L1 Architect – High-Performance Distributed Software Platforms

SkyeBiz; Durban; On-site; ZAR 1,228,000 - 2,288,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

R2000 Medical Aid subsidy (Discovery/

Provident Fund with Alexander Forbes

School subsidies: Creche / Pre-school

Insured Benefits: Group Life / Income

2 Annual bonuses

Canteen / Gym / Concierge / L&D

Job summary

SkyeBiz in Durban, South Africa, is seeking a hands-on Software or Solution Architect to design and deliver complex distributed systems across multiple products and teams.

You will stay close to delivery, analyse systems, defend architecture decisions, review APIs and designs, prototype solutions and guide teams through implementation.

Qualifications

• Eight to ten years of progressive software engineering or architecture experience.
• At least three years of direct Solution or Software Architecture ownership.
• Experience designing and delivering complex distributed multi-system solutions.
• Cloud-native architecture and containerised environments experience.
• Strong API, integration and event-driven architecture experience.
• Ability to explain complex decisions to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s Degree in CS/IT/SE or related field.

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end software architectures for complex initiatives across multiple systems and teams.
• Analyze requirements, constraints, dependencies and risks before design.
• Define system boundaries, APIs, data flows and team responsibilities.
• Produce Architectural Decision Records, solution designs, integration diagrams and delivery strategies.
• Evaluate trade-offs on scalability, performance, resilience, security, cost and maintainability.
• Provide architecture reviews and guidance through API/code/documentation reviews.
• Coordinate technical inception across several teams before handover.
• Build proofs of concept to validate technologies and patterns.
• Remain hands-on to understand implementation realities and support problems.
• Contribute to root-cause analysis after incidents and improve design.
• Mentor engineers in software design and distributed-systems thinking.
• Balance innovation with operational pragmatism for evolving solutions.

Skills

Distributed systems

Cloud-native architecture

API & integration design

Troubleshooting

Technical leadership

Production readiness

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD

DevOps practices

Full SDLC

Job description

Location: La Lucia, Durban, South Africa

Working Model: On-site, five days per week
Salary: R110,000 to R205,000 per month plus benefits, dependent on experience
Relocation Assistance: Equivalent to one month’s basic salary

Our client is a global technology company specialises in the design, engineering, and operation of advanced software ecosystems for the international iGaming industry.
This Is a Hands-On Software Architecture Role

We are seeking an experienced Software or Solution Architect who has personally designed and delivered complex, distributed software systems across multiple products, services and engineering teams.
This is not primarily a people-management, programme-management or high-level enterprise-governance role. You will be expected to remain technically close to delivery: analysing existing systems, making and defending architecture decisions, producing clear design artefacts, reviewing APIs and technical designs, prototyping solutions, troubleshooting production issues and guiding teams through implementation.
You should be able to explain not only what architecture you designed, but also:

• Which decisions you personally owned
• Why you selected a particular approach
• What trade-offs you considered
• How the system handled failure, scale and operational risk
• How your design performed in production
• What you learned from the outcome

What You Will Do

• Design end-to-end software architectures for complex initiatives spanning multiple systems, products and engineering teams.
• Analyse business requirements, existing systems, constraints, dependencies and technical risks before design begins.
• Define clear system boundaries, integration approaches, API contracts, data flows and team responsibilities.
• Produce Architectural Decision Records, solution designs, integration diagrams, sequence diagrams and delivery strategies.
• Evaluate trade-offs across scalability, performance, consistency, resilience, compliance, security, cost and maintainability.
• Provide practical architecture consultation through design, API, code and technical-documentation reviews.
• Coordinate technical inception across several teams before implementation handover.
• Build proofs of concept to validate technologies, patterns and design assumptions.
• Remain sufficiently hands-on to understand implementation realities and support complex technical problem-solving.
• Contribute to root-cause analysis following production incidents and design improvements that prevent recurrence.
• Mentor engineers in software design, distributed-systems thinking and technical decision-making.
• Balance innovation with operational pragmatism, ensuring that solutions can be supported and evolved over time.

Essential Experience

• Eight to ten years of progressive software engineering or software architecture experience.
• At least three years of direct Solution or Software Architecture ownership.
• Evidence of personally designing and delivering complex, distributed, multi-system solutions.
• Strong experience with cloud-native application architecture and containerised environments.
• Practical knowledge of Kubernetes, CI/CD, DevOps and the full SDLC.
• Strong API, integration and event-driven architecture experience.
• An understanding of data consistency, idempotency, message ordering, failure handling and distributed-system trade-offs.
• Experience designing for scalability, resilience, disaster recovery, observability and operational support.
• Experience conducting design reviews and providing actionable technical guidance to engineers.Strong production troubleshooting and root-ca cess analysis capability.
• The ability to explain complex architecture decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering or a related technical discipline.

Particularly Relevant Experience

Experience in any of the following would be valuable:

• High-volume transactional platforms
• Regulated technology environments
• iGaming, fintech, payments or financial systems
• Kafka or other event-streaming technologies
• Real-time processing
• Microservices
• Data-intensive platforms
• Platform modernisation
• Machine learning or AI-enabled systems
• Multi-team architecture governance

The Person We Are Looking For

You will enjoy this role if you:

• Are energised by difficult technical problems
• Ask thoughtful questions before proposing solutions
• Can defend a decision without becoming attached to it
• Are comfortable changing direction when evidence challenges an assumption
• Enjoy working directly with engineers
• Can create clarity where several systems and teams intersect
• Remain curious about new technologies but are disciplined about production adoption
• Take ownership of outcomes rather than stopping at the design stage
• Communicate with clarity, enthusiasm and credibility

Benefits & Perks:

• R2000 Medical Aid subsidy (Discovery or Momentum)
• Provident Fund with Alexander Forbes. You can choose to contribute 3, 4 or 5% of your CTC on a monthly basis and our client will match your contribution
• School Subsidies: Creche (R800 per month to help you cover the cost up to the age of 3) / Pre-school (R400 per month up to the age of 6) / High school (depending on your years of service, we will subsidize high school fees)
• Insured Benefits: Group Life / Income Protector / Funeral Fund / Capital Disability)
• 2 Annual bonuses – of up to 70% of a month’s basic salary
• Canteen, Gym, Concierge, L&D etc)

Ready to Shape Platforms That Must Perform at Scale?

If you are a genuine hands-on Architect who can move confidently between strategic design, technical detail and engineering delivery, we would like to hear from you.