Engineering Lead

Explore Group; Wes-Kaap; Remote; ZAR 900,000 - 1,700,000; Full time

Job summary

Explore Group is seeking an Engineering Lead (Mobile) for Cape Town / Remote (SA) to drive the technical direction, architecture, and end-to-end delivery of core mobile applications and backend service integrations.

You will lead and mentor a team of engineers, remaining hands-on in code, championing modern software craftsmanship, and collaborating closely with Product and design teams on complex global rollouts.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with 3+ years leading technical teams or acting as Tech Lead.
• Proven track record mentoring engineers (5+ headcount preferred) while staying hands-on.
• Deep architectural and hands-on experience building scalable mobile solutions across native or cross‑platform environments.
• Experience designing RESTful API integrations, third-party service connections, and microservices-backed architectures.
• Strong focus on clean code, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and modern DevOps/mobile release practices.
• Collaborative approach with Product Managers to balance feature delivery with technical debt.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical direction and end-to-end delivery of core mobile apps.
• Mentor and manage engineers while remaining hands-on.
• Champion software craftsmanship and modern release practices.
• Collaborate with Product and Design on global rollouts.

Skills

Mobile leadership

Hands-on coding

Architectural design

RESTful APIs

CI/CD

DevOps practices

Team mentoring

Tools

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Engineering Lead (Mobile) – Cape Town / Remote (SA) – High-Growth Consumer Tech

Explore Group has partnered with an established, fast-growing international consumer technology business undergoing significant investment across its digital product engineering division. The team is scaling a high-traffic mobile ecosystem designed to serve millions of active users across multiple international territories.

The Role:

We are seeking a hands-on Engineering Lead (Mobile) to drive the technical direction, architecture, and end-to-end delivery of core mobile applications and backend service integrations.

In this role, you will lead and mentor a team of engineers while remaining hands-on in code, championing modern software craftsmanship, and collaborating closely with Product and design teams on complex global rollouts.

Key Experience:

• 8+ years of commercial software engineering experience, with 3+ years leading technical teams or acting as Tech Lead.
• Proven track record guiding and mentoring engineers (ideally teams of 5+) while staying actively hands-on.
• Deep architectural and hands-on experience building performant, scalable mobile solutions across native or modern cross-platform environments.
• Solid experience designing RESTful API integrations, third-party service connections, and microservices-backed architectures.
• Strong focus on clean code, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and modern DevOps/mobile release practices.
• Pragmatic approach to technical roadmaps, working collaboratively with Product Managers to balance feature delivery with technical debt.

Bonus Points:

• Experience with modern cross-platform or multiplatform mobile architectures.
• Experience with subscription lifecycle management, recurring billing, or payment gateway integrations.
• Familiarity with high-volume customer account management or authenticated mobile apps.
• Experience working within Agile/Scrum environments.