Head Developer - 21279
somewhere
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Job summary
Our client in Cape Town is seeking a senior Head Developer to take technical ownership of a high-growth, real-time platform. The role requires deep full-stack expertise in Next.js, Node.js, TypeScript, Redis, and AWS, with a hands-on approach to architecture, development, and reliability.
You will own critical areas of the platform, set engineering standards, and lead architectural decisions while shipping production code.
Qualifications
- 5+ years of professional software development experience.
- Deep full-stack development across modern web apps.
- Advanced experience with TypeScript and Next.js.
- Strong backend experience with Node.js.
- Experience designing and maintaining production APIs.
- Strong Redis and caching knowledge.
- Experience with real-time systems.
- Strong AWS experience.
- Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines.
- Willingness to work in person in Cape Town, Monday–Friday.
Responsibilities
- Own and contribute directly to development across the full technology stack.
- Build and maintain frontend applications using Next.js and TypeScript.
- Develop scalable backend services using Node.js and TypeScript.
- Design and maintain APIs, services, integrations, and core platform functionality.
- Develop reliable real-time functionality for a high-activity consumer platform.
- Use Redis effectively for caching and real-time features.
- Write clean, production-quality code and troubleshoot complex issues.
- Maintain high standards for performance, reliability, and security.
- Take end-to-end technical ownership of the platform alongside leadership.
Skills
Tools
Job description
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Work Arrangement: In-Person
Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent
Schedule: Monday–Friday, Cape Town business hours
Experience: 5+ years
Our client is a fast-moving startup operating two rapidly growing online casino brands across the crypto and U.S. social casino markets.
The business operates within a larger ecosystem of established gaming operators. One brand is backed by an international gaming group operating 17 additional casinos generating more than $50 million per month in gross gaming revenue. The second is backed by a major U.S. operator generating more than $10 million per month in gross profit.
The company is building for significant scale. With strong execution, the team believes the business has the potential to exceed $100 million in annual profit within the next year.
This is an entrepreneurial, high-ownership environment where core team members have the opportunity to directly influence the technology, systems, and products behind a rapidly scaling business.
We are seeking a highly experienced Head Developer to take technical ownership of the company's platform alongside leadership.
This is a genuinely senior, hands-on engineering position requiring deep full-stack development expertise. The successful candidate will own critical areas of architecture, development, infrastructure, reliability, and technical decision-making across a high-growth, real-time consumer platform.
The core stack consists of Next.js, Node.js, TypeScript, Redis, AWS, real-time technologies, and Bitbucket CI.
This is not a role for someone who wants to exclusively manage engineers or operate several layers removed from the codebase. The Head Developer will be expected to personally solve difficult technical problems, ship production code, make architecture decisions, and build systems that can support rapid growth.
Seniority and technical depth are particularly important for this position. The ideal candidate combines master-level engineering ability with the speed, ownership, communication, and AI-first mentality required in an early-stage environment.
Own and contribute directly to development across the full technology stack.
Build and maintain frontend applications using Next.js and TypeScript.
Develop scalable backend services using Node.js and TypeScript.
Design and maintain APIs, services, integrations, and core platform functionality.
Develop reliable real-time functionality for a high-activity consumer platform.
Use Redis effectively for caching, performance, real-time functionality, and other appropriate use cases.
Write clean, maintainable, production-quality code.
Troubleshoot complex issues across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and integrations.
Maintain a high standard for application performance, reliability, and security.
Take end-to-end technical ownership of the platform alongside company leadership.
Make architecture decisions that balance immediate speed with long-term scalability.
Evaluate existing systems and proactively identify technical weaknesses, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement.
Design systems capable of supporting substantial increases in traffic, users, transactions, and product complexity.
Establish engineering patterns and technical standards for the broader development organization.
Reduce unnecessary technical debt without allowing perfectionism to slow execution.
Maintain a strong understanding of the entire platform rather than operating within a narrow engineering specialty.
Work extensively within an AWS-based production environment.
Maintain and improve cloud infrastructure supporting the platform.
Design for availability, scalability, performance, security, and operational resilience.
Monitor production systems and rapidly diagnose infrastructure or application issues.
Improve deployment and development processes as the platform scales.
Own and improve CI/CD workflows using Bitbucket CI.
Build reliable processes for testing, deployment, monitoring, and rollback.
Build and optimize systems where real-time application behavior is critical.
Identify performance bottlenecks across application and infrastructure layers.
Design systems capable of maintaining responsiveness under increasing load.
Implement appropriate caching and data-access strategies.
Monitor system health and proactively address reliability concerns.
Approach performance and scalability as core product requirements rather than afterthoughts.
Use modern AI development tools as a core part of the engineering workflow.
Identify opportunities to use AI agents to accelerate development, testing, debugging, documentation, and operational processes.
Build AI-powered workflows and internal systems where they can create meaningful leverage.
Automate repetitive engineering and operational work rather than repeatedly completing low-value tasks manually.
Experiment with emerging AI development technologies and rapidly adopt tools that improve engineering output.
Help establish an engineering environment where AI significantly increases the productivity of individual team members.
Set a high technical standard for the engineering function.
Review architecture and code and provide clear technical guidance.
Help establish development standards, documentation, and engineering processes.
Mentor other developers as the engineering team expands.
Make difficult technical decisions when multiple solutions are viable.
Remain hands-on enough to personally solve the platform's most challenging engineering problems.
Help determine when to build internally, automate, integrate third-party technology, or simplify an existing system.
5+ years of professional software development experience.
Deep full-stack development expertise across modern web applications.
Advanced experience with TypeScript.
Strong hands-on experience with Next.js.
Strong backend development experience with Node.js.
Experience designing and maintaining production APIs and backend services.
Strong experience with Redis and caching or high-performance application architectures.
Experience developing or maintaining real-time systems.
Strong practical experience with AWS.
Experience implementing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
Strong understanding of modern software architecture and scalable system design.
Ability to independently diagnose and solve complex production issues.
Strong understanding of application performance, reliability, security, and maintainability.
Ability to make architecture decisions without requiring extensive direction.
Comfortable remaining highly hands-on with production code.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to work quickly while maintaining appropriate technical standards.
Willingness to work in person in Cape Town, Monday through Friday.
Previous experience with high-traffic consumer applications.
Experience within online gaming, casinos, crypto, Web3, fintech, or another transaction-heavy digital environment.
Experience building platforms requiring significant real-time functionality.
Experience scaling applications through periods of rapid user or transaction growth.
Experience serving as a lead engineer, technical lead, Head of Engineering, or similar technical owner.
Experience mentoring and developing other engineers.
Experience with AI coding tools, agents, and LLM-powered development workflows.
Experience building internal automation and AI-powered engineering systems.
Familiarity with crypto and Web3 technologies is advantageous.
Speed is fundamental to how the team operates. During working hours, communication happens quickly, and team members are expected to have a strong "do it now" mentality while still prioritizing intelligently.
The Head Developer must be capable of shipping quickly without turning every technical decision into a lengthy engineering exercise.
Technical blockers should never sit silently when a quick conversation could resolve them. The successful candidate communicates problems early, asks questions when requirements are unclear, and ensures they fully understand an objective before moving forward.
Work is driven by clear deliverables, ownership, and realistic ETAs. The Head Developer will be expected to communicate what is being built, when it will be delivered, and immediately raise concerns when timelines or outcomes are at risk.
The company takes an AI-first and systems-driven approach to work. Repetitive tasks should trigger the question: Can an AI agent, automation, or better system handle this instead?
Intelligent experimentation is encouraged. Making occasional mistakes while building automation is preferable to repeatedly spending valuable engineering time on monotonous manual work.
The company values technical ability, curiosity, speed, and ownership over pedigree or big-company processes.
The ideal candidate has strong opinions but holds them loosely. They can defend a technical decision while remaining willing to change direction when evidence suggests a better approach.
The core technology environment includes:
Next.js
Node.js
TypeScript
Redis
AWS
Real-time technologies
Bitbucket
Bitbucket CI
APIs and third-party integrations
AI coding and development tools
AI agents and workflow automation
The Head Developer will work directly alongside company leadership and serve as a primary technical owner of the platform.
This position carries substantial autonomy and responsibility. The successful candidate will be expected to approach the technology as an owner, proactively identifying what needs to be built, fixed, automated, or improved rather than waiting for a predefined task list.
Full-Time, Monday–Friday
Cape Town business hours
Permanent, in-person position in Cape Town, South Africa
Success in this role will be measured by:
Stability, scalability, and performance of the platform.
Speed and quality of engineering execution.
Successful delivery of critical product functionality.
Quality and maintainability of the codebase.
Reliability of real-time systems and production infrastructure.
Ability to identify and resolve technical problems before they materially affect the business.
Effectiveness of AWS infrastructure and deployment processes.
Improvements to CI/CD and engineering automation.
Successful use of AI and automation to increase development velocity.
Ability to provide strong technical direction as the engineering organization grows.
Clear communication of technical priorities, blockers, deliverables, and timelines.
Ability to balance immediate startup execution with the architecture required for significant future scale.
The ideal candidate is a senior, master-level full-stack engineer who still loves building.
They are comfortable owning an entire platform rather than a narrow piece of the stack. They can move from a Next.js frontend problem to a Node.js backend service, Redis performance issue, AWS infrastructure decision, or real-time architecture challenge without treating those areas as someone else's responsibility.
They move quickly, communicate immediately when blocked, and take personal accountability for outcomes.
They also think beyond writing code. When they see an inefficient process, their instinct is to build a better system. When repetitive engineering work can be handled by AI agents or automation, they automate it.
This role is designed for someone who wants to become a core technical member of a rapidly scaling startup and personally help build the platform and engineering machine required for its next stage of growth.
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