Principal Software Engineer

Accenture in South Africa; Midrand; On-site; ZAR 1,800,000 - 2,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Accenture in South Africa is seeking a rare engineering leader: a hands-on software veteran with 20+ years of experience who writes code daily and embraces AI as a partner.

You will architect complex systems across cloud, backend, web, AI and mobile, mentor engineers, and deliver production software while experimenting with new technologies.

This role blends technical leadership with practical delivery, working with clients and cross-functional teams in an ambitious, fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 20+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field preferred.
• Proven success delivering complex enterprise-scale software systems.
• Strong architecture and hands-on coding capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Design and build enterprise-grade software from concept to production.
• Define architecture across cloud, backend, web, AI and mobile platforms.
• Develop production software using AI-assisted engineering workflows.
• Build intelligent applications using LLMs, AI agents and modern AI platforms.
• Develop native iOS/Android and cross-platform mobile applications using Flutter or similar frameworks.
• Partner with clients and engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges.
• Mentor engineers and raise engineering standards through technical leadership.
• Evaluate emerging technologies that improve engineering capability and business outcomes.
• Continue coding, prototyping and experimenting with new technologies.

Skills

Software architecture

Hands-on coding

Cloud-native development

Azure/AWS/GCP

Swift/Kotlin

Agile/SAFe

Mentoring

Cross-platform

AI tooling

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Flutter

Swift

Kotlin

React Native

Azure

AWS

Google Cloud

GitHub Copilot

Job description

Role Summary We’re looking for a rare kind of engineer: someone with 20+ years of software engineering experience who still writes code every day. Someone who embraces AI as an engineering partner, not just a productivity tool. You’ll architect complex systems, build production software, mentor engineers, and continuously redefine modern software development. This is a hands-on technical leadership role, not a management position.

Responsibilities

• Design and build enterprise-grade software from concept to production.
• Define architecture across cloud, backend, web, AI and mobile platforms.
• Develop production software using AI-assisted engineering workflows.
• Build intelligent applications using LLMs, AI agents and modern AI platforms.
• Develop native iOS/Android and cross-platform mobile applications using Flutter or similar frameworks.
• Partner with clients and engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges.
• Mentor engineers and raise engineering standards through technical leadership.
• Evaluate emerging technologies that improve engineering capability and business outcomes.
• Continue coding, prototyping and experimenting with new technologies.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related field preferred.
• 20+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proven success delivering complex enterprise-scale software systems.
• Strong software architecture skills with the ability to translate strategy into working solutions.
• Expert-level coding skills with a passion for remaining hands-on.
• Extensive cloud-native development experience on Azure, AWS and/or Google Cloud.
• Deep knowledge of modern architectures, APIs, distributed systems, DevSecOps, CI/CD and secure software engineering.
• Experience developing native mobile apps with Swift and/or Kotlin, plus cross-platform development using Flutter or similar.
• Strong consulting, stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• Experience working within Agile, SAFe or hybrid delivery environments.
• Proven ability to balance technical quality, delivery pace and operational stability.
• Experience collaborating with Product, Architecture, Security, Platform, UX and QA teams.
• Experience operating in multi-vendor environments with accountability for engineering outcomes.

AI-Native Engineering Experience

• Comfortable building software using modern AI engineering tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, Windsurf, Gemini Code Assist, Lovable, Bolt.new, Firebase Studio and similar platforms.
• Practical experience with: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini or similar LLMs.
• AI agents and agentic workflows.
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Function calling and tool integration.
• Prompt engineering.
• Vector databases.
• AI application evaluation and governance.

The Person We’re Looking For

• Someone who:
• Loves writing great software.
• Learns emerging technologies early.
• Enjoys solving complex technical problems.
• Thinks strategically while delivering practical outcomes.
• Challenges conventional thinking with evidence and working solutions.
• Mentors through collaboration.
• Demonstrates strong ownership and accountability.
• Is excited about shaping the future of software engineering with AI.

Desirable Experience

• Multi-agent AI systems, Edge AI, On-device AI, React Native or .NET MAUI, Developer Experience (DevEx), open-source contributions, conference speaking or technical writing, and building engineering platforms or accelerators.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related field preferred