Data Engineer (Mid-level)

WPP Media · Johannesburg

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth. 

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

Job Title: Data Engineer (Mid-Level)
Company: WPP Media South Africa
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Reports To: Senior Data Specialist

Key Responsibilites:

Data Engineering:

Design, develop and maintain scalable ELT/ETL pipelines using modern cloud technologies.
Build and optimise data ingestion frameworks from first-party, second-party and third-party data sources.
Develop and maintain robust data models that support analytics and reporting.
Build and manage integrations using REST APIs, SDKs and cloud services.
Develop reusable data transformation frameworks using dbt or equivalent tooling.
Implement incremental processing, partitioning and performance optimisation techniques.
Design and maintain data warehouse structures within BigQuery and other cloud environments.
Ensure pipeline reliability through monitoring, alerting and automated testing.
Troubleshoot production data issues and implement long-term solutions.

Cloud Platform Engineering

Develop scalable cloud-native data solutions on Google Cloud Platform.
Optimise BigQuery performance and manage cloud infrastructure costs.
Build solutions using Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Cloud Storage and Pub/Sub where appropriate.
Implement secure access controls using IAM principles.
Support infrastructure automation using Infrastructure-as-Code where applicable.
Monitor platform performance and recommend improvements.

Data Quality & Governance:

Implement automated data validation and quality assurance processes.
Develop and maintain metadata, documentation, and data lineage.
Support data governance frameworks and taxonomy standards.
Ensure compliance with data privacy, security, and governance policies.
Establish monitoring for data freshness, completeness, and accuracy.

Analytics Enablement

Build curated datasets that enable self-service reporting and analytics.
Partner with Analytics Engineers, BI Developers and Data Analysts to deliver trusted datasets.
Support dashboard development by providing clean, scalable, and well-modelled data.
Develop reusable business logic and transformation layers.
Assist with complex data investigations and root cause analysis.

Engineering Best Practices

Maintain source control using Git.
Participate in code reviews and technical design discussions.
Develop technical documentation for pipelines, architecture, and integrations.
Contribute to CI/CD deployment processes.
Continuously improve engineering standards and platform reliability.
Research and evaluate emerging cloud and data engineering technologies.

Collaboration

Work closely with Media, Analytics, Strategy and Technology teams.
Collaborate with platform vendors and technology partners.
Support junior engineers through knowledge sharing and mentoring.
Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives across the data practice.

Minimum Requirements

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science or a related quantitative discipline.
Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer certification (preferred).
Additional cloud or data engineering certifications are advantageous.

Experience

3–5 years' experience in Data Engineering or Analytics Engineering.
Experience developing cloud-based data platforms.
Experience building scalable data pipelines.
Experience integrating APIs and third-party platforms.
Experience working with modern data warehouses.
Experience supporting business intelligence and analytics platforms.
Experience within media, marketing technology or digital analytics is advantageous.

Technical Skills

Programming

SQL (Advanced)
Python
REST APIs
JSON
Git

Data Engineering

dbt
ETL / ELT
Data Modelling
Data Warehousing
Incremental Processing
Pipeline Orchestration
Data Quality Frameworks
Identity Resolution concepts

Cloud Platforms

Google Cloud Platform
BigQuery
Cloud Storage
Cloud Functions
Cloud Run
Pub/Sub
Cloud Composer (Airflow)
IAM

Advantageous:

Snowflake
AWS
Azure
Terraform
Docker

Analytics and BI

Looker
Looker Studio
Power BI
Tableau
Google Analytics 4
Adobe Analytics (advantageous)

Marketing Technology (Advantageous)

Experience integrating or working with data from:

Google Ads
Campaign Manager 360
DV360
Meta Ads
TikTok
AppsFlyer
SA360
Adverity

Knowledge

Modern Data Architecture
Cloud Computing
Data Governance
Data Privacy
Data Modelling
Data Quality
Data Observability
CI/CD Principles
Version Control
Cost Optimisation
Digital Marketing Ecosystem
AI-enabled Data Engineering

Success Measures

The successful candidate will:

Deliver reliable, scalable and secure data pipelines.
Maintain high levels of data quality and platform reliability.
Improve pipeline performance and reduce processing costs.
Enable trusted reporting through well-modelled datasets.
Deliver production-ready engineering solutions using best practices.
Contribute to continuous improvements in the data platform.
Produce clear technical documentation and reusable engineering assets.

Behavioural Competencies

Strong analytical thinking
Problem solving
Attention to detail
Curiosity and continuous learning
Ownership and accountability
Collaboration and communication
Adaptability
Innovation
Mentoring and knowledge sharing

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is passionate about building scalable cloud data platforms and solving complex data integration challenges. They have strong SQL and Python skills, experience working with modern cloud technologies, and enjoy developing reliable, maintainable data products that enable analytics across the organisation.

They are comfortable working with large-scale datasets, APIs, orchestration tools and cloud infrastructure, while collaborating with analysts, strategists and stakeholders to deliver high-quality data solutions. Experience within marketing technology, digital media or advertising ecosystems is advantageous but not essential.

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