Senior Backend Engineer (Switching Systems)

Lesaka Technologies; Wes-Kaap; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,900,000; Full time

Job summary

Lesaka Technologies in Cape Town invites a Senior Backend Engineer to design and build high-performance switching systems that route and process real-time transactions at scale.

You will own backend services, work with low-latency, concurrent systems, and contribute to reliability, observability, and protocol-level integrations. Hybrid or on-site work with a strong focus on production-grade engineering.

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 (telecom, payments, networking).
• Deep understanding of concurrency, multithreading, and asynchronous systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement switching/routing engines for high-throughput, low-latency systems.
• Build systems that handle real-time decisioning, routing, and failover.
• Develop protocol-level integrations (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, gRPC).
• Ensure correctness, ordering, and idempotency in transaction flows.
• 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.
• Build and maintain backend services and APIs.
• Work with data stores (relational and/or NoSQL) to support high-scale workloads.

Skills

Go

Java

C++

Rust

Concurrency/Multithreading

Distributed systems

Networking protocols

Databases

Job description

Job Title: Senior Backend Engineer (Switching Systems)

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

1. 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

2. 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