Senior Backend Engineer (Switching Systems)

Lesaka Technologies Inc.; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Lesaka Technologies Inc. is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer in Cape Town, South Africa. The role involves designing and building high-performance switching systems. Ideal candidates should have 5–8+ years of experience in backend software engineering, expertise in low-latency systems, and a strong understanding of concurrency and reliability engineering. Responsibilities include implementing routing engines, optimizing systems for performance, and maintaining backend services. The position offers a hybrid work model.

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years of backend software engineering experience.
• Proven experience building high-throughput, low-latency systems.
• Experience working on switching, routing, or real-time processing systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement switching/routing engines for high-throughput systems.
• Optimize systems for latency, throughput, and fault tolerance.
• Build and maintain backend services and APIs.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and tracing for critical paths.

Skills

Backend software engineering

Low-latency systems

Concurrency

Reliability engineering

Debugging skills

Tools

Go

Java

C++

Rust

Job description

Location: Cape Town, South Africa (Hybrid or On‑site)

Role Overview

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to design and build high‑performance switching systems that route, process, and manage real‑time transactions or communications at scale. This role is deeply technical and backend‑focused, requiring strong experience in low‑latency systems, concurrency, and reliability engineering. You will play a key role in building the core systems that power critical flows in our platform.

Key Responsibilities

Core Systems & Switching Logic

• Design and implement switching/routing engines for high‑throughput, low‑latency systems
• Build systems that handle real‑time decisioning, routing, and failover
• Develop and maintain protocol‑level integrations (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, gRPC, or domain‑specific protocols)
• Ensure correctness, ordering, and idempotency in transaction flows

Performance & Reliability

• Optimize systems for latency, throughput, and fault tolerance
• Design for high availability and graceful degradation
• Implement robust retry, backoff, and circuit‑breaking mechanisms
• Debug complex production issues in distributed systems

Backend Engineering

• Build and maintain backend services and APIs
• Work with data stores (relational and/or NoSQL) to support high‑scale workloads
• Contribute to system design, code reviews, and engineering standards

Infrastructure & Observability

• Collaborate on deployment architecture (cloud or hybrid environments)
• Implement monitoring, logging, and tracing for critical paths
• Improve system visibility and operational readiness

Experience

• 5–8+ years of backend software engineering experience
• Proven experience building high‑throughput, low‑latency systems
• Experience working on switching, routing, or real‑time processing systems (telecom, payments, networking, or similar domains)

Key Competencies

• Technical Skills: Strong proficiency in one or more backend languages (e.g., Go, Java, C++, Rust, or similar)
• Deep understanding of concurrency, multithreading, and asynchronous systems
• Experience with network protocols and system‑level behavior
• Solid understanding of distributed systems fundamentals
• Experience with databases under high load
• Systems Thinking
• Ability to reason about failure modes, edge cases, and system limits
• Strong debugging and performance tuning skills
• Focus on building resilient, production‑grade systems

Nice to Have

• Experience with telecom switching (e.g., SS7, SIP) or payment switching (e.g., ISO 8583)
• Experience with event‑driven architectures or streaming systems (e.g., Kafka)
• Familiarity with kernel‑level or systems programming concepts
• Experience in regulated or mission‑critical environments