Senior Backend Architect for AI-Driven Microservices

Cue; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Cue is a modern customer service chat software company expanding into the international market. We are hiring deeply experienced engineers to design and architect backend systems, directing AI agents to build and verify them.

You will own systems end-to-end, write specs, and collaborate to evolve engineering practices as AI tooling matures. Strong emphasis on production readiness, code understanding, and critical review of AI-generated results.

Qualifications

• Significant experience designing and operating microservices architectures in production.
• Strong Linux, networking, and infrastructure fundamentals (SRE/platform background ideal).
• Hands-on experience with containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and observability.
• Fluency reading and writing code and understanding code deeply.
• Active use of AI coding tools and LLM-based workflows.
• Ability to challenge AI outputs when they don’t meet the bar.
• Track record of owning projects from conception through production.
• Collaborative working style with openness to feedback and peer review.
• Genuine curiosity and desire to understand problems end-to-end.

Responsibilities

• Architect backend services and distributed systems from first principles.
• Write design specs and technical proposals.
• Use AI agents and tooling to accelerate implementation.
• Review and verify AI-generated code and architecture with a critical eye.
• Own systems end-to-end from problem definition through production operation.
• Collaborate with the team to evolve engineering practices as AI tooling matures.

Skills

Microservices architecture

Linux & Networking basics

Containers & Kubernetes

CI/CD & Observability

Reading and understanding code

AI tooling usage

System design

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitHub Actions

ArgoCD

AWS (multi-account)

Terragrunt

Kafka (MSK)

Job description

Cue is a modern customer service chat software company expanding into the international market. We are hiring deeply experienced engineers to design and architect backend systems, directing AI agents to build and verify them.

You will own systems end-to-end, write specs, and collaborate to evolve engineering practices as AI tooling matures. Strong emphasis on production readiness, code understanding, and critical review of AI-generated results.