive platform adoption.
• Influence others to embrace new technologies and practices.
• Thrive in fast-paced and ambiguous environments.
• Project and Programme Management
• Experience managing multiple delivery pipelines and stakeholders
• .Strong systems analysis, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Working with Change
• Ability to communicate and drive change, 
• Ability to influence others to adopt change.
• Ability to drive initiatives without any formal authority in an ambiguous and startup environment.

Qualifications

Must have technical / professional qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Data Engineering, or related field
• Minimum 2 years of hands-on experience in big data development and operations
• Strong SQL skills with Trino, Hive, and Presto
• Experience with Apache NiFi for data ingestion and processing
• Solid experience with distributed computing frameworks such as Spark and Hadoop
• Working knowledge of HBase and Phoenix for large-scale data storage and querying
• Knowledge of data governance, metadata management, and schema evolution
• Familiarity with microservices architecture and API development
• Familiarity with monitoring and logging frameworks such as Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK
• Strong collaboration, communication, and problem-solving abilities