Data Platform Engineer

About The Role Our client is a well-established operation based in Queenstown running a cloud-first Microsoft data environment. They're looking for a Data Platform Engineer to take ownership of their core data platform — managing, improving, and modernising the infrastructure that the wider business depends on to make good decisions. This is a hands‑on engineering role with real ownership. You'll be responsible for the health of a production data environment, designing and maintaining pipelines, improving data flows, and making sure reporting and analytics teams have reliable, well‑structured data to work with. It's a role that suits someone who thinks like an architect but isn't afraid to get into the detail. What you'll be doing Managing and evolving the core cloud data platform across Azure, Microsoft Fabric, and associated services Designing, building, and maintaining ETL/ELT pipelines and data integrations across multiple business systems Supporting database architecture, performance tuning, and optimisation across Azure SQL and managed instances Developing and maintaining Power BI architecture and semantic models to support reporting teams Establishing and maintaining data governance, quality practices, and access management frameworks Monitoring, alerting, and keeping production environments running reliably — you own platform health, not just individual components Looking for opportunities to automate, simplify, and improve — not just maintain the status quo What we're looking for Strong hands‑on experience with Azure data services — Azure SQL, Managed Instances, Data Factory, Data Lake, CosmosDB Advanced SQL development and a solid grounding in database administration — you understand both sides Experience with data warehousing, lakehouse architectures, and data modelling (fact/dimension, semantic models) Power BI architecture and performance optimisation — you can build reporting infrastructure, not just reports Python or similar scripting, CI/CD practices, and a comfortable relationship with Infrastructure as Code The ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions — and communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders What separates good from great The strongest candidates will think like an architect, not just a developer. They'll understand how data drives commercial decisions, take responsibility for overall platform health rather than individual tickets, and have a genuine instinct for governance, security, and compliance — not as a burden, but as part of building something that lasts. Experience with Microsoft Fabric and exposure to AI workload data requirements would be a bonus. Location This role will ideally be based in Queenstown, however for the right candidate, this could be open to remote with occasional travels to Queenstown. #J-18808-Ljbffr