Lead Software Engineer | Johannesburg | Permanent

Lead Software Engineer | Johannesburg | Permanent

Lead from the front, stay hands-on and help shape the next generation of secure, scalable software. This is an opportunity for an experienced full stack engineer to combine technical leadership with meaningful contribution across architecture, engineering and AI-enabled product development.

As Lead Software Engineer, you will provide hands-on technical leadership to a cross-functional development squad, owning solution design and contributing production-grade code across the front-end, back-end, APIs and database layers. You will help set engineering standards, make architectural decisions, drive modern DevOps and testing practices, and ensure solutions are secure, maintainable and fit for purpose.

The role is deliberately player-coach in nature. You will remain close to the technology while mentoring Senior, Intermediate and Junior developers, conducting code reviews, facilitating technical discussions and helping the team continuously improve. You will also work closely with Product, QA, DevOps, Business Analysis and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions.

The organisation is an established technology-driven business operating in an environment where software reliability, security, scalability and regulatory responsibility are critical. Its development environment is focused on modern engineering practices, continuous improvement and the practical adoption of emerging technologies, including AI-assisted development and AI-powered product capabilities. What You'll Do

Design, build, test and deploy end-to-end features across front-end, back-end, API and database layers

Own technical solution design, including data models, API contracts, UI patterns and third-party integrations

Provide technical direction across a development squad while remaining actively involved in production engineering

Define and maintain coding, branching, testing and engineering standards

Lead architectural and technology decisions and document key decisions through appropriate design documentation and ADRs

Establish scalable reference architectures across front-end, services, APIs and data layers

Conduct code reviews and facilitate pair and mob programming to improve technical quality

Champion CI/CD, automated testing, observability, trunk-based development and DevSecOps practices

Use delivery metrics to identify opportunities to improve engineering flow, quality and developer experience

Mentor engineers across different levels and support targeted technical development

Participate in technical interviews, onboarding and capability-building initiatives

Partner with QA to establish appropriate unit, integration, contract, end-to-end and perfo

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