Principal Data Engineer (Databricks)

Vivo Energy is seeking a Principal Data Engineer (Databricks) to join their team in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. This hands-on role involves building and optimizing production data pipelines, providing technical leadership, and raising engineering standards. The position requires close collaboration with business stakeholders, the data and analytics team, and owners of source systems.

Vivo Energy, established in 2011, is a leading distributor and marketer of Shell and Engen branded fuels and lubricants across Africa and Jordan. With over 4,200 service stations in 29 markets, Vivo Energy is focused on fuelling Africa's future by making customers' lives easier and their experiences more convenient, enjoyable, and rewarding. They are committed to setting new standards for safety, innovation, and service.

Qualified candidates are invited to apply by uploading a cover letter and resume by July 31, 2026. This role requires full-time, office-based attendance, five days a week.

Company Overview

Established in 2011, Vivo Energy is the company that distributes and markets Shell and Engen branded fuels and lubricants to retail and commercial customers in Africa and beyond. They operate in 29 markets across North, West, East and Southern Africa, the Ocean Islands and Jordan, with a network of over 4,200 service stations. Vivo Energy is focused on fuelling Africa's future, making customers' lives easier and their experience with them more convenient, enjoyable and rewarding by offering high-quality products and services, setting new standards for safety, innovation and service.

Quick Details

• Salary Range: Not Specified
• Job Type: Full-time
• Experience: 3 Year+
• Qualifications: Bachelors Degree

Key Responsibilities

• Designing and building robust, production-grade data pipelines on Databricks, utilizing capabilities like Spark Declarative Pipelines (SDP).
• Optimizing the platform for performance and cost by tuning compute, jobs, queries, and managing storage.
• Defining and maintaining consistent business metrics and a semantic layer using tools like Metric Views.
• Integrating data from core business systems (e.g., SAP S/4HANA) and other sources using Fivetran (SaaS connectors and HVR).
• Setting and upholding engineering standards for code quality, testing, documentation, CI/CD, and data governance.
• Coaching and mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, reviewing their work, and supporting their development.
• Partnering with business stakeholders to understand needs, shape solutions, and ensure platform value delivery.
• Engaging data owners in Finance and IT to ensure data quality and fitness for purpose.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of hands-on, daily Databricks experience, including pipeline development and performance/cost optimization.
• Up-to-date knowledge of recent platform developments like Spark Declarative Pipelines (SDP) and Metric Views.
• Strong proficiency in Python, SQL, and Spark.
• Advanced experience in data manipulation, data modeling, database design, and query optimization.
• Experience managing or coaching junior developers.
• A track record of managing and influencing business stakeholders.
• Experience with SAP S/4HANA data sets, Fivetran (SaaS connectors and HVR), and Power BI semantic modeling is beneficial.
• Key Competencies: Deep engineering skill, sound judgment on cost/performance, coaching ability, strong communication, and influencing skills.

Benefits

• Opportunity to lead and mentor junior engineers, contributing to their professional development.
• Work with cutting-edge data engineering technologies on the Databricks platform.
• Influence engineering standards and practices within the data and analytics team.
• Directly impact business value by delivering practical data solutions.
• Collaborate with diverse stakeholders across business, IT, and Finance departments.
• Opportunity to stay current with fast-moving platform developments and implement new capabilities.