Senior Data Engineer (Maternity Cover)

Job Posting Organization:
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organization established to assist people forced to flee their homes due to conflict and disaster. With a workforce of approximately 15,000 staff members, NRC operates in 40 countries worldwide, providing life-saving and long-term assistance to millions of individuals each year. The organization is committed to upholding the rights of refugees and internally displaced persons, ensuring that they receive the support they need in times of crisis. NRC's mission is to promote human dignity and provide aid in the most challenging contexts, making it a vital player in the humanitarian sector.

Job Overview:
The Senior Data Engineer position at NRC is a maternity cover role that plays a crucial part in enhancing the organization's data infrastructure. The successful candidate will be responsible for designing and maintaining scalable data pipelines and ETL processes using Microsoft Fabric, ensuring that data remains accessible, reliable, and secure. This role involves close collaboration with data product managers, analysts, and other stakeholders to translate business needs into effective data solutions. The engineer will also focus on strengthening data quality and governance while championing modern engineering practices, automation, and innovation. The position is ideal for someone passionate about data and technology, with a strong desire to make a meaningful humanitarian impact.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The Senior Data Engineer will have a comprehensive set of responsibilities, including ensuring that data at NRC is accessible and optimized for organizational use. The engineer will instigate collaboration with program managers and field staff to understand their data needs and align data systems with operational goals. They will provide technical leadership and guidance to non-technical teams on data processing methods and infrastructure setup. Implementing best practices for data governance and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and ethical standards will be a key responsibility. The engineer will build data pipelines in Microsoft Fabric to integrate internal and external data, reflecting the current data needs set by various operational departments. Continuous improvement of the Fabric environment will be expected, supporting secure data sharing across NRC. The engineer will also contribute to developing the infrastructure, governance, and standards required to make data more discoverable and accessible, and will evaluate systems and data pipelines on Microsoft infrastructure, including Azure and Power Apps. Proactive implementation of data validation checks, monitoring, and error-handling processes will be essential to ensure data accuracy, consistency, and integrity.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must have proven experience with IT projects and a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, or related fields, or demonstrable expertise in the field. Advanced analytical skills and a problem-solving attitude are essential, along with excellent interpersonal and communication skills. The ability to work comfortably with a geographically distributed team and non-technical colleagues is crucial. Candidates should be capable of operating in an 'Agile' environment and must be fluent in written and spoken English, with proficiency in other languages considered an asset. A proactive approach to keeping up with industry trends and innovations is also expected.

Educational Background:
The educational background required for this position includes a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related subject. Alternatively, candidates may demonstrate expertise in the field through relevant experience and skills acquired over time.

Experience:
The position requires a minimum of 5 years of experience in shipping and maintaining code in production environments. Candidates should have experience working with Microsoft Fabric or other Microsoft reporting tools, as well as a deep understanding of data architecture and data modeling. Familiarity with programming in Python, API design and security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security fundamentals, and basic DevOps practices is also beneficial. Additionally, candidates should possess solid knowledge of relational databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, as well as non-relational data formats like JSON, including skills in building, optimizing, debugging, and creating queries and safe migration scripts.

Languages:
Fluency in written and spoken English is mandatory for this position. Proficiency in additional languages is considered an asset and may enhance a candidate's application.

Additional Notes:
This position is a maternity cover role with a contract duration of 12 months. The duty station is primarily at the NRC Head Office in Oslo, with potential opportunities in NRC Representation Offices (excluding Geneva and Washington, DC), approved Employer of Record (EoR) countries, and other locations where NRC operates, provided they are within ±2 hours of Oslo time. The role may involve travel of up to 5%. The salary and benefits are classified as Grade 9 on NRC’s Resident salary scale, accompanied by the respective terms and conditions. NRC is committed to diversity and equal opportunities, encouraging applications from individuals of all backgrounds.