Remote Lead Backend Engineer — Scalable APIs & Cloud

Placements24; Polokwane; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent health insurance

Stock options or equity package

Annual professional development budget

Home office stipend

Fully remote with flexible schedule

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to drive backend development for a fast-paced SaaS startup. This fully remote role within South Africa requires leading a team, architecting scalable services, and ensuring performance and reliability of backend systems.

The ideal candidate has 7+ years of software development experience, 3+ years in leadership, and strong skills in Python/Java/Go/Node.js, microservices, REST, cloud platforms, Docker, and Kubernetes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering.
• 7+ years of professional software development, with at least 3 years in a lead or senior role.
• Experience designing and building backend systems with Python, Java, Go, or Node.js.
• Strong understanding of microservices, REST APIs, and distributed systems.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Proficiency with databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB) and caching (Redis).
• Familiarity with CI/CD and DevOps practices.
• Excellent problem-solving, debugging, and communication skills.
• Strong leadership and mentoring abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of backend engineers.
• Architect scalable, high-performance backend services and APIs.
• Drive technical decisions and establish best practices for code quality and testing.
• Collaborate with product, design, and frontend teams to deliver features end-to-end.
• Ensure scalability, security, and reliability of backend systems.
• Oversee deployment and operations with DevOps collaboration.
• Conduct code reviews and promote technical excellence.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and technical debt.

Skills

Backend architecture

Microservices

REST APIs

Distributed systems

Cloud platforms

CI/CD

DevOps

Leadership

Remote collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/SE

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Placements24 is seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to drive backend development for a fast-paced SaaS startup. This fully remote role within South Africa requires leading a team, architecting scalable services, and ensuring performance and reliability of backend systems.

The ideal candidate has 7+ years of software development experience, 3+ years in leadership, and strong skills in Python/Java/Go/Node.js, microservices, REST, cloud platforms, Docker, and Kubernetes.