Lead Data Engineer

Title: Lead Data Engineer (SSE II)

Location: Sydney

Job Description:

• Design data pipelines that power Zip’s core revenue engines and shape the future of our financial data products.
• Contribute to a high-impact Batch and ETL team trusted to deliver fast, reliable and future proof data.
• Hybrid working from our Sydney office, with the flexibility you need to do your best work.

Write your story with a career at Zip

Join Zip's Technology function, responsible for building and maintaining seamless, secure, and sustainable platforms that enable customers to shop with confidence and merchant partners to grow their brands.

As a Senior Data Engineer in the Batch and ETL team, you’ll take ownership of the pipelines that sit at the heart of our financial operations. You’ll design and evolve production-grade batch workflows, underpinning critical revenue processes including fees, interest and repayments. You’ll also play a key role in uplifting engineering standards, mentoring emerging talent and shaping the frameworks that accelerate our delivery across the platform.

What you’ll own

Design, build and maintain scalable, reliable and secure batch pipelines that drive our financial and customer platforms. Partner with product, analytics, finance and engineering teams to translate business needs into trusted, high-quality data solutions. Guide and mentor junior engineers, contributing to a culture of accountability, excellence and continuous improvement. Develop scalable architectures and frameworks that support operational data processing at speed and scale. Embed data quality, observability, governance and security principles into every stage of development. Lead code reviews, design sessions and incident management activities to improve platform resilience.

What you’ll bring to the team

Hands-on experience delivering large-scale, production data systems over 8+ years. Strong SQL and database design capability across Snowflake, SQL Server or similar platforms. Expertise building batch and streaming pipelines using Python and Spark. Practical experience working on AWS services, along with infrastructure-as-code such as Terraform. Knowledge of data modelling, orchestration and workflow tools such as Argo Workflows or Airflow.

 

• A track record of mentoring engineers and supporting both their technical and professional growth.
• Familiarity with data quality frameworks, observability tools and CI/CD practices for data.
• Desirable understanding of Kafka, Kubernetes, DBT or data visualisation tools.
• A mindset that embraces AI and new tools to adapt, learn and grow.
• An aptitude for identifying and managing risks. Whether you are a People Manager or an Individual Contributor, we are all leaders at Zip, therefore effective risk management is important to how we run our business and part of all our roles.
• Our values in your DNA. Customer First, Own It, Stronger Together and Change the Game.

What you’ll get in return

As we write this next exciting chapter in our story, we will continue to move at pace and embrace change. For you, this might mean opportunities to learn new skills with hands-on experience, broader responsibilities, or the buzz of seeing your work impact customers faster.

Zip is a place where you’ll get out exactly what you put in. When you join the team, we’ll do our best to make sure you can be yourself and surround yourself with smart, friendly colleagues and leaders who have your back, so that you can make the big things happen.

Zipsters tell us these are just some of the best things about working here. You’ll also receive:

• 25 days paid leave annually, including birthday leave and quarterly wellbeing days.
• 16 weeks paid parental leave for primary carers, and 4 weeks for supporting carers.
• Family support policies including miscarriage bereavement leave and domestic violence leave.
• Mental health and wellness initiatives, including $299 annual wellbeing allowance, free access for you and family members to our wellbeing platform Sonder, discounted private health insurance, and great rates on fitness sessions through ClassPass.
• 2 days paid volunteering leave, 2 days study leave and 2 days religious or cultural leave per year.
• Fee-free Zip products and discounts with Zip merchant partners in Australia.
• Team social events, epic offices, free breakfast daily and weekly free lunches in Sydney and Melbourne.
• Access to the Flare Benefits Hub and novated leasing with savings across groceries, fuel, tech, dining and more.

Be a part of a team that reflects the diversity of our customers

We pride ourselves on being a workplace that provides equal opportunities to people of all ages, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, veteran status and everything else that makes you unique.

Equally, we’re committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive. Please let us know if there are any adjustments you need to ensure you have a fair and equitable experience.

And finally…get to know us

Zip Co Limited is a digital financial services company offering innovative, people-centred products. Operating in Australia and New Zealand and the United States, Zip connects millions of customers to tens of thousands of merchants. We’re proud to be a values-led business, and our values Customer First, Own It, Stronger Together and Change the Game guide us in everything we do.

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