Senior Data Engineer (12-month contract)

Role: Senior Data Engineer (12-month contract)

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Job type: Full time, (12-month FTC)

Working arrangement: Hybrid

This position offers a hybrid work model, allowing flexibility between working from home and our office. Typically, employees are expected to work 2 days in the office per week.

Why QS

At QS, we believe that work should empower you. That's why we foster a flexible working environment that encourages every employee to own their career whilst thriving personally and professionally. Our company values underpin everything we do we collaborate, respect and support each other.

It's our mission to empower motivated people around the world to fulfil their potential through higher education, ensuring that everyone has access to opportunities that change lives.

Our diversity makes us stronger. By sharing our experiences, we learn from one another and achieve more together, driving progress across the sector.

At QS, you'll be responsible for implementing real change in the international higher education landscape. You'll take on meaningful challenges that see a positive impact across the business and the wider sector.

We're confident you'll feel right at home here. QS was named as one of Newsweek's Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces in the UK (October 2023), recognising the respect, trust and appreciation that drive our culture every day. And as a gold-accredited Investors in People organisation putting us among the top 28% of workplaces globally it's official: QS is a place where everyone can thrive.

As a Senior Data Engineer, this is what you'll be doing:

At QS, we believe that empowering people through data drives meaningful impact in higher education worldwide. As a Senior Data Engineer (Data Asset Development), you will specialise in designing, building, and refining highquality data assets derived from QS proprietary datasets, licensed thirdparty sources, publicly scraped data, and internal operational systems.

This role focuses deeply on dbtbased transformation pipelines, robust data modelling, and the creation of analytically ready data assets used across rankings, research, commercial products, and enterprise analytics. You will work in close partnership with the Data Acquisition Lead to ensure full data lineage, metadata capture, and rigorous quality checks are embedded throughout every stage of the asset lifecycle.

While this is a specialised role dedicated to data asset development, you will also collaborate closely with the broader Data Engineering team. You will contribute to shared standards, participate in crossteam technical design discussions, support platform alignment, and ensure that assetlevel engineering work complements and enhances the wider data ecosystem at QS. This is an exciting opportunity to shape QS's next generation of data products through precision, quality, and deep domain stewardship. If you are passionate about building trusted datasets at scale and enjoy working with diverse, complex sources, we invite you to envision yourself in this impactful role at QS.

Role responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain highquality data assets by combining and harmonising thirdparty datasets, proprietary QS data, scraped collections, and internal data sources.
• Develop, optimise, and maintain dbt models, tests, and documentation to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and engineering excellence.
• Partner closely with the Data Lead to ensure:
• comprehensive data lineage from raw ingestion through to final assets,
• robust sourcelevel and transformationlevel data quality checks,
• consistent metadata capture and governance.
• Apply advanced data modelling techniques to unify heterogeneous data into coherent, scalable structures that support ranking methodologies, research insights, and analytics.
• Profile and validate source datasets, conducting thorough statistical, structural, and semantic checks before asset integration.
• Build and maintain standardised transformation frameworks that improve trust, comparability, and traceability across QS's data assets.
• Collaborate with the wider Data Engineering team to ensure alignment with platform standards, transformation principles, and shared engineering practices.
• Support data scientists, analysts, and BI teams by delivering welldocumented, dependable data assets that meet evolving analytical needs.
• Uphold rigorous data governance by embedding validation and documentation throughout workflows.
• Document data models, transformation logic, and operational procedures clearly and consistently.
• Mentor team members in dbt, modelling, asset development, and best practices in data quality and lineage.

Key skills and experience:

We welcome candidates from all backgrounds, including those with non-traditional career paths and transferable skills. If you are passionate about data engineering and eager to contribute to a collaborative, innovative environment, we encourage you to apply.

• Significant handson experience designing, building, and maintaining dbt transformation pipelines.
• Proven capability in developing data assets that integrate heterogeneous sources including thirdparty datasets, scraped data, and proprietary internal systems.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python, particularly for data shaping, ingestion orchestration, and quality automation.
• Practical experience working with cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, BigQuery, or equivalent.
• Deep understanding of data lineage, metadata management, governance, and reproducible modelling practices.
• Experience with data profiling, anomaly detection, schema validation, and quality assurance frameworks.
• Strong collaborative skills, especially in crossfunctional environments involving acquisition, sourcing, and analytics teams.
• Experience with data scraping pipelines or publicdata ecosystems.
• Familiarity with modelling datasets used for rankings, research, or analytical subscription products.

Experience in higher education technology is appreciated but not required. We welcome applicants who bring fresh perspectives and transferable skills from other industries or disciplines. Join us in shaping the future of data engineering within an inclusive and supportive team environment.

So, who are we and what do we do

QS is the world leader in higher education services, analytics, insights and intelligence. From consultancy to student mobility, academic partnerships to branding solutions, our services power both institutional and individual success.

We're behind the world's most widely read university rankings (Meltwater 2023). Our QS World University Rankings reach hundreds of millions, shaping decisions and guiding futures.

Since launching in 1990, our impact and influence have only grown. Today, we work with more than 2,000 of the world's leading higher education institutions, over 12,000 employers, and governments seeking change and socioeconomic development through higher education.

Join QS and you'll join an 800-strong community of problem-solvers, creators, collaborators and change-makers based in 40+ countries and 11 international offices, including Australia, Malaysia, India, Romania, Singapore, France, Germany, the USA and our headquarters in London.

With every talented new hire, business acquisition and bold initiative, we're strengthening our reach and delivering even greater value to institutions and learners worldwide. Are you ready to shape the future of higher education

We take investing in our people very seriously

• Competitive base salary
• Access to an annual bonus scheme (for qualifying roles only)
• 20 days annual leave, plus public holidays
• Generous maternity and paternity leave
• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and MiCare health
• A vibrant social environment and multicultural and multinational culture

But that's not all. Outside of these standard benefits we also offer resources to allow professional growth and wellness initiatives to nurture a healthy mindset:

• Free subscription to the Calm App the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation
• A focus on welfare which is led by our global wellness team, with mental health first aiders globally
• Access to a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives and groups
• Strong recognition and reward programs including a peer-to-peer recognition platform, quarterly and annual QS Applaud Awards, Connect with your Career annual PD event
• Support for volunteering and study leave
• Free subscription to LinkedIn learning with over 5000 courses and programmes at your fingertips
• Options to join our outstanding global Mentorship programme

Like what you've heard Great, apply now!

As a candidate, we know the application and interview process can be daunting and so it's important that you have a great experience with us. Our dedicated Talent Team will work hard to ensure you are fully informed at all stages and you are really excited by this opportunity to do meaningful work in the education space.

Equal opportunities

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is proud to be a fair and equal organisation where everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or personal attributes. We celebrate our diversity and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another, be stronger together, and enable our business to thrive.