Senior Data Engineer – Consulting

The world of data has changed

Modern data platforms and AI have changed the game. Building the pipeline isn’t the hard part anymore. Putting numbers on a dashboard isn’t either. The hard part is understanding the business well enough to know which decisions matter, which questions are worth answering, and which data the client should trust.

That’s what we’re hiring for: an experienced data engineer who can sit across from a client, understand their world, shape a solution that fits, and then make it real, with the confidence to say, “here’s what I’d build, and here’s why.”

A growing data practice

We’ve recently won significant data work, including a national-scale primary sector platform, and more clients are opening up their data opportunities to us. We need another senior to lead engagements, set technical direction, and help grow the team.

What this role is

It is a developer role first, with deep data expertise on top. You’ve built things beyond data work and bring that engineering rigour to data problems: version-controlled, tested with BDD/TDD patterns, deployed as infrastructure as code, and accelerated with AI.

It isn’t a report-builder or data scientist role. You’re the engineer who makes the data trustworthy, the platform reliable, the visualisations land, and the conversation with the client honest.

About Enlighten Designs

We’re an award-winning data and software agency, one of New Zealand’s leading Microsoft Partners with advanced specialisations in Analytics, Data and AI. As a Microsoft Partner in Data Journalism, we don’t just deliver data; we tell the stories inside it, for clients across local, national, and international markets.

With 25+ years behind us, we combine deep technical capability with a genuinely people-first culture. We sponsored Outstanding AI Implementation at the 2026 Aotearoa AI Awards.

A week in your life

No two weeks are the same, but here’s a flavour:

Monday: You’re leading a discovery workshop with a new client, asking how decisions get made and shaping 2–3 solution options with trade-offs they can evaluate.

Tuesday: You’re pairing with a junior on a data model decision, then using AI-assisted workflows to rapidly prototype an approach that de-risks a key assumption before you commit to it.

Wednesday: You’re scoping and estimating a data platform proposal, and flagging where the assumptions are thin.

Thursday: Heads-down delivery; writing behaviour-driven tests for a warehouse load, building pipelines in SQL and Python/C#, deploying as infrastructure as code, and using AI tools to accelerate.

Friday: You’re demoing a Power BI report designed to land a specific decision, then mentoring a developer on telling the story a stakeholder actually cares about.

What you’ll be doing

• Leading client engagements from discovery through delivery; facilitating workshops, shaping data solutions, and building trusted advisor relationships
• Designing and building robust data solutions across the Microsoft data stack (Fabric, Azure Data Factory, SQL, Power BI) using modern languages such as Python, C#, or JavaScript
• Driving AI-enabled delivery. Integrating agentic tools into your workflow and evolving our SDLC patterns (e.g. BDD/TDD for data warehouse work, infrastructure as code) so they deliver trustworthy data solutions
• Contributing to presales: discovery, solution shaping, estimation, proposals, and value articulation for data and analytics work
• Helping lead and grow our data practice: mentoring and guiding other data developers, both technically and in how they engage with clients

What you bring

You’ve been around long enough to know that the best data solution isn’t always the most technically elegant one; it’s the one that fits the client’s reality and the decisions they need to make.

• 5+ years of software/data development experience, with hands-on depth in the Microsoft data stack (Fabric, Azure Data Factory, SQL, Power BI) alongside a programming language such as Python, C#, or JavaScript
• Strong data engineering fundamentals. ETL/ELT, building reliable and scalable pipelines, modelling foundations that survive changing business requirements, and a developer’s approach to source control, testing and deployment
• Demonstrated client-facing experience. You’ve been in the room, run sessions, presented solutions, and handled the hard conversations
• A consultative mindset. You combine technical expertise with clear communication, commercial instinct, and a genuine interest in solving the client’s real problem

Bonus points for

• Infrastructure as code, CI/CD and BDD/TDD applied to data work
• Estimation, scoping, or proposal work
• Mentoring and facilitation experience
• A critical eye for when and how AI tools create value
• A relevant degree or equivalent practical experience

Why you’ll want this role

• Have real impact. Your recommendations shape which data the client trusts and what gets built, not just how it’s wired up
• Help lead a growing data practice
• Work at a firm that’s genuinely leading in AI-enabled delivery across New Zealand, with Claude and GitHub Copilot provided as part of how we work
• Complex, high-value data projects for clients across a range of industries
• Work with an extraordinary group of people who treat talent as the organisation’s most valuable asset
• Flexible working arrangements. Your first six months are in our Hamilton office alongside the team, building the relationships this role depends on. After that, hybrid with at least three days a week in the office
• A collaborative, geeky environment where fun and technical innovation coexist daily (ask us about regular game sessions, hacky standups, or why all the ducks)

This is a permanent, full-time, Monday-Friday role of 40 hours per week, based in our Hamilton office.

Research shows women and other underrepresented groups are more likely to self-select out of applying for roles unless they match 100% of the criteria. If you are interested in this role and working with us at Enlighten, but your experience doesn’t line up exactly, please still consider applying. You could be the right person for us.