Software Engineer (Python)

takealot.com; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 300 000 - 400 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading online retailer in South Africa is seeking a talented Software Engineer (Python) to improve customer experience and design solutions. The ideal candidate will have 5 to 10 years of experience, a strong background in Python, and a deep understanding of software development principles. The role embraces a flexible work environment with mentorship opportunities and competitive benefits.

Benefits

Market-related Total Remuneration Package

Flexible work environment

Remote working options

Mentorship programme

Staff discount

Qualifications

• 5 to 10 years in a software development role.
• A thorough understanding of computer science fundamentals, including object-oriented design, data structures, and algorithms.
• Experience in writing robust and efficient production code.

Responsibilities

• Design and build solutions to assist business users and improve customer experience.
• Develop high-quality production code for work of high complexity and scale.
• Champion and iterate on best practices within engineering.

Skills

Python

Java

Golang

SQL

Linux

Education

Bachelor's degree or Advanced Diploma in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub

AWS

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Job description

Takealot.com, South Africa's leading online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Software Engineer (Python) to join our team. We are a young, dynamic, hyper‑growth company seeking smart, creative, hard‑working people with integrity.

Responsibilities

• Design and build solutions to assist our business users and improve customer experience
• Architect and design solutions with your team
• Develop code, making major improvements to non‑functional areas
• Develop high‑quality production code for work of high complexity and scale
• Utilize and improve functional and non‑functional testing practices
• Champion, challenge, and iterate on best practices within engineering
• Design solutions for complex problems with difficult decision trade‑offs, typically system or domain‑wide
• Participate in and collaborate on architecture proposals across engineering
• Support alignment of architecture across the organisation
• Respond to and resolve bugs in production for systems in your division
• Respond to alerts and support incident response within your division
• Investigate and drive the resolution of issues that impact multiple teams
• Support, challenge existing, and define new engineering processes and directives
• Review and contribute fixes and content to internal documentation
• React to technology trends, identifying risks and opportunities for your division's technologies, systems, and domains
• Share knowledge through blog posts, tech talks, and workshops across engineering
• Contribute to discussions and decisions in the division
• Challenge others to always produce work of the highest quality
• REST and RPC API implementation and maintenance (using Python)
• Develop and maintain automation tests
• Liaise with various internal stakeholders to discuss project requirements, progress, etc.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree or an Advanced Diploma in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 5 to 10 years in a software development role
• A thorough understanding of computer science fundamentals, including object‑oriented design, data structures, and algorithms.
• Experience in writing robust, efficient production code.
• Proficient in a strongly typed open source language such as Python, Java, Golang, etc.
• Exposure to RESTful APIs and web services.
• Experience with SQL database systems.
• Experience with development in a Linux environment.

Desired Skills

• Solutions‑oriented, can‑do attitude, and high energy.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking, using data to inform decisions.
• Ability to dis‑aggregate and structure solutions to ambiguous problems.
• Solid quantitative skills.
• Capability to present ideas succinctly, in writing and verbally.
• Versatile and with the appetite to learn by doing.

Advantageous Experience

• Familiarity with microservices architecture.
• Experience working in an Agile environment.
• MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL.
• Memcached, Redis.
• Message Brokers, Queues, and PubSub systems (e.g., Kafka and RabbitMQ).
• Containerisation (e.g., Docker).
• Orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes).
• GitHub, Travis CI, Jenkins.
• AWS, GCP, Azure.
• JavaScript, React, jQuery.

Benefits

• We offer a market‑related Total Remuneration Package that allows full flexibility according to your needs.
• Flexible work environment with mid‑to‑high autonomy and no unnecessary office constraints.
• Remote working with the option for in‑office interactions.
• Mentorship programme to accelerate learning.
• Access to Naspers Tech Community & Online Learning (Udacity, Coursera, etc.).
• Regular social events and team outings.
• Staff discount across all departments.
• Bday leave and other flexible policies.
• Right tools: Mac or Linux, and dual monitors if preferred.
• Confidential counselling, legal support, and financial guidance.
• Tech stack: ReactJS, Python, Scala, Kotlin, Swift, Google Cloud, Kafka, Redis, Kubernetes, and machine learning.
• Free parking and no commuting snacks.

Takealot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants from previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference.