Senior Software Engineer (Digisure)

Santam Insurance; Bellville; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexibility in work location

Professional development opportunities

Inclusive work environment

Job summary

A leading insurance company in Bellville seeks a Senior Software Engineer to guide the team and deliver high-quality software. Responsibilities include mentoring junior developers and contributing to technical strategy. The ideal candidate has over 8 years of experience and proficiency in programming languages like Python, Java, and C++. Remote and hybrid work options are available.

Qualifications

• 8+ Years of experience in software development.
• Proficiency in languages used in full-stack / back-end Software Development.
• Understanding of scalability, robustness, operational visibility and agility.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the team's technical trajectory.
• Enable the professional growth of junior team members.
• Deliver high-quality code.

Skills

Proficiency in Python

Proficiency in Java

Proficiency in C++

Understanding of data structures

Experience with AWS services

Knowledge of distributed systems

Education

Degree or Diploma in Computer Sciences, IT

Tools

AWS VPC

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

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Santam is the market leader in the general insurance industry in Southern Africa. We are a large, diversified, expanding and transforming company and whilst based in South Africa, we are rapidly moving into a number of emerging markets, both in Africa and Asia. Our success is rooted in our passion for our clients and everything we do is centred on our delivery of Insurance Good and Proper.

What will you do?

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).

Responsibilities

• Strategic delivery: Contribute to the team's technical trajectory, ensuring alignment with major technical decisions and contributing to shaping our strategic goals.
• 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.
• Code Excellence: Deliver high-quality code, upholding our commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction.
• Innovative Tech Stack: Utilize a modern, yet pragmatic Tech Stack to build a highly scalable distributed system, ensuring our technological capabilities remain relevant.
• 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.

What will make you successful in this role?

• 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)
  • Proficiency at reading, reviewing, and 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 pros/cons of relevant data structures for minimum memory usage and execution speed, and to suggest possible / relevant algorithms when developing and optimising solutions for time and space complexity, including trade-offs for scope increases.
• Engineering & Operational Excellence:
  • Understanding of scalability, robustness, operational visibility and agility
  • Understanding of distributed systems and designing solutions
  • Experience with projects involving the design and implementation of scalable systems
  • Knowledge of services like AWS VPC, Auto Scaling, serverless computing, storage (EBS, S3), containers, DNS, etc is preferred but not mandatory; all experience with relevant cloud-based technologies is beneficial
  • Understanding of monitoring, metrics, visibility, health, fault tolerance
  • Experience with load balancing, health checking, APIs, auth, databases and persistence, scalable architecture for systems implementation
• Technical Leadership:
  • Experience or keen interest in mentorship, teamwork and collaboration
• Professional Growth and Leadership:
  • 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.

Our commitment to transformation

Santam is the market leader in the general insurance industry in Southern Africa. As a large, diversified, and expanding company, we are committed to transformation and growth. While our headquarters are in South Africa, we are rapidly extending our presence into emerging markets across Africa and Asia.

With a client base of over 1 million policyholders, Santam serves individuals, commercial enterprises, specialist business owners, and institutions—including 80 of the Top 100 companies listed on the JSE. Our commitment to Insurance, Good and Proper goes beyond just providing cover—we offer peace of mind, ensuring our clients can focus on living in the moment, not worrying about the unexpected. Because at Santam, we believe the freedom to seize every day is worth protecting.

People drive our business, and we are committed to attracting the best talent, whether for permanent roles or short-term opportunities.

Santam is committed to diversity, inclusion, and belonging. As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, including persons with disabilities. We are dedicated to neuro-inclusivity and fostering a workplace where everyone can thrive.

TIPS & TRICKS – Getting ready for your interview

There is not just one way to be successful at Santam, nor is there one way to interview with us. Interviewing is a two-way process – it helps us learn about you, and it helps you learn about us, our people, and what you could do here.

Santam has been officially recognised by the Top Employers Institute as a Top Employer 2025 for excellence in people practices. This is the ninth consecutive year that we have achieved this accolade.

Take the next step in your career—apply now and be part of a company that’s shaping the future of insurance. This is Freedom!

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.