SAS Developer

Senior SAS Data Engineer – Banking / Financial Services (Contract) Location: UK (Hybrid / Remote depending on project needs) Contract Type: Contract Industry: Banking / Financial Services Role Overview We are seeking a Senior SAS Data Engineer to support enterprise-scale banking and financial services data, risk, and regulatory initiatives. This is a replacement role requiring a hands-on SAS specialist with strong experience across SAS programming, data engineering, production deployment, and model scoring in regulated environments. The role works closely with Insights, Modelling, Reporting, Strategy, and Implementation teams, supporting end-to-end delivery from development through production. Key Responsibilities • Design, develop, and maintain enterprise-grade SAS programs using Base SAS, SAS SQL, Data Step programming, and SAS Macros • Write extensive SAS code to automate processes, reports, and model scoring • Build, optimise, and manage ETL / ELT pipelines in SAS • Set up and manage scoring processes, including SAS Scoring Accelerator for Hadoop • Work with large, complex banking datasets across Hadoop and relational data platforms • Create and manage data layers and data models within the Hadoop ecosystem • Partner with Insights, Modelling, and Reporting teams to deploy jobs into production • Coordinate with corporate systems and platform administrators on cross-domain issues • Perform post-deployment sanity checks to ensure production stability • Schedule and manage production jobs using SAS Management Console, Unix shell scripting, and Cron • Actively manage end-to-end job flows, monitoring failures and resolving defects • Apply strong knowledge of SAS merge techniques, Set statements, Formats, and Informats • Perform data quality checks, reconciliation, and validation • Provide alternate, efficient technical solutions where applicable • Report execution results to Strategy and Implementation teams • Work with business partners to resolve defects and ensure timely closure • Maintain clear technical documentation and support data governance standards Essential Skills & Experience • 8–10 years of strong, hands-on SAS programming experience • Advanced expertise in Base SAS, SAS SQL, SAS Macros, and Data Step programming • Experience with SAS Management Console and production job scheduling • Practical experience using Unix shell scripting and Cron • Strong experience in ETL, data extraction, cleansing, transformation, and loading • Experience working with Hadoop-based data environments • Strong SQL skills and experience with relational databases (e.g. Oracle) • Proven experience in banking or financial services environments • Strong understanding of risk, regulatory, credit, or reporting data • Ability to understand business requirements and use cases and translate them into technical solutions • Strong written and verbal communication skills • Self-driven, delivery-focused, and deadline-oriented Desirable / Nice to Have • Experience with SAS Viya implementations or migrations • Experience with Google Cloud Platform (BigQuery, Datalab) • Experience with Talend or other ETL tools • Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and modern development practices • SAS Certified Base Programmer or SAS Certified Advanced Programmer (preferred, not mandatory) • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience Important Note This role is intended for senior SAS professionals with strong banking or financial services experience, comfortable working hands-on in complex, regulated data environments.