Head Developer (On-Site) - 64637045320

Somewhere; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 911,000 - 1,366,000; Full time

Job summary

Somewhere in Cape Town is seeking a senior Head Developer to take technical ownership of the company’s rapidly scaling real-time platform. This is a genuinely senior, hands-on engineering position that requires mastery across the full stack, including frontend Next.js with TypeScript, backend Node.js, Redis, and AWS.

You will shape architecture, drive reliability, and ship production code, not merely manage others.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• Deep full-stack development across modern web applications.
• Advanced TypeScript and Next.js expertise.
• Strong backend development with Node.js and production APIs.
• Experience with Redis, AWS, real-time systems, and CI/CD.

Responsibilities

• Own full-stack development across the platform.
• Build frontend using Next.js and TypeScript; backend with Node.js.
• Design and maintain APIs, services, and real-time functionality.
• Own CI/CD workflows and AWS infrastructure improvements.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor engineers.
• Ensure performance, reliability, and security at scale.

Skills

5+ years exp

Full-stack dev

TypeScript

Next.js

Node.js

Redis

AWS

CI/CD

Architectural ownership

AI tooling

Tools

Next.js

Node.js

Redis

AWS

Bitbucket CI

APIs & integrations

Job description

LOOKING FOR STELLAR TOP CANDIDATES

Position: Head Developer

Working Hours: Monday to Friday│Cape Town business hours

Search Location: In-Person (Cape Town, South Africa)

Salary: $5,000 to $7,500 / month

The Final Salary Offer depends on the client's decision, interview results and experience

About The Client

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.

About The Role

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.

The ideal candidate combines master-level engineering ability with the speed, ownership, communication, and AI-first mentality required in an early-stage environment.

Role Responsibilities

• Full-Stack Development
  • 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.
• Technical Architecture & Ownership
  • 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.
• AWS & Infrastructure
  • 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.
• Real-Time Systems & Performance
  • 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.
• AI-First Engineering & Automation
  • 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.
• Technical Leadership
  • 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.

Ideal Candidate

A senior, master-level full-stack engineer who loves building hands-on across the stack (frontend, backend, Redis, AWS, real-time), values speed and accountability, and instinctually automates processes using AI tools and systems.

Requirements

• Minimum Qualifications:
  • 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.
• Preferred Qualifications:
  • 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.

Tools & Technologies

• Next.js, Node.js, TypeScript, Redis, AWS, Real-time technologies, Bitbucket, Bitbucket CI, APIs & third-party integrations, AI coding/development tools, AI agents and workflow automation.

Requirements

• Platform stability, scalability, and performance.
• Engineering execution speed and code maintainability.
• Reliable real-time systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Effective integration of AI and automated processes.
• Clear technical direction and proactive issue resolution.

(Note: We prioritize the processing of one application at a time. If you have applied for multiple job openings within our organization, we kindly request that you direct any update inquiries to the team responsible for handling your initial application.)