Principal Backend Software Engineer

KingMakers; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Health & wellbeing

Liberty Life Pension Fund

20 days annual leave

Birthday day off

Parking

High-performance laptop

Team activities

Performance bonus

Job summary

KingMakers in Cape Town, South Africa, seeks a Principal Backend Engineer to shape architecture and technical direction for a high-throughput platform. You will lead backend and cloud initiatives, guide teams, and drive scalable, observable systems.

You will design and implement distributed services, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product leadership to align technical strategy with business goals. This hybrid role requires strong engineering rigor.

Qualifications

• 10+ years engineering leadership delivering large-scale, distributed systems.
• Experience with cloud architectures (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and DevOps (CI/CD).
• Strong ability to prevent and address production incidents; excellent communication.

Responsibilities

• Architect the future: design and evolve distributed systems for high throughput.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor teams.
• Optimize performance across services for availability and latency.
• Drive reliability with monitoring and incident practices.
• Collaborate with product and business leaders to translate ideas into strategy.
• Lead by example: write and review code to ensure quality.
• Participate in on-call rotations for critical systems.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Cloud architectures

DevOps CI/CD

Microservices

Kafka & RabbitMQ

C# or others

Incident management

Unit testing

Communication skills

iGaming experience

Tools

SQL Server

MongoDB

CosmosDB

Redis

Grafana

Kibana

Application Insights

Job description

At KingMakers, we're not here to follow the industry, we're here to define it.

We are a proudly homegrown African company, building the future of sports and iGaming entertainment across the continent. Since our launch in 2018, we've created platforms that connect millions of fans to the excitement they love through our leading brands, BetKing and SuperSportBet.

From Nigeria to South Africa, we've rapidly grown into a powerhouse, recognized for raising standards, pushing boundaries, and shaping what's next in our industry. Our vision is bold: to be the home where Africa plays.

Collaboration, innovation, and fearless execution define our culture. Every decision is purposeful, every interaction impactful, and every product designed to serve our players and partners with excellence.

We move fast, stay curious, and constantly raise the bar. Our mission is to deliver entertainment with integrity, innovation, and impact - because great products can change how entire communities experience play.

About The Role

We're looking for a Principal Backend Engineer to take a key role in shaping the architecture and technical direction of our platform.

You’ll design systems that handle millions of transactions, improve performance across services, and ensure our technology can scale safely and efficiently as the business grows.

You’ll act as a technical leader and hands-on architect, guiding teams, raising the quality bar, and helping us make smart, sustainable engineering decisions.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Architect the future: design, implement, and evolve distributed systems that handle high throughput and millions of concurrent transactions
• Provide technical leadership: act as a go-to expert for backend and infrastructure topics, mentoring teams and raising the overall engineering bar
• Optimize performance: identify bottlenecks and design scalable solutions that improve availability, latency, and cost efficiency
• Drive reliability: establish solid standards for monitoring, alerting, and incident management, ensuring our systems are observable and resilient
• Collaborate across teams: partner with product and business leaders to translate ideas into clear technical strategies and execution plans
• Improve continuously: challenge existing solutions, propose better patterns, and keep us aligned with modern practices in distributed systems and DevOps
• Lead by example: write clean, maintainable code; review peers’ work; and ensure consistent engineering quality across services
• Be part of on-call rotations for critical systems, focusing on root-cause prevention, not firefighting

You’ll work with a modern, cloud-native environment including:

• Databases: SQL Server, MongoDB, CosmosDB, Redis
• Monitoring & Observability: Grafana, Kibana, Application Insights

Experience with this exact stack is not mandatory, but deep technical curiosity, sound design principles, and adaptability are.

Requirements

We're looking for someone who thrives in complexity and is driven by the pursuit of excellence. To succeed in this role, you’ll need:

• 10+ years of engineering leadership, with a proven track record of delivering large-scale, distributed systems
• Expertise in some cloud architectures (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), DevOps practices (CI/CD), Microservices (AKS), Kafka/RabbitMQ streams and programming languages (C#, or others)
• Demonstrated ability to quickly address production incidents and implement preventive measures to avoid recurrence
• Proven capability to maintain product quality through unit testing and end-to-end testing processes
• The ability to foresee future challenges, craft innovative solutions, and implement strategies that drive meaningful impact
• Exceptional communication skills to work effectively across teams and influence stakeholders at all levels
• While iGaming experience is a plus, what matters most is your ability to solve real-world problems with creativity and precision

Our Commitment to Inclusion

At KingMakers, we’re committed to building diverse and inclusive teams that reflect the communities and markets we serve across Africa. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and identities and strive to create an environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

In line with our Employment Equity commitments, preference may be given to candidates from designated groups where appropriate.

As part of the KingMakers team in South Africa, you’ll enjoy a range of benefits designed to support your wellbeing, flexibility, and future:

• Flexible Work – A hybrid model with 2 days in the office and 3 days working remotely, plus flexible working hours. This role is based in Cape Town, so candidates must be based there or willing to relocate.
• Work from Anywhere – Enjoy the flexibility to work remotely from a location of your choice for up to 10 business days per year.
• Health & Wellbeing – Company contributions towards your Discovery Health Medical Aid, plus access to our Employee Wellness Programme (ICAS / October Health), offering confidential counselling and wellbeing support for you and your immediate family.
• Retirement & Group Risk – A company-supported Liberty Life Pension Fund with employer matching contributions, along with comprehensive Group Risk cover, including life insurance, disability income protection, critical illness, and funeral cover for you and your eligible dependants.
• Time Off – 20 working days of annual leave each year, plus an extra Birthday Day Off to celebrate your special day.
• Stress-Free Parking – Complimentary company-supported parking at our Cape Town office.
• Top-Notch Tech – A high-performance laptop and the tools you need to do your best work.
• Team Activities – Regular opportunities to connect, collaborate, and celebrate with your colleagues.
• Performance Bonus – A discretionary annual bonus that recognizes your contributions and impact.

Please note: Eligibility for the discretionary bonus depends on your onboarding cycle and start date. Employees joining after a certain point in the year may not be eligible for the 2026 bonus cycle.