Data Engineer

About the Role

The Our Future Services initiative seeks to modernize the immigration system by improving cost efficiency, risk management, and user experience for clients and staff. Multiple teams work concurrently on delivering key components by specified deadlines.

This Data Engineer position is part of the Joint Targeting and Analytics (JTA) team within Immigration New Zealand's Immigration Risk and Border branch. The JTA team specializes in analyzing data to detect and address immigration risks through Visa Triage, border risk targeting, and predictive analytics models.

The Data Engineer maintains and enhances the JTA risk analytics infrastructure hosted on Snowflake, manages raw data ingestion and ETL pipelines, supports data scientists and analysts, and advises on effective SQL query development and data interpretation. Collaborating closely with the central data warehouse team, the role ensures adoption of cutting-edge data engineering tools and methods within INZ.

Key Responsibilities

• Operate in a fast-paced setting contributing to transformational change initiatives.
• Maintain, optimize, and enhance the JTA risk analytics environment.
• Oversee the ingestion of new and existing datasets into the risk analytics framework.
• Coordinate with the central data team to promote ongoing improvements in data governance and management practices.
• Manage personal workload efficiently, aligning efforts with strategic objectives and escalating issues as required.

Required Skills and Experience

• Proven experience working with data warehousing, business intelligence, and analytics in complex data environments.
• Proficiency in SQL programming with strong development best practices.
• Hands-on development experience with cloud environments, preferably using Azure and Snowflake.
• Expertise in data ingestion techniques, ideally using Informatica.
• Experience designing and deploying scalable workflows at enterprise levels.
• Solid understanding of business processes as they relate to enterprise data structures.
• Strong commitment to documenting analytic work and project outputs clearly.
• Excellent communication skills with ability to build productive working relationships.
• Knowledge of architecture and design standards and industry best practices.
• Familiarity with data governance principles, especially within public sector legal frameworks.
• Detail-focused, process-oriented, with an understanding of security, privacy, and ethical considerations.

Qualifications

• Relevant tertiary qualification, preferably in software engineering or a related field.
• Capability to obtain and maintain national security clearance as necessary.

Eligibility

Applicants must be New Zealand citizens or hold Permanent Resident visas.

About the Employer

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment strives to foster a resilient and high-performing economy enhancing the quality of life for all New Zealanders. Their values emphasize teamwork, courage, forward-thinking, and accountability. The organization honors the Treaty of Waitangi partnership with Māori by building enduring, meaningful relationships to promote economic and social development across communities.

Additional Information

• Location: Permanent full-time roles available in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch with onsite work.
• Salary Range: NZD 101,911 to 121,196 annually plus KiwiSaver contributions and wellness benefits.
• Applications close on Thursday, 13 July 2026.