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.
  
About the role
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.

**This role will ideally be based in Queenstown, however for the right candidate, this could be open to remote with occasional travels to Queenstown.

If you're interested in having a conversation about this role or other similar opportunities, please feel free to reach out to me: marian@rwa.co.nz

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