Data Engineer – Forward Deployed (Windhoek, Namibia)

About the role

The NZZ, one of the largest private media companies in Switzerland, has a data engineering team of about five people split between Zurich and Windhoek. The Windhoek team works on data and software engineering and quality assurance, working closely with colleagues in Switzerland. The company is looking for a motivated Data Engineer – Forward Deployed to join the team in Windhoek, either immediately or by arrangement.

Key responsibilities

• Solution development: turn complex business and operational challenges into practical, data-driven solutions.
• Pipeline design and engineering: build and maintain scalable data pipelines, data models and integrations.
• Data integration: bring data from internal systems, third-party platforms and APIs into the central data platform.
• Product development: combine data engineering, analytics and software development to create production-ready data applications and tools.
• Quality assurance and operations: ensure data quality, reliability, observability, performance and access controls.
• Stakeholder management and collaboration: work with internal teams and with data engineers, analysts, software developers and business teams in Windhoek and Zurich.

Required profile

• 2+ years of professional experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, software engineering or a comparable role.
• Strong SQL skills and practical experience with Python or another general-purpose programming language.
• Experience building and running production-grade data pipelines and data models.
• Fluent English and comfort working cross-functionally with colleagues in Namibia and Switzerland.
• Pragmatic, product-oriented mindset, strong communication skills and ownership in changing or ambiguous environments.

Required skills

• SQL
• Python or another general-purpose programming language
• Familiarity with modern cloud data platforms, orchestration tools, transformation frameworks and APIs

Candidates apply online with a complete application including work samples and a short cover letter explaining their motivation.