Specialist, Office of the Chief Data Innovation Officer

Specialist, Office of the Chief Data Innovation Officer

Introduction:

The Aga Khan University (AKU) holds a unique position in today’s global landscape due to access to millions of data records over the past decade; both traditional and non-traditional sources. This unique resource can drive innovation and help gain a more nuanced understanding of the unique challenges facing development nations and the potential solutions.

To capitalise on this unique opportunity, we are looking to hire data engineers to work in the office of the Chief Data Innovation Officer (CDIO). Our team works with our research and academic colleagues across AKU to build data platforms, data stores, data models, analytic dashboards and interactive reports. Our goal is help kick off or support a project and ensure the team thrives to build relevant and actionable intelligence that can deliver social impact in the communities we serve or raise the bar of academic excellence within our operations.

The Specialistrolewillbethecriticalroleineveryprojectwetackleasdatawranglingis80%oftheeffort and will work very closely with the Senior Lead and help manage projects across the team. H/She will be well versed in all things data, know how to dive deep to unblock an issue, and excel at solutioning. H/She must have a strong track record in industry, have delivered data products across the spectrum from dashboards to complex data platforms. If you are data driven and looking to take your expertise to the next level this opportunity is for you.

As an equal opportunity employer, AKU believes in promoting a diverse and inclusive culture and is committed to adopt appropriate standards for safeguarding and promoting a respectful relationship with and between diverse workforce of its faculty, staff, trainees, volunteers, beneficiaries, wider communities, and other stakeholders with whom it works, including children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees/trainees and partners to share this commitment.

Job Role / Responsibilities:

Data is a crucial part of AKU’s mission; we organise and interpret terabytes of data to find actional intelligence that can help guide changes to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve.

Data engineers do all the heavy lifting to bring sense to data by building pipelines and organizing data to help uncover relationships that can help us understand what might happen in the future. To succeed in this position, you should be proficient in fundamental data engineering methods (e.g. ETL, database design, dimensional modelling, data pipeline optimisation, data base performance) to build data repositories for our projects.

Reporting to Chief Data Innovation Officer, you will specifically be responsible to:

• maintain a highly reliable data pipeline that minimize data downtime and errors
• ensure efficient and timely data ingestion from various sources into the data ecosystem
• maintaindataqualitystandardsto ensure that data is accurate, complete, and consistent
• ensurethedatainfrastructurecan scale to accommodate increasing data volumes and demands
• implementandmaintaindata security measures to protect sensitive information
• optimizetheperformanceofthe ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes
• design and maintain a scalable and efficient data architecture that supports business requirements
• ensure data compliance with relevant regulations (e.g., GDPR, KDP)
• implement and test data backup and recovery processes to minimize data loss in case of failures
• optimizedatainfrastructurecoststoensureefficiency.

Eligibility Criteria / Requirements:

You should have:

• a minimum of 2+ years working as a data engineer at a high-tech company within an analytics domain working with open source and cloud technologies, Bachelor’s of Math, Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering is a great addition
• proven track record in building and shipping successful analytics software products at scale at a high-growth, high-tech company
• concrete experience building data pipelines, data repositories and data products in a cloud environment
• a deep understanding of the different domains of Data Science: ETL, data analytics, machine learning, and operational research
• strong project management skills and the ability to juggle many conflicting demands and needs across a diverse set of groups
• an ability to define and prioritize initiatives while working cross-functionally, and managing complex stakeholder relationships
• strong collaboration and communication skills especially with IT around technical infrastructure, security and regulatory governance
• strong references that speak to your ability to collaborate and communicate with stakeholders, designers, developers, data scientists, IT and researchers in an agile environment
• a genuine excitement for solving complex problems and strong sense of empathy for the challenges faced by LMICs.

Comprehensive reference checks will be conducted.