Lead Backend Architect & Engineering Leader (Hybrid)

Placements24; Johannesburg; Hybrid; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical aid

Retirement contributions

Hybrid work model

Professional development

Conference attendance

Job summary

Placements24 in Gauteng seeks a Lead Software Engineer (backend) to guide a talented team, architect scalable systems, and shape technical direction across core products. This hybrid role blends hands-on coding with mentorship and strategic planning.

You will drive engineering excellence, implement robust APIs, and collaborate with product and frontend teams. The ideal candidate has 8+ years in software dev, 3+ in leadership, and a passion for building high-performance cloud-native services.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• 3+ years in a leadership or mentoring role.
• Experience designing and building backend services with Python, Java, Node.js or Go.
• Strong knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL; MongoDB/Cassandra).
• Solid grasp of microservices, RESTful APIs, and cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiar with CI/CD, testing practices, and Git.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of backend software engineers, fostering technical excellence and continuous improvement.
• Architect and implement scalable, high-performance backend systems and APIs.
• Collaborate with product managers, frontend engineers, and stakeholders to define requirements and deliver features.
• Drive technical decision-making, coding standards, and code quality through reviews and testing.
• Optimize performance, resolve bottlenecks, and ensure data security and integrity.
• Contribute to the technical strategy and roadmap; oversee production deployments and monitoring.

Skills

Python

Java

Node.js

Go

PostgreSQL

MySQL

MongoDB

Cassandra

Microservices

RESTful APIs

AWS

Azure

GCP

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Git

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Placements24 in Gauteng seeks a Lead Software Engineer (backend) to guide a talented team, architect scalable systems, and shape technical direction across core products. This hybrid role blends hands-on coding with mentorship and strategic planning.

You will drive engineering excellence, implement robust APIs, and collaborate with product and frontend teams. The ideal candidate has 8+ years in software dev, 3+ in leadership, and a passion for building high-performance cloud-native services.