Data Specialist (24 month FTC)

KPMG New Zealand is part of the international KPMG network and one of the world’s leading professional services organisations. We provide audit, tax and advisory services to individuals, SMEs, multi-nationals and government agencies.

Locally, we’re known for our values-driven culture and strong staff engagement, anchored in our purpose of fuelling New Zealand’s prosperity. This purpose drives everything we do, from our client work to internal practises, all guided by our shared values of Integrity, Courage, Excellence, Together, for Better.

This role is a full time fixed term 24 month contract.

The opportunity:

• The Data Specialist helps ensure that KPMG is a data-driven and insights-led firm. The role will help develop, modernise, and support data solutions that enable reliable reporting, business process automation, operational integrations, and analytics across the firm.
• Our data platform supports a broad set of business-critical functions, including data engineering, cloud data platforms, operational data services, data integrations, semantic models, Power BI reporting, and trusted data products.
• The role will support the ongoing modernisation of our data estate, helping us move from traditional style data operations & patterns towards a more cloud-enabled, governed and AI-ready data platform.
• You will work across modern data technologies such as Azure SQL, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI and related cloud data services, while continuing to support the operational reliability of current data services.
• The role will also contribute to improving data governance, data quality, lineage, security, and trusted consumption of data across reporting, integrations, automation, and future AI-enabled use cases.

Day to day you will:

• Design, develop and maintain data pipelines, data integrations, databases, and models supporting analytical solutions.
• Build and support modern ETL/ELT patterns across cloud data platforms, including Azure, Databricks, SQL and related Azure services.
• Integrate and manage data from a range of internal and external source systems, including APIs, files, cloud services, operational applications, and vendor platforms.
• Develop and support curated data products that can be used by semantic models, Power BI reports, downstream integrations, and future AI-enabled consumption patterns.
• Support operational data workloads, business process automations, reference/master data needs, and integration persistence using relational data platforms where appropriate.
• Produce and maintain BI reporting solutions, semantic models and analytics-ready datasets that provide accurate, consistent, and timely insights.
• Contribute to data governance practices including data quality, lineage, access control, metadata, sensitivity classification, and documentation.
• Use Azure DevOps and modern engineering practices to manage code, deployments, releases and change control.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, technology teams, data consumers, and external vendors to understand requirements and deliver reliable, scalable solutions.
• Monitor, troubleshoot and improve existing data processes to ensure performance, reliability, security, and supportability.

What you will bring to the team:

• Bring strong cloud data engineering experience and are comfortable working across modern data platforms, ideally within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem.
• Have hands-on experience building and supporting data pipelines using technologies such as Azure Data Factory, Databricks, PySpark, Python, SQL, SSIS or similar ETL/ELT tools.
• Understand traditional SQL Server, SSIS, data warehouse and operational data patterns, but are equally interested in helping transition these workloads into modern cloud-based architectures.
• Are confident working with SQL Server and Azure SQL, including T-SQL development, stored procedures, views, indexing, relational modelling, and performance tuning.
• Have experience, or a strong interest, in modern platform capabilities such as Databricks, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI semantic models and governed data products.
• Have experience integrating data from multiple sources including APIs, files, databases, cloud services, vendor platforms, and internal business systems.
• Are comfortable working through platform transition, supporting existing operational processes while helping shape improved engineering, governance, and delivery practices.
• Have experience with Azure DevOps, source control, release processes, and deployment practices.
• Can work with business stakeholders, technology teams, and external vendors to translate requirements into reliable, scalable, and supportable data solutions.
• Are pragmatic, curious, and collaborative, with the ability to balance modernisation with the need to keep critical business processes stable.

This role is suited to someone who enjoys working across both current-state and future-state platforms. You will help maintain the data services the firm depends on today, while contributing to the modernisation of our data platform for cloud data engineering, trusted analytics, governed data products, and future AI-ready capabilities.