Engineering Lead

Sabenza IT & Recruitment; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,100,000 - 1,700,000; Full time

Job summary

Sabenza IT & Recruitment, Johannesburg, is seeking an Engineering Lead to drive cross-functional technical delivery and align business, product and architecture teams. This senior role anchors the build phase and ensures readiness for release, with emphasis on clarity, planning and execution.

The role requires strong technical fluency, leadership across multi-disciplinary teams and a proven track record delivering complex enterprise initiatives in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in software development teams.
• Agile delivery certification (e.g. Scrum) – practical application preferred.
• Proven track record leading large, multi-disciplinary engineering teams across complex enterprise programmes.
• Strong background in cloud-native and distributed systems, API-first and microservices architectures.
• Experience with DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines and production release governance.

Responsibilities

• Drive end-to-end technical delivery through the build phase, ensuring work is sequenced, controlled and aligned to priorities, scope and milestones.
• Coordinate Business Product Owners, Technical Product Owners, the Chief Architect and engineering teams to maintain delivery clarity and momentum.
• Oversee the development, review and readiness of technical specification documents and artefacts before engineering execution starts.
• Manage delivery risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies and decisions across multiple workstreams and stakeholder groups.
• Provide governance, status reporting and escalation management to support quality delivery and timely decisions.
• Act as the practical integration point between technical design intent and build execution, ensuring clarity to deliver.
• Translate business and product intent into a coordinated technical execution plan for the build team.
• Ensure technical requirements, interfaces and acceptance criteria are well defined before build starts.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Agile delivery

Technical fluency

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IS

Tools

Git

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Job description

Johannesburg, South Africa | Posted on 11/08/2026

We’re looking for an Engineering Lead who’s part conductor, part translator, and full delivery force. This isn’t apure “write code all day” gig — it’s the senior role that sits right in themiddle of business ambition, product vision, architecture intent and theengineering team that has to turn it into working reality.

If you love being the practical bridgebetween “what we want to build” and “what actually gets built” — and you get akick out of driving clarity, alignment and execution through the entire buildphase — this is your stage.

Come lead the build. Make the complex feelcontrolled. Make the delivery feel inevitable.

Role Summary

Senior delivery role requiring strongtechnical fluency, stakeholder integration capability and disciplined executionthrough the build phase. Although titled as an Engineering Lead, the rolecarries broader responsibility for coordinating delivery readiness acrossbusiness, product, architecture and build stakeholders. Leads the build phaseof technology initiatives by aligning business, product, architecture andengineering stakeholders, ensuring technical specifications are delivery-ready,and driving the build team to execute against agreed scope, quality andtimelines.

Responsibilities

• Driveend-to-end technical delivery through the build phase, ensuring work issequenced, controlled and aligned to agreed priorities, scope and deliverymilestones.
• CoordinateBusiness Product Owners, Technical Product Owners, the Chief Architect andengineering teams to maintain delivery clarity, decision-making andmomentum.
• Overseethe development, review and readiness of technical specification documentsand supporting build artefacts before engineering execution starts.
• Managedelivery risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies and decisions acrossmultiple workstreams and stakeholder groups.
• Providegovernance, status reporting and escalation management to support qualitydelivery, issue resolution and timely decision-making.
• Act asthe practical integration point between technical design intent and buildexecution, ensuring the build team has sufficient clarity to deliver.
• Translatebusiness and product intent into a coordinated technical execution planfor the build team.
• Ensuretechnical requirements, specifications, dependencies, interfaces andacceptance criteria are sufficiently defined before build starts.
• Directand coordinate build activities across development and supporting teams todeliver against scope, timeline and quality expectations.
• Facilitatealignment between architecture decisions, technical design, backlogpriorities and engineering execution.
• Trackprogress against milestones and intervene where blockers, design gaps,resourcing issues or delivery risks arise.
• Supportreadiness for testing, release and implementation by ensuring buildoutputs are complete, controlled and traceable.
  

Requirements

• Bachelor'sdegree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related fieldpreferred
• 10+years of experience working in software development teams
• Agiledelivery certification (e.g. Scrum, or equivalent) – practical applicationpreferred over theory
• Proventrack record leading large, multi‑disciplinary engineering teams acrosscomplex enterprise programmes
• Strongbackground in modern application architectures, including:
• Cloud‑nativeand distributed systems
• API‑firstand microservices architectures
• Event‑drivenand integration‑heavy platforms
• Demonstratedleadership across the full software development lifecycle, from design andbuild through to release, Hyper‑Care, and stabilisation
• Experiencecollaborating closely with:
• Strongexposure to DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, and production release governance