Senior Software Engineering Manager – Cape Town & Durban

Avatar International SA; Durban; On-site; ZAR 893,000 - 1,395,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

R2000 Medical Aid subsidy (Discovery/M

Provident Fund with employer matching

School subsidies for childcare/early-­

Group Life / Income Protector / Death/

Job summary

Avatar International SA leads a software engineering team to deliver high‑quality, maintainable software aligned with business objectives, setting technical direction and standards. You will coach engineers, manage budgets and staffing, and drive dependable delivery while collaborating with product, QA and infrastructure teams.

The role requires 6–8 years of software engineering experience with 2–3 years in formal leadership, plus strong communication and strategic thinking to balance delivery

Qualifications

• Leadership and people management experience across software teams.
• Ability to translate business needs into technical execution plans.
• Experience managing budgets, staffing, and delivery commitments.

Responsibilities

• Leads and manages team performance, providing coaching, mentorship, and career development while ensuring accountability for delivery commitments.
• Owns delivery outcomes for assigned products/services, managing prioritisation, coordination, and communication with product and technical stakeholders.
• Establishes technical direction and standards, ensuring architectural decisions align with long‑term strategy and balance quality with delivery timelines.
• Translates business priorities into clear technical execution plans in partnership with product management and stakeholders.
• Identifies and manages technical risks, including technical debt, testing gaps, security concerns, and performance issues.
• Coordinates with cross‑functional teams to manage dependencies, resolve blockers, and maintain predictable delivery.
• Monitors delivery performance and quality metrics, providing visibility to leadership and enabling data‑driven decision‑making.
• Drives process, tooling, and quality improvements to enhance productivity and reduce manual effort.
• Participates in recruitment, capability planning, and talent management to ensure appropriate team skills and capacity.
• Collaborates with peer managers and engineering leadership on cross‑functional initiatives and technical standards.
• Owns production responsibility for team services, ensuring operational health, participating in incident response, and prioritising stability.

Skills

Leadership

Team Building

Coaching

Mentoring

Performance Management

People Development

Stakeholder Management

Communication

Influencing

Decision-Making

Strategic Thinking

Prioritisation

Problem Solving

Technical Leadership

Software Architecture

Code Quality

Technical Debt Management

Risk Management

Delivery Planning

Project Coordination

Process Improvement

Agile Methodology

CI/CD

Testing Frameworks

Accountability

Resilience

Adaptability

Critical Analysis

Vendor Evaluation

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Advanced Diploma or equivalent technical qualification

Job description

Avatar International SA leads a software engineering team to deliver high‑quality, maintainable software aligned with business objectives, setting technical direction and standards. You will coach engineers, manage budgets and staffing, and drive dependable delivery while collaborating with product, QA and infrastructure teams.

The role requires 6–8 years of software engineering experience with 2–3 years in formal leadership, plus strong communication and strategic thinking to balance delivery