Senior Tech Lead: Build, Mentor & Scale Distributed Systems

Techrepo.co.za; Bellville; On-site; ZAR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanlam, a diversified financial services group in South Africa, seeks an experienced Engineering Lead to manage a 4-8 person software team. You will mentor engineers, drive performance and career development, and stay hands-on with critical implementations and complex debugging.

You will shape system design for distributed cloud services, collaborate with Product Management, and own on-call processes, incident response, and process improvements.

Qualifications

• Typically 10+ years of software engineering experience with at least 2 years in a management or technical leadership role.
• Deep understanding of system design, software development methodologies, and modern technology stacks.
• Maintains hands-on coding ability alongside management responsibilities.
• Proven track record of designing, building, and scaling distributed systems in cloud environments.
• Fintech or banking experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 4-8 engineers, conducting regular one-on-one meetings and performance reviews.
• Mentor team members on technical skills, career development, and professional growth.
• Provide regular constructive feedback and coach on both technical and soft skills.
• Build a cohesive, high-performing team with strong morale and healthy dynamics.
• Contribute to hiring efforts and onboard new team members.
• Address individual concerns promptly and maintain high team engagement.
• Conduct effective performance reviews and address performance issues promptly.
• Create growth opportunities within the team and support career progression.
• Remain hands-on with code, participating in critical implementations and complex debugging.
• Make sound architectural decisions for team-owned services and components.
• Review and guide the team's system designs, ensuring alignment with broader architecture.
• Balance technical debt with feature delivery and maintain code quality standards.
• Drive the team's operational excellence including on-call processes and incident management.
• Lead the team's incident response and conduct thorough postmortems.
• Ensure the team delivers reliably whilst maintaining quality standards.
• Introduce new technologies to the team and encourage experimentation.
• Collaborate with Product Management to define technical approach and delivery timelines.
• Plan team roadmap, balancing technical and product priorities.
• Identify and mitigate team-level risks, managing dependencies with other teams.
• Remove blockers and shield the team from unnecessary distractions.
• Work effectively with Product Management, Design, and leadership stakeholders.
• Communicate team status, technical decisions, and progress to stakeholders.
• Facilitate agile ceremonies and ensure smooth team processes
• Implement agile practices and continuously improve team processes.
• Track and improve team metrics including velocity, quality, operational health, and customer experience.
• Ensure the team's service reliability and maintain quality standards.
• Use data to inform decisions and guide improvements.
• Write clear technical documentation and effective status updates.
• Understand product goals and consider ROI in technical decisions

Skills

People Leadership

Communication Skills

Problem solving

Delivery focus

Leadership potential

Team collaboration

Agile practices

Data-driven decisions

System design

Cloud computing

Education

Relevant degree or diploma in Computer Science, IT, or related field

Tools

CI/CD

IaC

Containers

Observability tools

Job description

Sanlam, a diversified financial services group in South Africa, seeks an experienced Engineering Lead to manage a 4-8 person software team. You will mentor engineers, drive performance and career development, and stay hands-on with critical implementations and complex debugging.

You will shape system design for distributed cloud services, collaborate with Product Management, and own on-call processes, incident response, and process improvements.