Data Engineer

About Inkomoko

Inkomoko is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in growing their businesses to enhance livelihoods, generate employment, and strengthen communities. Recognized as the 5th fastest-growing company in Africa by the Financial Times in 2026, it operates across East and Central Africa, advancing inclusive and resilient economies. Since its establishment in 2012, Inkomoko has assisted over 100,000 entrepreneurs, including many refugees, by providing training, consulting, financing access, and systemic market changes. The organization employs more than 900 staff in 50 offices spread over Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan, with plans to expand to three additional countries and grow its $30 million loan fund to positively impact 7 million lives by 2030.

Our Values

• Purpose: Focus on solutions, deliver exceptional work, and be global leaders.
• Achievement: Constantly extend your limits beyond previous capabilities.
• Improvement: Embrace humility and continuous development via transparent feedback.
• Bravery: Take risks, foster safe and inclusive environments with compassion.
• We Eat Goat: Celebrate achievements and support each other jointly, reflecting community spirit.

Inkomoko is an equal opportunity employer encouraging applications from refugees, women, and individuals representing the diverse communities served.

Role Overview and Responsibilities

The Data Engineer will create and manage robust data pipelines forming the foundation of Inkomoko's enterprise data platform. This role ensures data is reliable, secure, and scalable to support analytics, artificial intelligence, products, operations, and organizational decisions. The successful candidate will operate under the guidance of the Senior Data Engineer, gradually taking on more responsibility with mentorship through code reviews, collaborative work, and growth planning. The role involves handling sensitive data concerning refugee entrepreneurs, adhering strictly to data protection protocols and organizational governance.

Key Duties

• Construct and maintain dependable, auditable data pipelines integrating multiple sources including enterprise, lending, program, survey, and external data, following set architectural standards.
• Ensure idempotency and checkpointing in data loads for reliability, combined with thorough inline documentation.
• Restrict ingestion to only necessary personal data, safeguarding privacy.
• Apply reusable data integration patterns and escalate issues when patterns don't fit.
• Develop and enforce testing, contracts, and monitoring for pipeline quality, halting data flow automatically upon failure.
• Track pipeline performance, costs, and availability; respond promptly to incidents within service agreements.
• Analyze failures impartially, documenting root causes and resolutions.
• Assist in building the client entity resolution system’s elements, handling matching logic, record survivorship, and merge auditability.
• Investigate unresolved data matches thoroughly, presenting evidence rather than making unilateral decisions.
• Comply with data governance frameworks by applying classification, access control, lineage, retention, encryption, minimization, and audit requirements.
• Operate strictly within centralized data protection and access management frameworks consistent with applicable data protection laws.
• Collaborate actively with internal teams on source system changes and data dependencies impacting pipelines.
• Participate in structured mentorship activities including code reviews and joint work sessions to foster professional growth.

Candidate Profile and Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or related disciplines, or commensurate practical experience.
• Between 2 and 4 years of hands-on experience in data engineering or backend development involving substantial data-related tasks in live production settings.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL programming, designing pipelines as fully tested software rather than simple scripts.
• Solid understanding of PostgreSQL databases; familiarity with SQL Server advantageous.
• Practical experience with dbt for data transformations and exposure to orchestration tools like Dagster or Airflow.
• Knowledge of incremental and idempotent data loading techniques; exposure to Kafka and Spark is a plus.
• Strong engineering habits such as Git version control discipline, continuous integration/deployment, containerization tools (e.g., Docker), and clear documentation.
• Awareness of sensitive data handling and regulatory compliance; experience with financial, humanitarian or regulated data highly valued.
• A proactive learner open to structured feedback and mentorship.
• Effective communicator able to clearly describe pipeline functions, failures, and corrective measures in writing.

Core Competencies

• Builds trust through reliability, honesty, and authentic care for colleagues.
• Exhibits courage by addressing challenges openly and taking initiative.
• Makes decisions grounded in relevant data, recognizes when to escalate matters appropriately.

Benefits and Work Environment

• Engagement in meaningful work with direct impact on sustainable livelihoods and employment across the region.
• Competitive remuneration and eligibility for performance-linked bonuses.
• A supportive and vibrant company culture emphasizing learning and personal advancement.
• Diverse workforce and firm commitment to equity and inclusion policies.
• An innovative, entrepreneurial team environment dedicated to social transformation.
• Health insurance coverage for employees and their families.
• Access to staff savings plans and provident fund with preferential banking rates for long-term staff.
• Generous benefits including annual leave, parental leave, and sabbaticals.

Additional Information

Applicants should provide a CV and a motivation statement articulating their suitability. The closing date for applications is 1st September 2026. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Employment offers depend on successful background and reference checks. The organization participates in misconduct disclosure schemes requesting information from prior employers. Applying confirms understanding of these recruitment safeguards.