Senior Software Engineer (Media Industry)

TechBiz Global GmbH; Randburg; On-site; ZAR 800 000 - 1 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A technology company based in Randburg is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead software architecture and manage development teams. This role involves contributing to a next-generation video content automation platform while ensuring quality and scalability. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in Python, React, and GCP, along with strong technical leadership skills. This position offers the opportunity to impact operations significantly in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in software engineering, with 2+ years in senior or architect roles.
• Strong experience with Python for production APIs and async workflows.
• Solid expertise in React / TypeScript for admin UIs.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive system architecture for scheduling and automation platforms.
• Lead daily engineering operations across onshore and offshore teams.
• Contribute code in Python, TypeScript/React, and GCP environments.

Skills

Python

React

TypeScript

GCP

SQL

Leadership

Job description

At TechBiz Global, we are providing recruitment service to our TOP clients from our portfolio. We are currently seeking a Senior Software Engineer who is responsible for leading complex, high-impact projects from initiation through delivery. The ideal candidate is a proactive leader with exceptional communication, organizational, and stakeholder management skills.

We are looking for a hands‑on Software Architect to define, design, and help deliver a next‑generation video content automation, scheduling and distribution platform used across our portfolio of 130+ YouTube channels. You will split your time between technical leadership (50%)—architecture, standards, planning, direction—and contributing code (50%) across backend services, automations, pipelines, and UI components.

You’ll work closely with the Product owner, end‑users, and stakeholders across the business to translate complex operational workflows into scalable technical solutions. You will also directly manage a blend of onshore and offshore developers, ensuring clarity of tasks, code quality, and delivery velocity.

This is a strategic and highly technical role with real ownership and visible impact on the operations of the company. The team also manages a number of other critical infrastructure tools, analytics platforms and asset libraries that will also require software design leadership as we move through the our strategic technology roadmap.

Architecture & Technical Direction (50%)

• Define the system architecture for our products, focussing on our scheduling and automation platform, spanning backend services, data pipelines, APIs, and UI layers.
• Set technical standards for code quality, security, observability, CI/CD, and cloud deployment.
• Build and maintain the architectural roadmap, ensuring scalability to >500 video uploads/week and multi-channel automation workflows.
• Drive decisions on storage models, event flows, orchestration, API boundaries, and data schemas.
• Own the technical implementation strategy for GCP-based components (BigQuery, Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Composer/Airflow).
• Design frameworks for automation, title processing, workflow orchestration, and validation pipelines.

Leadership & Delivery Management

• Work with the Director of DTP and PM to define the backlog, scope projects, and break work into clear deliverables.
• Lead daily engineering operations across onshore and offshore teams, ensuring productivity and alignment.
• Review and approve architecture proposals, pull requests, and system changes.
• Mentor mid-level developers, set standards, and support their technical growth.
• Help coordinate QA and release processes, ensuring stable, safe rollouts.

Hands‑On Engineering (50%)

• Contribute production‑grade code in Python, TypeScript/React, and GCP environments.
• Build backend services (Cloud Run / Cloud Functions), data pipelines, scheduling engines, and workflow automation.
• Implement UI components in React/Next.js for dashboards, scheduling calendars, and admin tooling.
• Optimise end‑to‑end performance of scheduling algorithms, metadata extraction flows, and content management workflows.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with channel managers, editors, rights teams, and operations stakeholders to understand real‑world constraints.
• Participate in user interviews and feedback loops to validate product assumptions.
• Communicate technical trade‑offs and prioritisation clearly to non‑technical audiences.
• Support PM in roadmap planning, phased delivery, and discovery cycles.

Required Skills & Experience

• 6+ years in software engineering, including 2+ years in senior or architect‑level roles.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Python, including building production APIs and async workflows.
• Solid experience with React / TypeScript for admin UIs and dashboards.
• Deep understanding of GCP, including: BigQuery, Firestore, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub, Cloud Functions / Cloud Run, IAM & service accounts.
• Experience designing and scaling distributed systems, workflow engines, or scheduling/pipeline software.
• Strong SQL and data modelling skills, ideally with analytics and ETL familiarity.
• Demonstrated experience managing and coordinating offshore and onshore development teams.
• Ability to balance technical excellence with pragmatic delivery.

Nice‑To‑Have

• Experience with media platforms, digital content pipelines, or YouTube CMS / YouTube API.
• Familiarity with ML/AI classification, embeddings, transcript‑based tagging, or automation‑first workflows.
• Exposure to Airflow / Dagster / Prefect for orchestration.
• Experience with high‑throughput scheduling or rules engines.