🚀 We’re Hiring: Principal Specialist – Business Intelligence | Merchant Data Department

Are you a highly skilled BI expert with a passion for data modelling, dashboard design, and driving high‑quality reporting standards?

Lesaka Merchant is looking for a Principal Specialist: Business Intelligence to lead the technical direction, governance, and quality of BI outputs across the Merchant Division. This is a senior player‑coach role, combining hands‑on development with leadership, mentorship, and platform ownership.

📍 Location: In‑person (Rosebank / Woodmead)
📊 Reporting Line: Head of Analytics & Insights
👥 Direct Reports: None (Senior Individual Contributor role)

💼 Purpose

The Principal Specialist: Business Intelligence serves as the most senior BI practitioner in the Merchant Data Department.

This role is responsible for:

• Defining BI architecture and governance standards
• Leading the design of enterprise dashboards and reporting
• Ensuring consistent, high‑quality BI outputs
• Mentoring BI developers and elevating capability
• Aligning BI delivery with business needs and analytical frameworks

You will operate at the intersection of technical excellence and business value, ensuring that BI outputs are not only accurate — but also actionable, accessible, and impactful.

🔍 Key Responsibilities

BI Architecture & Platform Ownership

• Own the architecture, governance, and structure of the BI platform.
• Define standards for report design, naming conventions, data models, and calculations.
• Manage BI workspaces, access controls, and certification frameworks.
• Maintain a governed BI asset register with clear lifecycle management.

BI Development & Delivery

• Lead the design and development of enterprise dashboards and reporting suites.
• Translate complex business requirements into high‑performance, visually effective BI solutions.
• Review and approve BI outputs before production release.
• Evaluate and recommend improvements to BI tools, capabilities, and platform features.

Mentorship & Collaboration

• Provide hands‑on mentorship and code review support to BI developers.
• Collaborate with analytics teams to ensure consistency in metrics and frameworks.
• Work with Business Advisory to ensure outputs support strong decision‑making.
• Help elevate technical capability across the BI function.

🎓 Qualifications & Experience

Essential:
✔ Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative or analytical discipline
✔ 8+ years BI development experience
✔ 3+ years in a senior or lead BI role
✔ Expert‑level experience in Power BI (or equivalent BI platform)
✔ Strong SQL skills and understanding of data models
✔ Proven experience managing BI architecture and governance
✔ Experience delivering dashboards for executive/board audiences
✔ Demonstrated ability to mentor and lead BI teams

Advantageous:
• Financial services / fintech experience
• Experience with semantic layers or metric frameworks
• Exposure to accessibility standards
• Experience in federated or data‑mesh environments

🧠 Key Competencies

BI Mastery
Expert-level capability across BI tools, modelling, calculations, and visualisation.

Governance Ownership
Ensures consistency, quality, and reliability across the BI estate.

Design Sensibility
Creates dashboards that are intuitive, visually clear, and fit for purpose.

Stakeholder Credibility
Delivers trusted, decision‑ready outputs to senior stakeholders.

Mentorship
Builds technical capability within the BI team through coaching and support.

Platform Thinking
Designs scalable, maintainable BI environments beyond immediate requests.

🌟 Our Values

At Lesaka Merchant, we are guided by four core values:

✔ Entrepreneurial Spirit – We innovate boldly and act with ownership
✔ Integrity – We operate with honesty, trust, and transparency
✔ Collective Wisdom – We collaborate and leverage shared expertise
✔ Bias to Action – We execute with urgency and discipline

📌 Preference will be made to support EE / AA measures.

🔗 Ready to lead BI excellence and shape how data drives decisions across Lesaka Merchant?
Apply now — or share this opportunity with a top‑tier BI leader.

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