Solution Designer / Lead Data Engineer

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Solution Designer / Lead Data Engineer at NCS Group Sydney is an onsite role to uplift and scale the Data Ingestion framework across clouds, with GCP as a core element but a cloud-agnostic, multi-cloud approach. You will blend architecture with data engineering to design real-time ingestion, secure interfaces from on-prem to data lakes and warehouses, and embed quality, lineage and governance. Requirements include multi-cloud data experience, ingestion patterns, Spark, Airflow, Kafka, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, SQL, and Python/Scala/Java, plus Terraform IaC. To apply, share SDs or design docs, quantify outcomes, tailor your resume to business value, and demonstrate collaboration with diverse teams; be ready for background checks.

Company Description

At NCS Australia, we believe in doing technology services better. Our commitment to quality, focus on people, and willingness to challenge traditional thinking set us apart. Our team brings this belief to life by partnering with our clients and communities to make tomorrow together.

We are committed to creating an environment that prioritises innovation, collaboration, and purposeful work. Our diverse team is empowered to make a meaningful impact with curiosity, creativity and resilience to shape better outcomes. Join us and accept the challenge of creating a better tomorrow.

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced Solution Designer / Lead Data Engineer to drive a high-priority enterprise transformation initiative: uplifting, modernizing, and scaling our enterprise Data Ingestion framework across cloud platforms.

In this dual-capability role, you will combine high-level architectural design with deep data engineering expertise. While Google Cloud Platform (GCP) forms a key part of our ecosystem, this role requires a cloud-generic perspective—designing modular, cloud-agnostic data patterns that can ingest, process, and govern batch and streaming data from diverse sources across multi-cloud and hybrid environments. If you excel at bridging complex business data requirements with modern, resilient cloud architectures, this is an opportunity to shape an enterprise data strategy from the ground up.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Framework Modernization: Architect and lead the end-to-end design of a modern, scalable, and automated enterprise Data Ingestion framework, transitioning legacy ingestion systems toward real-time, event-driven cloud workflows.

• Solution Architecture & Design: Author comprehensive Solution Design Documents (SDDs), architectural blueprints, data mapping specifications, and reusable ingestion patterns for both batch and streaming datasets.

• Pipeline Engineering Leadership: Provide technical leadership and hands-on guidance to engineering squads building high-throughput data pipelines across major cloud provider environments (GCP, AWS, or Azure).

• Data Integration & Governance: Design secure, standardized ingestion interfaces connecting on-premises databases, enterprise SaaS tools, APIs, and streaming brokers into modern cloud data lakes and enterprise warehouses.

• Quality, Lineage & Security: Embed automated data quality checks, data lineage tracking, enterprise encryption, and governance controls (IAM, Data Catalog, DLP) directly into the ingestion lifecycle.

• Performance & Cost Optimization: Optimize data pipeline latency, ensure high system availability, and govern multi-cloud compute/storage costs.

Qualifications

• Multi-Cloud Data Mastery: Extensive experience designing and building scalable data platforms across major cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure) using modern cloud-native data architectures.

• Solution Design Capability: Proven track record as a Solution Designer, Data Architect, or Lead Data Engineer crafting high-level and detailed technical designs for large-scale enterprise data ecosystems.

• Ingestion Patterns: Deep understanding of modern ingestion paradigms (batch, micro-batch, real-time event streaming, Change Data Capture [CDC], and API-driven ingestion).

• Data Ecosystem Tools: Strong practical experience with distributed data tools and frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark, Airflow/Composer, Kafka, Pub/Sub, Kinesis, Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift).

• Data Modeling & SQL: Advanced proficiency in SQL, schema design, data partitioning, and data modeling strategies (e.g., Star/Snowflake schemas, Data Vault).

• Programming & Automation: High proficiency in Python, Scala, or Java, alongside Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) and CI/CD automated deployment pipelines.

• Stakeholder Engagement: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to articulate complex data architecture decisions to tech leads, product owners, and executive stakeholders.

Highly Regarded:

• Professional Cloud Certifications (Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer, AWS Certified Data Engineer, or Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate).

• Hands-on experience with dbt, Apache Iceberg/Delta Lake, or enterprise data catalog frameworks.

• Knowledge of regulatory compliance frameworks regarding data privacy and cross-cloud data movement.

Additional Information

Why join us: 

NCS Australia is where you can feel at home, nurturing your talents and skills as we make tomorrow together, one day at a time. Our benefits include paid parental leave, initiatives focused on your well-being and discounted health insurance. You will also enjoy discounts on various products and services and be regularly recognised and rewarded for high performance. We are committed to your career development through our Capability Fingerprint, industry and partner training programs, special interest groups, and an AI-driven learning platform. No matter where you are in your career, we offer meaningful work and opportunities for growth.

NCS Australia is an equal-opportunity employer, and we take pride in our commitment to valuing and supporting our people and the communities we serve.We are dedicated to attracting, retaining and developing our people regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and age. Applications are encouraged from all sectors of the community and we strongly encourage applications from the Veterans, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community.

At NCS Australia, we are committed to supporting adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, as well as during employment. We actively support and encourage people with disability to apply. 

Agencies:

We’ve got this. We request that you do not contact NCS employees outside of the Talent Acquisition team. NCS exclusively accepts resumes from agencies on our preferred supplier panel through the NCS Agency Portal. Agencies that submit resumes must have a valid fee agreement and be assigned to the particular requisition by the Talent Acquisition team. Any resumes that are submitted outside of this process will become the sole property of NCS. If a candidate is hired outside of this process, no fee or payment will be given.

Work rights and background checks: 

To be eligible for a position with us, applicants will need to have valid work rights for Australia and be willing to undergo a comprehensive background checking process, including probity and police checks