Lead Engineer

Introduction

Our client in Johannesburg is recruiting for a  Lead Engineer  to join their team.

Job Description

• Advise, maintain and implement the Engineering standards, methods and procedures across Portfolio to ensure a consistent and best practice approach in the development of end-to-end solutions.

• Collaborate with Platform Owners in ensuring that the platform is engineered to be secure, meet service level objectives in terms of availability, reliability and performance. Set-up appropriate processes to quality assure all code deployed onto the platform.

• Conduct quality assurance and approve developed code linked to supplied specifications and ensure that applications are built in line with continuous delivery/ continuous integration standards.

• Continuously develop and mature competency of the Engineering team by overseeing the provision of support in the form of training, mentoring, coaching, etc. for practice team members to allow them to attain mastery in their technical skills. Collaborate and create opportunities for team members to acquire adjacent skills (T-shaped employees ) and emergent skills as well as actively driving cross skilling as a strategic initiative in conjunction with other technology engineering practices.

• Contribute deep, specialist knowledge of the technological landscape to the team, thereby developing and enhancing the technical capabilities of the team, and building a pipeline of expertise.

• Create client value through shaping end-to-end delivery and management of technical solutions realising business solutions and features. Provide expert Engineering leadership to focus on building capability that produces predictable, reliable and sustainable solutions, across all teams in the Portfolio.

• Direct and lead a culture supportive of change and encourage autonomy of decision making within clearly defined boundaries. Create an environment in which learning and continuous development are emphasised and valued, whilst taking personal responsibility for coaching and mentoring others.

• Direct the delivery and quality of the technical solution being delivered against Engineering standards, practices and quality performance metrics and manage solution quality related escalations that may impact delivery Drive engineering capacity for the Program, building the supply, pipeline, recruiting and on-boarding of resources to meet the Program's current and future needs, appointing staff within budget constraints, complying with organisational skills standards and requirements, to enable the target business outcomes within schedule.

• Ensure a common sense of purpose by establishing the vision, intent and desired outcomes of the engineering practices and resources (Software-; Quality Engineering, system teams) within the Portfolio. Drive a culture of relentless improvement.

• Establish and maintain the Portfolio technical capability by implementing Software Engineering standards to maintain required stability, resilience and performance levels, continually improve the quality of technical solutions.

• Establish clear content authority in collaboration with the System Architect/ Engineer, Product Managers, and Product Owners to align teams to the system mission and vision i.e. system Future State Architecture strategies, roadmaps as well as System Service Ownership requirements e.g. system dependencies, required service levels etc.

• Full responsibility for practice or functions end to end delivery including objectives key results, budget, quality, feasibility and sustainability.

• Guide root cause analysis of priority failures, putting in place remediation actions. Oversee the development and maintenance of run-books for all required platform services / functions.

• Improve security posture of technical solutions by partnering with relevant Information Security practices and SMEs to ensure best practice security standards and requirements are embedded into all engineering practices within the Portfolio.

• Influence business product owners and Program delivery priorities by providing the voice for inclusion and prioritisation of technical activities as part of the Program backlog, Bring to bear experience and knowledge of global Engineering practices to advise appropriate roadmaps and prioritisation of capability building & continuous improvement (e.g. Technical Debt refactoring, Evergreen technology stack, Platform roadmaps).

• Influence the thinking of the Business Unit, and exert influence across the technology landscape (within IT as well as the individual business). Disrupt and challenge accepted technology standards, thereby influencing technology outcomes. Seek opportunities to continually drive the enhancement of delivery standards.

• Lead the setting of clear expectations for the achievement of quality goals and objectives, providing explicit guidance about individual performance expectations. Set-up appropriate structures for continual measurement of performance and ensure resource delivery quality assessments.. Drive the improvement of quality of resources. Escalation point for the management of improvement of performance and development of functional resources.

• Lead, manage, and mentor the Software Engineers, Quality Engineers and System Team resources within Portfolio, ensuring the development and maintenance of highly skilled and motivated resources.

• Listen and direct teams in problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making by guiding in the planning, and contributing to various workshops and system demonstrations during iterations of delivery by being in the work leading and participating in labs, reviews and showcases.

• Look actively for opportunities to shorten development timelines, improve skills of the team and improve cost efficiency of application development activities.

• Manage and control the financial forecast, budget and reporting for the Portfolio Engineering team to ensure the effective control of costs.

• Manage the Engineering team specifically through Performance Management and career development. Act as the escalation point for the management of improvement of performance and development of functional resources.

• Manage the finances and sourcing models for engineering on the Program level, define and plan future workforce growth and sourcing strategies, and budgeting accordingly.

• Mature the application of Software Engineering practices, leading the System Team capabilities (Change, Automation, Integration) and priorities on the program backlog. Spending 30-50% of the time leading engineering practice activities across all release trains within the program.

• Oversee the containment of technical debt levels and that re-factoring / remediation / simplification takes places on a regular basis.

• Oversee the management of demand and resource capacity (planning/ effective utilisation); responsible for resource utilisation and cost management of the team. Ensure an appropriate supply of technical experts and availability and retention of critical skills to effectively deliver on demand, matching the most appropriate resources to the delivery Team requirements.

• Participate and contribute to the Guilds (Communities of Practice ) to encourage in-and-across-practice collaboration, information sharing and growth of technical competency.

• Perform detailed analysis (quality, delivery performance and application value), develop and provide insight into Engineering performance, deliver consolidated Portfolio reporting and advise on adjusted strategies based on global trends and expertise.

• Provide specialist expertise and guidance to Platform Owners in respect of realising and adapting the Technology & Operations strategic objectives in achieving fit for purpose programme priorities.

• Provide technical direction to the teams by leading and guiding their output in line with the delivery and business objectives. Drive continual engineering deliver