Senior Developer

ARCS; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 700,000 - 950,000; Full time

Job summary

ARCS is seeking an experienced Python/Django professional to lead domain modelling and backend platform services in a cloud-native environment.

You will own architectural decisions, evolve production systems, and mentor junior engineers across multiple client implementations in AWS, Kubernetes, and OpenShift.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on Python development.
• Experience with production Django apps.
• Strong domain modelling and bounded contexts.
• Experience deploying to cloud and container platforms (AWS, Kubernetes, OpenShift).
• Banking/financial services domain experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own domain models and architectural decisions for the platform and ensure coherence as the product evolves.
• Translate complex requirements into clear domain models with well-defined boundaries and bounded contexts.
• Assess the wider impact of technical decisions on operations, reporting, integrations, and client implementations.
• Ensure separation of concerns between core platform and client-specific configuration and extensions.
• Promote pragmatic simplicity and evolutionary architecture in production systems.
• Lead secure packaging and deployment for banking clients, including on-prem/offline delivery.
• Drive CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and cloud-native engineering standards.
• Mentor junior and mid-level developers and own technical delivery.
• Lead production support and incident response when needed.
• Use AI-assisted development tools responsibly to balance speed and quality.

Skills

Python development

DDD & domain modelling

Cloud deployments

Banking domain knowledge

Education

Degree in Computer Science / Software Engineering or equivalent

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Job description

Education:

• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Required Experience:

• 5+ years' hands-on Python development, including experience building production applications with Python frameworks and libraries; Django experience is preferred.
• Experience working with well-structured domain models, clear service boundaries, and separation of business concerns in production systems.
• Experience developing applications for cloud and containerised environments, with an understanding of deployment to platforms such as AWS, Kubernetes, and OpenShift.
• Experience in regulated environments (banking/financial services) strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities:

• You take responsibility for the domain models and structural decisions behind their platform, keeping the system coherent as the product and business evolve.
• Domain modelling: translate complex, evolving requirements into clear models with well-defined boundaries and ownership; practical experience with DDD and bounded contexts expected.
• Systems thinking: assess the wider impact of technical decisions on operations, reporting, integrations, downstream capabilities, and independently deployed client implementations with differing configurations or platform versions.
• Separation of concerns: place business rules within the right domain/application boundaries, clearly separating reusable core-platform capabilities from client-specific configuration, extensions, and integrations to avoid duplicated logic, unnecessary coupling, and fork divergence.
• Pragmatic simplicity: introduce structure where it earns its value; avoid both shortcuts and speculative abstraction.
• Evolutionary architecture: evolve production systems through backward-compatible changes, safe migrations, and incremental rollout; support safe upgrades across independently deployed client environments and multiple concurrently supported platform versions, using expand-and-contract patterns where appropriate.
• Production integrity: design for correctness under retries, failures, and recovery, with auditability, lineage, observability, and failure handling built in from the start.
• Lead the development and evolution of Python/Django platform services, from requirements and architecture through to production deployment across multiple client implementations.
• Design, build, and maintain backend systems in cloud/container environments (AWS, Kubernetes, OpenShift/K3s).
• Set technical direction across the core platform and client implementations, including codebase, API, and data model decisions; determine whether capabilities belong in the canonical platform or client-specific implementations, and review others' designs against these standards.
• Mentor junior and mid-level developers, including code review and technical guidance.
• Own technical delivery and proactively identify architectural, implementation, and operational risks in collaboration with the Development Manager and Technical Architect.
• Lead secure packaging and deployment of application artefacts, including offline and on-premises delivery mechanisms such as ISO images, for banking clients in regulated environments.
• Champion reusable CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, release practices, and cloud-native engineering standards across canonical platform repositories and client implementations.
• Take rotational production support duties and lead incident response when needed.
• Uses AI-assisted development tools responsibly to improve delivery speed while maintaining code quality, security, and review standards.