Software Engineer Technical Lead

Prime South Africa; Randburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Prime South Africa seeks an experienced Software Development Technical Lead to steer technical direction and drive growth across Data Science, Data Engineering and BI teams. The role blends architecture, hands-on coding, and people leadership for high-quality software solutions aligned with business goals.

The candidate will shape strategy, guide development choices, and contribute to codebase, while mentoring a growing team and ensuring robust delivery of critical projects.

Qualifications

• Proven software development experience in industry.
• Experience leading or managing developers.
• Strong Python development experience.
• Good SQL knowledge.
• Experience building APIs and production applications.
• Experience designing software systems and making architectural decisions.
• Experience reviewing code and guiding other developers.
• Understanding of Git and modern development workflows.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex issues and collaborate with stakeholders.
• Experience in a lead/ senior developer role is beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the development team, including performance management and growth planning.
• Provide technical leadership and architectural decisions.
• Remain hands-on and contribute to critical projects.
• Review code and uphold high coding standards across the team.
• Establish development standards and best practices.
• Translate requirements from stakeholders into practical technical solutions.
• Decompose large projects into manageable work items.
• Support developers and resolve technical issues.
• Identify and manage technical debt.
• Improve deployment, testing, and source-control processes.
• Ensure reliability and maintainability of systems.
• Collaborate with Data Science/Data Engineering on data-centric apps.
• Assist with recruitment and technical interviews.
• Own the overall performance and delivery of the development function.

Skills

Team leadership

Python development

API design

SQL

Git workflows

Code review

Full stack mindset

Communication

Problem solving

Mentoring

Tools

Python

FastAPI

SQL Server

React

HTML/CSS

HTMX

JavaScript/TypeScript

REST APIs

Git/GitHub

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Software Development Technical Lead to provide technical leadership and drive the continued growth and success of our team.

This is a hands-on leadership role that combines responsibility for technical direction, software architecture and development practices with the management, mentoring and development of team members. Working closely with the Head of Data Science and collaborating across our Data Science, Data Engineering and Business Intelligence teams, the successful candidate will play a key role in delivering high-quality software solutions that support our wider business objectives.

The ideal candidate will bring strong technical expertise, sound architectural judgement and a pragmatic approach to software development, alongside the leadership skills needed to build, support and develop a high-performing team. They will be equally comfortable shaping technical strategy, making critical development decisions and contributing directly to the codebase.

Responsibilities

• Manage the development team, including day-to-day support, performance management, development plans and career growth.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to developers across the team.
• Take ownership of software architecture and technical design decisions.
• Remain hands-on with development and contribute directly to important or complex projects.
• Review code and maintain a high standard of code quality across the team.
• Establish and maintain development standards and best practices.
• Work with the Head of Data Science and business stakeholders to understand requirements and turn them into practical technical solutions.
• Help break larger projects into clear and manageable pieces of work.
• Support developers and help them work through technical problems.
• Identify and manage technical debt.
• Improve development processes, testing, deployment and source-control practices.
• Ensure systems are reliable, maintainable and well understood by the team.
• Work closely with Data Science and Data Engineering when building applications around data, models and internal services.
• Assist with recruitment and technical interviews when required.
• Take responsibility for the overall performance and delivery of the development function.

Technology Stack:

Our current development stack includes:

• Python
• FastAPI
• SQL Server
• React
• HTML / CSS
• HTMX
• JavaScript / TypeScript
• REST APIs
• Git / GitHub

The wider team also works heavily with data, analytics, Power BI and internal operational systems.

We are not necessarily looking for someone who has worked with every technology above, but they should have strong software engineering fundamentals and be comfortable working across backend, frontend and databases.

Experience Required:

The ideal candidate will have:

• Strong professional software development experience.
• Experience leading or managing developers.
• Strong Python development experience.
• Good SQL knowledge.
• Experience building APIs and production applications.
• Experience designing software systems and making architectural decisions.
• Experience reviewing code and guiding other developers.
• Good understanding of Git and modern development workflows.
• Experience working with databases and integrating with external or internal APIs.
• The ability to troubleshoot complex issues and work through problems independently.
• Good communication skills and the ability to work directly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience in a Technical Lead, Lead Developer, Senior Developer / Engineer or similar role would be beneficial.