Senior Software Engineer

Sanlam; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services firm is seeking a Senior Software Engineer in Cape Town. This role supports technical direction and mentoring within a dynamic team. Applicants should have over 8 years of software development experience, strong proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, and C++, and a solid understanding of data structures and algorithms. Candidates will benefit from opportunities for personal and professional development in a collaborative environment.

Benefits

Opportunities for growth and development

Agile work environment

Supportive team culture

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software development.
• Experience with scalable systems and design.
• Technical leadership skills for team mentorship.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the team's technical trajectory and strategic goals.
• Mentor junior team members to assist in professional growth.
• Deliver high-quality code adhering to excellence and customer satisfaction.

Skills

Proficiency in Python

Proficiency in Java

Proficiency in C++

Data Structures understanding

Algorithm Problem Solving

Education

Degree or Diploma in Computer Sciences, IT

Tools

AWS VPC

Containers

APIs

Databases

Job description

Overview

Who are we?

Sanlam Fintech is a newly established digital first business within the Sanlam Group on a mission to democratize financial advice and solutions for everyone across the African continent. We exist to pioneer inclusive financial confidence helping people build strong foundations to bridge the gap in generational wealth. Our culture is that of agility and constant deployment, we believe in learning fast, learning cheap and learning forward. Our aim is to provide a work environment where knowledge workers can accelerate the development of their ideas and bring innovation to market, at the same time provide compelling career and development proposition that will enable them to realize their dreams.

Position Overview

The Senior Software Engineer position is a critical role, responsible for guidance of the wider team and delivering efficient software in a high trust, high-performance environment. Comprising a diverse team of skilled, motivated and curious talent from both local and international locations, the role can be fully remote, hybrid or office based. Our relatively flat organisational structure lends itself to open communication, agility and collaboration. The role reports to a Technical Lead (who reports to the Chief Technology Officer).

What will you do?

1. Strategic delivery: Contribute to the team's technical trajectory, ensuring alignment with major technical decisions and contributing to shaping our strategic goals.
2. Mentorship and Leadership: Enable the professional growth of more junior team members, nurturing their development into exceptional professionals while leading by example in our high-trust, high-performance culture.
3. Code Excellence: Deliver high-quality code, upholding our commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction.
4. Innovative Tech Stack: Utilize a modern, yet pragmatic Tech Stack to build a highly scalable distributed system, ensuring our technological capabilities remain relevant.
5. Continuous Learning: Promote a culture of continuous learning and innovation, demonstrating this personally to ensure we remain agile and responsive to business needs and market trends.

Qualification and Experience

Degree or Diploma in Computer Sciences, IT

8 + Years of experience

Programming Languages & Coding

• Proficiency in languages used in full-stack / back-end Software Development (Python, Java, C++ etc) is required
• Proficiency at reading, reviewing, understanding code
• Ability to articulate language differences, implementation and the build & execution process (e.g., strongly vs weakly typed, static vs dynamic, compiled vs interpreted)
• Data Structures, Algorithms & Algorithmic Problem Solving
• Ability to articulate the pros/cons of relevant data structures for minimum memory usage and fastest execution; discuss applicability and justification
• Ability to suggest possible/relevant algorithms for time and space complexity; discuss options and trade-offs
• Engineering & Operational Excellence: Understanding of scalability, robustness, operational visibility and agility
• Understanding of distributed systems and designing these solutions
• Experience with design and implementation of scalable systems
• Knowledge of services like AWS VPC, Auto Scaling, serverless computing, storage (EBS, S3), containers, DNS, etc. is beneficial
• Understanding of/experience in monitoring, metrics, visibility, health, fault tolerance; load balancing and health checking
• Experience with/understanding of APIs, authentication
• Experience with/understanding of databases and persistence
• Experience with/understanding of scalable architecture for systems implementation
• Technical Leadership: Experience or keen interest in mentorship, teamwork and collaboration

What will make you successful in this role?

• Develop deeper technical expertise in specific domains while maintaining a broad understanding of related technologies.
• Increase influence beyond immediate team boundaries.
• Improve ability to balance technical trade-offs with business needs.
• Enhance leadership skills through mentoring and leading small teams or projects.
• Begin contributing to cross-team initiatives and architectural discussions.
• Show increasing awareness of business context and how technical decisions impact business outcomes.
• Develop skills in breaking down complex problems into manageable components.

Build a successful career with us

We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.

Knowledge and Skills

• IT Data analysis
• IT product enhancements
• Software design and deployments
• Platform management and integration
• Business Requirements definition

Personal Attributes

• Interpersonal savvy - Contributing through others
• Decision quality - Contributing through others
• Plans and aligns - Contributing through others
• Optimises work processes - Contributing through others

Core Competencies

• Cultivates innovation - Contributing through others
• Customer focus - Contributing through others
• Drives results - Contributing through others
• Collaborates - Contributing through others
• Being resilient - Contributing through others

Turnaround time

The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.

Our commitment to transformation

The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensuring a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group\'s Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.