Head : Software Development

Outsidecapital; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading payments and lending company in South Africa seeks a technology leader to transform their software development function. You will lead agile delivery across teams, modernize the software development lifecycle, and build a high-performance engineering culture. The ideal candidate has a strong IT background, extensive leadership experience, and a proven track record in aligning technology initiatives with business objectives. This full-time position is based in Cape Town.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in the IT industry, with 6+ years in leadership.
• Proven track record of transforming software development functions.
• Experience in managing third-party vendor relationships and budgets.

Responsibilities

• Lead evolution of agile framework across development teams.
• Re-engineer and standardize software development processes.
• Attract and mentor top-tier software engineering talent.
• Align technology delivery with company strategic objectives.
• Manage vendor engagements and software delivery budgets.

Skills

Agile frameworks

Scrum

Kanban

Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Java

Education

Bachelor's Degree in IT-related field

Job description

Job Description

We are exclusively representing a major force in the South African payments and lending sector. As a subsidiary of a household-name retail giant our client provides innovative financial products and services to a massive and diverse customer base. They are on a mission to drive financial inclusion and are investing heavily in their technology platform to support this strategic goal. This is an opportunity to take ownership of a critical technology function within a stable high-impact business.

The core mission for this role is to transform the existing software development function into a world-class high-performance engineering and delivery engine. The current environment is ripe for evolution requiring a leader who can move beyond day-to-day management to architect a scalable agile and quality-first culture. You will be responsible for maturing processes mentoring leaders and ensuring that every line of code directly contributes to strategic business outcomes from enhancing customer experience to driving operational efficiency.

Performance Objectives for Year One

Success in this role will be measured by your ability to achieve the following in the first 12 months :

• Elevate Agile Delivery & Predictability : Lead the evolution of the agile framework (Scrum / Kanban) across multiple development teams. The goal is to establish a rhythm of predictable high-quality software releases demonstrably improving delivery velocity and reducing post-deployment incidents.
• Architect and Implement a Modern SDLC : Take full ownership of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). You will re-engineer and standardize the process embedding best practices for secure development CI / CD and test automation to significantly improve both the quality and frequency of deployments.
• Build a High-Performance Engineering Culture : Reshape the development team by attracting mentoring and retaining top-tier talent. You will establish clear career paths and succession plans fostering a psychologically safe environment of continuous learning technical excellence and accountability.
• Align Technology Delivery with Business Strategy : Partner directly with Product and Architecture leads to translate the companys strategic vision into a concrete actionable technology roadmap. You will ensure that all development initiatives are prioritized based on measurable business value and ROI.
• Optimize Vendor and Budget Management : Conduct a strategic review of all external development partners and contractors. You will rationalize vendor engagements renegotiate SLAs where necessary and manage the software delivery budget to ensure maximum return on technology investment.

Profile for Success

Demonstrated experience transforming a software development function by implementing and maturing agile frameworks (Scrum Kanban) and modern SDLC practices.

A proven track record of building mentoring and leading multiple high-performing software engineering teams in an enterprise environment.

Evidence of successfully partnering with business and product leaders to align technology delivery with strategic objectives.

Past success in managing third-party vendor relationships contract negotiations and technology budgets.

Core Requirement : A Bachelors Degree or equivalent 3-year tertiary qualification in an IT-related field (e.g. BSc BTech).

Minimum Requirement : At least 12 years of experience in the IT industry with a minimum of 6 years in a leadership capacity managing software development teams.

Key Skills

Feed,Jsf,Advocacy,Java,Automobile

Employment Type : Full-Time

Experience : years

Vacancy : 1