EdTech Application Product Owner & Development Lead

Old School Ties; Wes-Kaap; Hybrid; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Apex Education Group is seeking an Applications Product Owner / Development Lead to own the roadmap, direct external partners, and land complex school tech initiatives. You’ll balance prototyping, integrations and AI-assisted development while staying close to schools and teachers to ensure value delivery.

You’ll start with the learning platform and AI marking tool, work with the Head of Technology, and shape how two major posts share work as the School Information System decision progresses.

Qualifications

• Around 7 years in software development, with 2–3 years leading delivery as a tech lead or similar.
• Product sense: own a roadmap, write clear acceptance criteria, prioritise on value.
• Experience directing outsourced or partner development teams, including reviews.
• Strong hands-on skills in modern stacks (TypeScript/Node, Python or PHP), plus SQL & APIs.
• Practical cloud experience, ideally AWS, including CI/CD and containers.
• Working knowledge of POPIA and security fundamentals.
• An AI-native way of working with AI coding tools and LLМ APIs.

Responsibilities

• Own the roadmap and backlog for product areas; translate school feedback into testable criteria.
• Decide scope with Head of Technology and business owners; say no when appropriate.
• Run pilots and rollouts with teachers; scale from single school to network.
• Ensure adoption and measurable impact after release; adjust as needed.
• Coordinate with external development partners and manage releases.
• Maintain a lightweight delivery rhythm: planning, demos, release notes, roadmap.
• Ensure security, analytics and POPIA compliance across work.

Skills

Software development

Delivery leadership

Outsourced teams

AI tools

Cloud / AWS

POPIA knowledge

Stakeholder management

Tools

TypeScript/Node

Python

SQL

APIs

CI/CD

AWS

Job description

Apex Education Group is seeking an Applications Product Owner / Development Lead to own the roadmap, direct external partners, and land complex school tech initiatives. You’ll balance prototyping, integrations and AI-assisted development while staying close to schools and teachers to ensure value delivery.

You’ll start with the learning platform and AI marking tool, work with the Head of Technology, and shape how two major posts share work as the School Information System decision progresses.