Head of Data

About the role

We are looking for a Head of Data to own and scale the data function for Opareta, a company building data infrastructure for mobile‑money agent networks across Africa. Reporting to the CEO and Head of Product, you will shape strategy, design architecture and lead a growing team while still getting hands‑on with SQL and pipeline work.

Key responsibilities

• Define and execute the data strategy and roadmap, aligning with product and engineering leaders.
• Provide architectural oversight for the data warehouse, ETL pipelines and reporting layers, including integration with new partners.
• Design the data organization, identify and hire key roles such as data engineers and BI specialists.
• Set and monitor SLAs for data uptime, quality and freshness.
• Establish a data‑driven culture and define ways of working across the business.
• Participate in business development activities, demos, pitches and contract negotiations.
• Perform hands‑on data wrangling, write SQL queries, debug pipelines and deliver dashboards.

Required profile

• Minimum 8 years of experience in data engineering, analytics or related fields.
• Proven track record of leading data teams and delivering data products in fast‑moving environments.
• Strong strategic thinking combined with the ability to execute technical tasks.
• Experience working with both cloud and on‑premise data stacks.

Required skills

• SQL