Kwanda Ndaba

Kwanda Ndaba

Data Engineer Manager
South Africa
Zulu, English

About Me

Data engineering, architecture, and analytics leader with over a decade of experience delivering enterprise-scale data platforms and transformation initiatives across financial services, consulting, and technology enviro…

Experience

Senior Manager | Principal Lead: Data Engineering

Woolworths Financial Services
Aug 2025 - Present · 11 months

Own the data engineering strategy, defining the vision, roadmap, and operating model for the enterprise data platform
Provide technical leadership across data engineering, ensuring architectural integrity, scalability and alignment to platform standards
Lead the evolution of modern, cloud-native data architecture, including event-driven and data mesh-aligned capabilities
Partner with senior stakeholders to align data capabilities with business priorities and drive adoption
Lead and develop a high-performing engineering team, embedding a culture of quality, ownership, and continuous improvement

Senior Manager | Principal Lead: Data Engineering

Woolworths Financial Services
Aug 2025 - Present · 11 months

Own the data engineering strategy, defining the vision, roadmap, and operating model for the enterprise data platform, Provide technical leadership across data engineering, ensuring architectural integrity, scalability and alignment to platform standards, Lead the evolution of modern, cloud-native data architecture, including event-driven and data mesh-aligned capabilities, Partner with senior stakeholders to align data capabilities with business priorities and drive adoption, Lead and develop a high-performing engineering team, embedding a culture of quality, ownership, and continuous improvement

Principal Engineer & Career Manager

Elixirr Digital
Aug 2023 - Aug 2025 · 2 years

Led multiple cross-functional teams, setting technical direction and aligning delivery with client and organisational strategy
Built and owned end-to-end delivery of complex data and analytics engagements across multiple industries
Designed and implemented scalable data architectures, including data mesh and cloud-native analytics platforms across Azure, AWS, and GCP
Established engineering best practices, governance standards, and delivery frameworks across teams
Managed and mentored engineers across data, analytics, and AI disciplines
Led stakeholder engagement, delivery planning, and vendor coordination within a consulting environment
Contributed to internal capability building through the Elixirr Digital Academy

Principal Engineer & Career Manager

Elixirr Digital
Aug 2023 - Aug 2025 · 2 years

Led multiple cross-functional teams, setting technical direction and aligning delivery with client and organisational strategy, Built and owned end-to-end delivery of complex data and analytics engagements across multiple industries, Designed and implemented scalable data architectures, including data mesh and cloud-native analytics platforms across Azure, AWS, and GCP, Established engineering best practices, governance standards, and delivery frameworks across teams, Managed and mentored engineers across data, analytics, and AI disciplines, Led stakeholder engagement, delivery planning, and vendor coordination within a consulting environment, Contributed to internal capability building through the Elixirr Digital Academy

Senior Data Engineer

Nedbank
Jun 2021 - Aug 2023 · 2 years 2 months

Designed and implemented data ingestion and processing solutions to support near real-time analytics and reporting
Led development of scalable data pipelines to transform complex and unstructured data into usable insights
Collaborated with senior stakeholders to define data strategy and improve data accessibility and quality
Mentored engineers and contributed to a strong engineering culture
Ensured compliance with governance and regulatory standards

Senior Data Engineer

Nedbank
Jun 2021 - Aug 2023 · 2 years 2 months

Designed and implemented data ingestion and processing solutions to support near real-time analytics and reporting, Led development of scalable data pipelines to transform complex and unstructured data into usable insights, Collaborated with senior stakeholders to define data strategy and improve data accessibility and quality, Mentored engineers and contributed to a strong engineering culture, Ensured compliance with governance and regulatory standards

Big Data Developer

Absa
May 2020 - Jun 2021 · 1 year 1 month

Developed and maintained scalable data pipelines using Apache Spark for batch and streaming workloads
Improved reliability and efficiency of data processing through automation and optimisation
Supported production environments through troubleshooting and performance tuning

Big Data Developer

Absa
May 2020 - Jun 2021 · 1 year 1 month

Developed and maintained scalable data pipelines using Apache Spark for batch and streaming workloads, Improved reliability and efficiency of data processing through automation and optimisation, Supported production environments through troubleshooting and performance tuning

ETL Developer

Standard Bank Group
Apr 2017 - May 2020 · 3 years 1 month

Designed and maintained data integration solutions across enterprise systems
Built pipelines and reporting solutions for business intelligence and analytics use cases
Collaborated across teams to improve data quality and accessibility

ETL Developer

Standard Bank Group
Apr 2017 - May 2020 · 3 years

Designed and maintained data integration solutions across enterprise systems, Built pipelines and reporting solutions for business intelligence and analytics use cases, Collaborated across teams to improve data quality and accessibility

Intern

Standard Bank Group
Apr 2016 - Apr 2017 · 1 year

Supported data preparation, pipeline development, and reporting
Assisted in maintaining data workflows and delivering foundational analytics solutions

Intern

Standard Bank Group
Apr 2016 - Apr 2017 · 1 year

Supported data preparation, pipeline development, and reporting, Assisted in maintaining data workflows and delivering foundational analytics solutions

Skills

Java Python Google Cloud Platform Hadoop Microsoft Azure AWS SQL Bash/Shell scripting ETL/ELT pipeline design and optimisation Data modelling Data quality frameworks Data governance Data security and access control Query optimisation Data warehouse architecture CI/CD for data pipelines Testing strategies for data Cost optimisation in data platforms Data warehousing BI & reporting (Power BI Looker Qlik Cognos) Azure Microsoft Fabric Azure Functions ADLS Blob Storage Azure SQL Database Data Factory GitHub Azure DevOps Amazon EC2 Lambda ECS EKS S3 RDS Aurora RedShift Secrets Manager AWS Glue Athena Lake Formation CloudWatch SNS SQS EventBridge Step Functions GKE Cloud Functions Cloud Storage Cloud SQL Spanner BigQuery DataFlow Dataproc Pub/Sub Looker Looker Studio Artefact Registry Logging Monitoring Enterprise data platform design Data lake Lakehouse Warehouse Dimensional modelling Data vault
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