Chief AI-Enabled Engineering & Platform Leader

Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (SA) Ltd; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (SA) Ltd seeks a Head of Engineering to lead development, modernisation and maintenance of applications, systems and platforms, translating technology strategy into stable, secure and scalable solutions.

This AI-native leadership role embeds AI-assisted engineering into the software lifecycle and delivers AI-enabled products and platforms for business outcomes, while driving delivery discipline, governance and engineering excellence across chapters.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Software Engineering or a related field.
• At least 8 years of general technology or software engineering experience, with significant exposure to complex delivery environments.
• At least 7 years of managerial experience, including leadership or mentorship of software engineering teams.
• Experience leading cross-functional development teams and delivering complex, business-critical projects.
• Strong understanding of software development across front-end, back-end, integration and platform technologies.
• Experience defining and maintaining application software roadmaps aligned to business priorities.
• Proven ability to balance delivery speed, production stability, security, risk and quality.
• Excellent problem-solving, debugging, communication, collaboration and leadership skills.
• Commitment to staying current with emerging technology trends, including cloud, microservices, automation, data and AI.
• Demonstrated experience leading AI-augmented software engineering organisations, including adoption of AI coding assistants and agentic development tools at scale.
• Working knowledge of platform engineering, internal developer platforms and metrics-driven engineering culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional development teams and deliver complex, business-critical projects.
• Build and drive AI-augmented engineering practices across the lifecycle.
• Define and maintain the engineering roadmap and drive platform initiatives.
• Improve delivery speed, production stability, security and governance.
• Establish Chapter operating model and ensure talent development.
• Measure delivery and reliability using metrics like DORA and SLOs.

Skills

Agile Methodology

Artificial Intelligence Techniques

People Management

Software Engineering Competencies

Business Insight

Collaborates

Communicates Effectively

Cultivates Innovation

Customer Focus

Decision Quality

Develops Talent

Drives Engagement

Education

Bachelor of Computer Science (BCoSc)

Job description

Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (SA) Ltd seeks a Head of Engineering to lead development, modernisation and maintenance of applications, systems and platforms, translating technology strategy into stable, secure and scalable solutions.

This AI-native leadership role embeds AI-assisted engineering into the software lifecycle and delivers AI-enabled products and platforms for business outcomes, while driving delivery discipline, governance and engineering excellence across chapters.