Lead Software Engineer

Bullock Tech Talent Partners; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 1,100,000 - 1,900,000; Full time

Job summary

Bullock Tech Talent Partners is helping an international engineering and design business in Cape Town hire a Senior Software Team Lead. The role blends hands-on Java coding with team leadership to deliver high-volume, low-latency services on a Spring Boot stack, while guiding architecture and hiring decisions.

You will own delivery for your team's slice of the platform, run sprints, feedback sessions, code reviews, and coordinate with product and ops.

Qualifications

• 8+ years building production Java systems with 2+ years in a lead role.
• Strong Spring Boot and modern Java (17+).
• Experience with PostgreSQL and cloud infrastructure.
• Proven ability to design and deliver scalable services.
• Experience with Agile / Scrum and hiring involvement.

Responsibilities

• Lead the team (about 30%): plan, allocate work, and track delivery.
• Run sprint ceremonies, manage backlog with product stakeholders.
• Conduct 1:1s, feedback, and performance coaching.
• Own code review standards and maintain quality bar.
• Be primary contact for cross-team decisions and hiring help.
• Stay hands-on (about 70%): design and build Java services.
• Drive technical design, document designs, and review trade-offs.
• Lead production issue response and triage root causes.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Leadership

Agile/Scrum

Code reviews

CI/CD

Communication

Education

BSc / Diploma in Computer Science or equivalent

Oracle Certified Java (plus)

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

PostgreSQL

Terraform

AWS (ECS/EKS, S3, IAM)

Nginx/Apache

Job description

\"Looking for a strong Team Lead with good Java experience and the ability to thrive in rapidly growing, fast-paced international technology startup\"

We are assisting our client, an international and cutting-edge engineering and design business, source for a Cape Town-basedSenior Software Team Lead.

About the role:

The Senior Software Team Lead will run a small team building high-volume, low-latency systems on a modern Java / Spring Boot stack. This is a hands-on lead role: you’ll write and review code, but your bigger job is organising the team's work, unblocking people, and making sure what our client ships is solid.

You’ll own delivery for your team's slice of the platform: planning, work allocation, code quality, technical direction, and stakeholder communication. You’ll report into engineering leadership and have a real say in architecture and hiring.

What you’ll actually do:

Lead the team (about 30% of your time)

• Break down projects into work, allocate to engineers based on strengths and growth goals, and track delivery.


• Run sprint planning, standups, and retros. Keep the team's backlog healthy and prioritised with the product side.


• Do 1:1s with each engineer. Coach, give feedback, flag performance issues early.


• Own code review standards on the team. Make sure reviews happen quickly and raise the bar over time.


• Be the point of contact for other teams, product, and ops when something on your patch needs a decision.


• Contribute to hiring: screen CVs, run technical interviews, help shape the team you want.

Stay hands-on (about 70% of your time)

• Design and build services on our Java 17+ / Spring Boot stack. You should still be writing production code every week.


• Drive technical design for non-trivial work. Write design docs, run design reviews, make the calls on trade-offs.


• Lead the team's response to production issues. Triage, root-cause, and follow through on fixes.


• Keep the architecture honest: push back on shortcuts that will hurt us in six months, agree to ones that won't.

What we need from you:

Experience

• 8+ years building production Java systems, with at least 2 years leading a team of engineers (formal or informal lead).


• Strong Spring Boot and modern Java (17+). You can build a service from scratch and explain every choice.


• Solid with PostgreSQL or similar (schema design, query tuning, migrations). MySQL is fine too.


• AWS in production: ECS or EKS, S3, IAM, plus infrastructure-as-code (Terraform preferred).


• Docker in your sleep. CI/CD pipelines you've built or meaningfully improved.


• Comfortable with Linux and standard web server / reverse proxy setups (Nginx, Apache).


• Git workflow fluency (branching strategies, code review, GitHub or GitLab).


• You’ve worked in Agile / Scrum and have opinions on what works and what’s theatre.

AI tooling: fluent but not dependent:

Our client uses Claude (and similar tools) heavily across the engineering team. They want a lead who uses them well, not someone who's either skeptical or over-reliant.

• You actively use Claude (Claude Code or the chat interface) day to day for coding, debugging, design exploration, and writing.


• Comfortable with vibe coding for prototypes, spikes, and throwaway tooling. You know when it's the right tool and when it isn't.


• You can read AI-generated code critically. You catch the subtle bugs, you push back on bad suggestions, and you don't ship code you don't understand.


• You can teach junior engineers how to use AI tools without becoming dependent on them. Fundamentals first, AI as a multiplier.


• Red flag: engineers who can't debug or design without an AI assistant, or who paste in AI output without reading it.

How you work:

• You explain your thinking clearly, in writing and out loud, to both engineers and non-engineers.


• You’re decisive. You’d rather make a reversible call now than wait a week for perfect information.


• You give feedback directly and kindly. You take it the same way.


• You finish things. \"Almost done\" doesn't count.

Qualifications:

• BSc / Diploma in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.


• Oracle Certified Professional (Java) is a plus, not a requirement.

Nice to have:

• Experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS).


• Performance tuning experience on low-latency systems (JVM tuning, profiling, caching strategies).


• Exposure to Kotlin, Go, or other JVM / backend languages.