Associate Data Engineer

**Introduction** A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You’ll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you’ll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You’ll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences. **Your role and responsibilities** As an Associate Data Engineer at IBM Client Innovation Center Belgium, you will help transform data into reliable, usable, and valuable solutions for our clients. You will join multidisciplinary project teams working across different industries and technology environments. Supported by experienced engineers, architects, analysts, and data scientists, you will contribute to real client solutions from the beginning while developing your technical and consulting skills. This is an early-career role for someone with a strong interest in data, solid foundations in programming and SQL, and the motivation to grow into a well-rounded data professional. You do not need to be an expert in every technology. We are looking for someone who is curious, takes ownership of their work, asks questions, and applies feedback. Your main focus will be data engineering. Depending on the project, you may also gain exposure to analytics, cloud platforms, data science, and artificial intelligence. In this role, you will: * Collaborate with data engineers, analysts, data scientists, architects, and client stakeholders to understand data requirements and translate them into practical solutions. * Support the development and maintenance of data pipelines that ingest, process, validate, and deliver data for analytical and operational use cases. * Use Python, SQL, and other relevant technologies to clean, structure, transform, and integrate data from different sources. * Help design and maintain data models, schemas, and reusable data components. * Contribute to technical documentation, solution design, testing, deployment, and operational support. * Participate in team discussions, technical reviews, knowledge-sharing sessions, and continuous improvement initiatives. * Gradually take ownership of defined data components and deliverables, with guidance from more experienced team members. * Develop an understanding of the client’s business context and communicate technical information clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. **Required technical and professional expertise** * Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Statistics, or another relevant field. Equivalent practical experience may also be considered. * Solid foundational knowledge of Python. * Good knowledge of SQL, including joins, aggregations, filtering, and data transformation. * Basic understanding of data pipelines, ETL and ELT processes, data modelling, and relational databases. * Ability to analyze data, investigate problems, and translate findings into clear actions. * Familiarity with software-development practices such as version control, code reviews, testing, and collaborative development. * A learning mindset and the confidence to ask questions, seek feedback, and apply what you learn. * Ability to take responsibility for assigned tasks and follow them through to completion. * Strong communication and collaboration skills. * Ability to work independently when required while remaining an active and reliable member of the team. * Fluent English and professional proficiency in Dutch or French, both written and spoken. **Preferred technical and professional experience** Experience in one or more of the following areas is considered an advantage, but is not required: * Cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or Google Cloud Platform. * Data visualisation or business-intelligence tools such as Power BI. * Academic, personal, internship, or professional projects involving data pipelines, analytics, machine learning, generative AI, large language models, or AI agents. We welcome candidates who may not meet every preferred qualification but can demonstrate strong fundamentals, curiosity, and the potential to grow. IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.