Data Engineer - Octave: Data and Advanced Analytics Centre of Excellence

John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) is Sri Lanka’s largest listed conglomerate in the Colombo Stock Exchange. From managing hotels and resorts in Sri Lanka and the Maldives to providing port, marine fuel and logistics services to IT solutions, manufacturing of food and beverages to running a chain of supermarkets, tea broking to stock broking, life insurance and banking to real estate, we have made our presence felt in virtually every major sphere of the economy.

Our business built over 150 years touches nearly every major sector of the economy. We generate a significant quantum of data, and we intend to use it to build the future of our businesses. Our Digital and Analytics insights can positively disrupt life for all Sri Lankans and our commitment to passion and excellence will help to deliver superior value to customers, our people, and the community.

Octave is at the core of data-driven strategic and operational decision-making at JKH. We solve some of the most complex challenges across multiple industry verticals by developing advanced machine learning and AI solutions—positively impacting the lives of millions of Sri Lankans. In addition to our work within JKH, we also collaborate with local and international clients to support their AI and data analytics transformations. At Octave, you’ll be part of a world-class team of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and AI researchers, guided by senior technical leaders with PhDs in AI-related fields and experience at leading global tech companies.

Role description

The Data Engineers will work with the data engineering team to help develop high performance & high scalability enterprise applications. Working closely with more experienced data engineers, they will be learning how to build pipelines and manage data. They will also work with data scientists and business leadership to develop data pipelines for model development and productionalization. Their work will involve high level of interface with senior data engineers and the tech lead.

Key responsibilities

• Gather requirements, assess gaps and build roadmaps and architectures.
• Work closely with Data Analysts to ensure data quality and availability for analytical modelling.
• Work with data engineers and senior data engineers and learn how to explore suitable options, design, and create data pipelines (data lake / data warehouses) for specific analytical solutions.
• Support maintenance, bug fixing and performance analysis along data pipeline.
• Contribute to knowledge building and sharing by researching best practices, documenting solutions and continuously iterating on new ways to solve problems.

Desired Skills / Competencies

Education + Technical skills / experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics or Statistics.
• 2+ years of experience in data engineering field.
• Basic knowledge of at least 1 programming language.
• Basic understanding of Microsoft Azure or other leading cloud platforms.
• Limited understanding of maintaining and configuring data engineering and ETL tools (e.g., Informatica, Azure Data Factory, SSIS).
• Basic understanding of data tools such as Hive, Spark, Hadoop, or Presto
  Managerial Skills.
• Ability to work well in agile environments in diverse teams with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong project management and organizational skills.
• Ability to effectively communicate complex analytical and technical content.

Mindset & Behavior

• High energy and passionate individual who inspires teammates to reach their maximum potential
• Excited about trying new solutions outside standard approved
• Willing to adopt an iterative approach; experimental mindset to drive innovation

John Keells Group is an equal-opportunity employer, and we invite applications from all suitably qualified individuals to join our team. By applying, you consent to the processing of your personal information for recruitment purposes and acknowledge that reference checks may be conducted.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply before 31/08/2026.