CLOUD ENGINEER (Data Ops and Analytical Workflows)

About the job

CLOUD ENGINEER (Data Ops and Analytical Workflows)

Line manager: Natural State – Head of Conservation Technology

Location:Cape Town or Remote (depending on the applicant)

Employment Type: One year Contract, Renewable

Terms: Consultancy contract, full-time (40 hrs per week)

Salary: Negotiable

Travel: Occasional travel to Kenya (1-3 times a year)

Benefits: Consultants do not qualify for a benefit package

About Natural State

Natural State is a not-for-profit headquartered in the northern rangelands of Kenya. Our goal is to develop technology and financial systems that will catalyse large-scale restoration globally and train future leaders for this sector. In the short term, we are revolutionising impact monitoring for carbon, biodiversity and human-wellbeing, so that the success or failure of restoration efforts can be clearly defined. We are using this technology to help test a broad range of innovative financing mechanisms that aim to support large-scale restoration, sequester carbon, and provide benefits to local communities.

Position overview:

We are seeking a highly skilled Cloud Engineer to join our dynamic Conservation Technology team and lead the operationalisation of scientific and analytical processes that drive our impact.

Responsibilities:

Principal areas of interest include:

• Design, deploy, and maintain robust and scalable data and ML pipelines using Azure cloud services and Databricks.

• Operationalise analytical/statistical models developed by Natural State’s Biometrics team, ensuring reproducibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency.

• Use dbt (Data Build Tool)to build and maintain modular, production-ready SQL-based transformation workflows.

• Develop automated workflows and CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to enable continuous delivery of analytical models and metrics.

• Collaborate closely with:

• Natural State’s Conservation Technologyteam to integrate analytical products into core technical systems.

• Natural State’s Biometricsteam to translate analytical needs into scalable, cloud-native workflows.

• Lead the data engineering and orchestration aspects of analytical delivery: defining input data requirements, transformation logic, and output pipelines.

• Leverage Azure Machine Learningfor model training, evaluation, and deployment where relevant.

• Apply Great Expectationsto automate QA/QC checks and monitor data integrity and model performance.

• Support data governance and metadata management using Databricks Unity Catalog.

• Act as a bridge between scientific domain experts and engineering teams, ensuring that analytical intent is faithfully executed in technical implementation.

• Continuously evaluate and optimize system performance, cost, and maintainability.

• Contribute to web-based analytical tools by supplying APIs or output data that serve operational dashboards and reporting systems.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Cloud Computing, or related field.

• Demonstrated experience operationalising machine learning or statistical workflows in production environments.

• Proficiency in Azure, Databricks, and dbtis essential.

• Familiarity with Great Expectations, GitHub Actions, and Apache Spark.

• Experience with Azure Machine Learningand related ML lifecycle management.

• Solid understanding of data modelling, orchestration, and cloud-native architecture principles.

• Ability to independently translate scientific or statistical requirements into robust engineering solutions.

• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work across technical and non-technical teams.

• Experience working with tools like Terraform, Helm, and Kubernetes is advantageous but not required.

Why Join Us:

• Play a critical role in transforming scientific insights into operational conservation impact.

• Work with a mission-driven team leveraging the best of modern data and ML tooling.

• Collaborate with world-class scientists and engineers to solve global environmental challenges.

• Opportunity for professional growth and experimentation with modern data stack technologies.

• Flexible working arrangements and a culture of innovation.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their resume and cover letter (pdf format only) describing your aptitude and interest in the position at this link. Applications will be accepted until July 18th at midnight EAT. We look forward to reviewing your application and learning about how you can contribute to our mission.

Natural State is an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or age.

CLOUD ENGINEER (Data Ops and Analytical Workflows)