About the role

Job Description

Administer and manage the end-to-end Power BI and Microsoft Fabric platform (Capacities, Workspaces, Tenant Settings). Design and implement Fabric architectures including Lakehouse, Warehouse, Pipelines, Notebooks, Semantic Models, and Dataflows Gen2. Manage Power BI Premium / Fabric capacity sizing, scaling, chargeback models, and utilization optimization. Monitor and analyze capacity metrics (CU usage, background operations, interactive workloads, refresh concurrency, throttling). Lead troubleshooting of platform-level issues including refresh failures, throttling, memory pressure, gateway bottlenecks, and service degradation.

Key Responsibilities

Power BI & Microsoft Fabric Platform Administration

On-Premises Data Gateway & Connectivity

Design, deploy, and maintain enterprise On-Premises Data Gateway clusters (high availability and performance). Configure and tune gateway settings (connection pools, spooling, memory thresholds, concurrency limits). Manage secure connectivity to on-prem and cloud data sources (SQL Server, Oracle, Hive/Cloudera, SAP, REST APIs). Diagnose and resolve TLS/SSL, certificate, proxy, DNS, and authentication-related connectivity issues.

Data Infrastructure Engineering (Aligned)

Design and maintain enterprise-grade data architectures (on-prem and cloud).

Build data ingestion frameworks, storage solutions, and process pipelines. Integrate Fabric workloads with existing enterprise data platforms and cloud services.

Ensure system health and performance aligned with SLAs and best practices.

Optimize infrastructure for analytics workloads (batch, streaming, BI refresh, AI workloads).

Application & Platform Support (Analytics Ecosystem)

Provide Level 2/3 support for business-critical analytics platforms.

Conduct root cause analysis on dataset refresh, pipeline, gateway, and capacity incidents.

Monitor logs, telemetry, Admin APIs, and platform metrics. Manage Severity A incident with Microsoft Support and drive root-cause resolution.

DevOps, Automation & CI/CD (Analytics)

Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for Power BI and Fabric artefacts (PBIP projects, Semantic Models, Notebooks, Pipelines). Integrate Power BI/Fabric deployments with Git-based source control (Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, GitHub). Automate platform monitoring, governance checks, and operational reporting using PowerShell, REST APIs, and Admin APIs.

Implement Infrastructure as Code and configuration management where applicable.

Governance, Security & Compliance

Ensure compliance with enterprise security, audit, and regulatory requirements. Configure and enforce Power BI tenant settings, workspace governance, endorsement models, and data access controls. Implement secure secret management using Azure Key Vault and approved PAM solutions.

Apply data security best practices including RLS, sensitivity labels, and information protection.

Stakeholder Engagement & Leadership

Work closely with business units, BI developers, data engineers, architects, and leadership. Act as the senior technical authority and SME for Power BI and Fabric across the organization. Mentor junior specialists and establish platform standards, runbooks, and best practices.

Translate technical platform capabilities into business value and operational impact.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in:

Information Technology
Computer Science
Information Systems
Engineering or related field

Preferred Certifications

Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate
Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate
AWS Cloud Certification

Experience must include:

Enterprise Power BI administration (Premium / Fabric Capacities)
Microsoft Fabric platform design and operations
On-Premises Data Gateway architecture and performance tuning
Capacity planning, cost optimization, and platform chargeback models
Data infrastructure engineering
Cloud engineering (AWS and/or Azure)
DevOps automation and CI/CD
Monitoring & observability tools

Important Closing Date Note

Take note that applications will not be accepted on the below date and onwards, kindly submit applications ahead of the closing date indicated below.

24/04/26

All appointments will be made in line with FirstRand Group’s Employment Equity plan. The Bank supports the recruitment and advancement of individuals with disabilities. In order for us to fulfill this purpose, candidates can disclose their disability information on a voluntary basis. The Bank will keep this information confidential unless we are required by law to disclose this information to other parties.

Aplyr's read

FirstRand is a dominant force in South Africa's financial sector, attracting professionals focused on innovative banking solutions and ethical financial practices.
Synthesized from recent postings & public sources

What's promising

•FirstRand is a market leader in South Africa's financial services industry.
•The company offers diverse career paths across banking, risk management, and financial analysis.
•Strong focus on ethical practices with roles like Chief Ethics and Conduct Risk Officer.

What to watch

•High competition in the financial services sector may limit growth opportunities.
•Limited public information about global expansion strategies.
•Potentially high-pressure work environment due to industry demands.

Why FirstRand

•FirstRand's extensive talent pool initiatives indicate a commitment to long-term employee development.
•The company emphasizes ethical risk management and conduct.
•Offers specialized roles like XVA Structurer, highlighting a focus on complex financial products.

Aplyr’s read is generated by AI from public sources. Was it useful?

About FirstRand

FirstRand

firstrand.co.za

View company

FirstRand Corporate Centre is a leading financial services provider in South Africa, offering a wide range of banking and financial products and services.