Lead Java Backend Engineer — Hybrid Architect & Mentor

Placements24; South Africa; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,700,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical aid

Retirement fund contributions

Annual leave allowance

Paid sick leave

Training & conferences

Job summary

Placements24 in South Africa seeks a Lead Backend Engineer to drive design and implementation of scalable Java-based backends, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product teams to shape the platform architecture.

This hybrid role in Gauteng offers hands-on leadership, cloud-aware development (Spring Boot, microservices), and a culture of excellence. You will optimize performance, mentor peers, and lead best practices across the backend stack.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent.
• Minimum 6 years of backend experience with at least 2 years in lead/senior roles.
• Strong Java expertise with Spring Boot and RESTful APIs.
• Experience with microservices, relational/noSQL databases, and containers.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and deployment of scalable Java-based backend services.
• Mentor a team of backend engineers and collaborate with product teams.
• Architect microservices and ensure code quality and performance.
• Drive performance optimizations and infrastructure improvements.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

REST APIs

Microservices

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Education

Bachelor's in CS/Software Eng

Tools

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Job description

Placements24 in South Africa seeks a Lead Backend Engineer to drive design and implementation of scalable Java-based backends, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product teams to shape the platform architecture.

This hybrid role in Gauteng offers hands-on leadership, cloud-aware development (Spring Boot, microservices), and a culture of excellence. You will optimize performance, mentor peers, and lead best practices across the backend stack.