Lead Software Engineer

Humankind Group; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Humankind Group is seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to drive end-to-end solutions across front-end, back-end, APIs and databases. You will provide technical leadership, code reviews, architecture guidance and hands-on development in a fast-paced environment.

You will mentor senior, intermediate and junior developers, shape engineering standards, and promote secure-by-design practices while collaborating with Product, QA and DevOps teams to deliver high-quality software.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/SE/IT or related field.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• At least 3 years in lead/senior capacity.
• Proven experience directing technical teams and mentoring developers.
• Strong front-end, back-end, APIs and databases experience.
• Experience with modern back-end tech such as .NET/C#, Node.js, Java/Spring.
• Strong front-end with Angular/React/Next.js/Vue/Svelte.
• TypeScript/JavaScript ES2022+ expertise.
• Knowledge of HTML5, CSS3, responsive design and component-driven architecture.
• Experience with CI/CD, DevOps, Git and modern workflows.
• Experience with relational and non-relational databases and REST/GraphQL/gRPC APIs.
• Strong understanding of microservices, architecture and security (OWASP).
• Experience in Agile/Scrum/Kanban environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test and deploy end-to-end solutions across full stack.
• Provide technical leadership, architecture guidance and hands-on development.
• Conduct code reviews, pair programming and mentoring.
• Establish and maintain coding, testing and engineering standards.
• Design scalable software architectures and APIs.
• Drive CI/CD, testing, observability and DevOps practices.
• Collaborate with Product, Business Analysis, QA and DevOps to translate requirements.
• Mentor junior developers and support their growth.
• Address technical debt, vulnerabilities and production incidents.
• Promote secure-by-design principles and compliance.
• Support technical interviews, onboarding and capability development.
• Contribute to AI-powered features using modern LLM tech and AI tooling.
• Maintain architecture diagrams, runbooks and API specs.

Skills

Full Stack

Technical Leadership

Mentoring

Agile/DevOps

Architectural Guidance

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering/IT

Tools

Angular/React/Next.js/Vue

.NET/C#

Node.js

Docker

Kubernetes

Azure/AWS

Git

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Key Responsibilities

Design, develop, test and deploy end‑to‑end solutions across the front‑end, back‑end, API and database layers. Provide technical leadership, architecture guidance and hands‑on development. Conduct code reviews, pair programming and technical mentoring. Establish and maintain coding, testing and engineering standards. Design scalable and maintainable software architectures and API solutions. Drive modern Agile and DevOps practices, including CI/CD, automated testing and observability. Work closely with Product, Business Analysis, QA and DevOps teams to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions. Mentor Senior, Intermediate and Junior Software Developers and support their technical development. Identify and address technical debt, vulnerabilities, performance issues and production incidents. Champion secure‑by‑design principles and applicable compliance requirements. Support technical interviews, onboarding and engineering capability development. Promote responsible and effective use of AI‑assisted development tools. Contribute to the design and delivery of AI‑powered features using modern LLM technologies. Maintain technical documentation, architecture diagrams, API specifications and runbooks.

Minimum Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related field. 10+ years' professional software engineering experience , with strong Full Stack development exposure. At least 3 years' experience in a Lead or Senior Engineering capacity . Proven experience providing technical direction, conducting code reviews and mentoring developers. Strong hands‑on experience across front‑end, back‑end, APIs and databases . Experience with one or more modern back‑end technologies such as:.NET / C# Node.js Java / Spring Strong front‑end experience with one or more of:Angular React / Next.js Vue / Nuxt Svelte Strong TypeScript and modern JavaScript (ES2022+) experience. Strong understanding of HTML5, CSS3, responsive design and component‑driven architecture. Experience with state‑management frameworks such as NgRx, Redux, Pinia or Zustand . Experience with modern front‑end tooling such as Vite, Webpack, npm or pnpm . Experience with cloud platforms, particularly Microsoft Azure and/or AWS . Strong experience with Docker, Kubernetes, AKS or EKS . Hands‑on experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices. Strong Git and modern software development workflow experience. Experience with relational and/or non‑relational databases such as SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis or DynamoDB . Experience designing and consuming REST, GraphQL and/or gRPC APIs . Strong understanding of software architecture, microservices and event‑driven architectures. Experience with automated testing across unit, integration, API and end‑to‑end testing. Strong understanding of secure software development and OWASP principles . Experience working within Agile/Scrum or Kanban environments.

AI & Emerging Technology Experience

• GitHub Copilot Claude Code Cursor ChatGPT
• Experience building AI‑powered production applications is also highly desirable, particularly exposure to: OpenAI / Azure OpenAI Anthropic Claude AWS Bedrock Prompt engineering Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Embeddings and vector databases Function/tool calling AI agents AI feature evaluation
• Advantageous Experience Experience within financial technology, banking, financial services or another regulated environment . Experience working with high‑availability production systems. Relevant Azure or AWS certifications . Agile/Scrum or SAFe certifications. Experience with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.1 AA . Experience with performance optimisation and Core Web Vitals. Experience with Infrastructure as Code, particularly Terraform or Bicep . Experience with observability, logging, metrics and distributed tracing.

Key Competencies

• Technical Leadership
• Strategic Thinking
• Strong Problem‑Solving and Decision‑Making
• Accountability and Ownership
• Emotional Intelligence
• Excellent Communication
• Mentoring and Coaching Ability
• Innovation and Continuous Improvement
• Strong Engineering Judgement
• Ethics, Integrity and Security Awareness

Why This Opportunity?

This is an opportunity to take a hands‑on technical leadership role where you will influence architecture, engineering standards and delivery while remaining actively involved in software development. You will work with modern technologies across Full Stack Engineering, Cloud, DevOps and Artificial Intelligence , while helping develop the technical capability of a broader engineering team. If you are an experienced Lead Software Engineer who enjoys solving complex technical problems, building scalable solutions and developing other engineers, we would like to hear from you.