SaaS Engineering Director

Scovai; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

CONFIDENTIAL — A Cape Town-based SaaS company is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead the engineering organization for a high-growth B2B platform. The role is hybrid and based in Cape Town, with responsibility for end-to-end product engineering roadmap, architecture, scalability, release management and team building.

You will drive microservices, API-first design, cloud-native infra across AWS/Azure/GCP, ensure reliability and security, and partner with product, design, and data teams to

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the engineering strategy for a multi-tenant SaaS platform.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Microservices architecture

API-first design

Cloud-native infrastructure

CI/CD pipelines

DevOps practices

Code quality and security standards

Observability

Agile delivery

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

CONFIDENTIAL — We are conducting a confidential search for a SaaS Engineering Director to lead the engineering organisation for a high-growth B2B SaaS platform. This is a high-impact, director-level opportunity based in Cape Town on a hybrid model for a senior engineering leader who will own the end-to-end product engineering roadmap, from architecture and platform scalability through to release management and engineering team scaling.

In this role, you will define and execute the engineering strategy for a multi-tenant SaaS platform, driving microservices architecture, API-first design, and cloud-native infrastructure across AWS, Azure, or GCP. You will lead platform reliability and performance engineering, oversee CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices, and establish engineering standards for code quality, security, and observability. You will build and scale high-performing engineering teams, champion agile delivery methodologies, and partner with product, design, and data teams to deliver features that drive customer acquisition and retention.

This is a rare opportunity to lead the engineering function of a scaling SaaS business from Cape Town — one of Africa's most vibrant and fast-growing tech ecosystems.

Nice to have

• Experience scaling SaaS platforms to 10K+ enterprise customers
• Track record building engineering teams in South Africa or Africa
• Familiarity with POPIA and South African data protection requirements
• Experience with AI/ML feature integration in SaaS products
• Open-source contributions or community leadership