Software Engineering Manager

X, bigly labs; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 700 000 - 900 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare innovation hub in South Africa is searching for an Engineering Manager to lead and develop teams, ensuring delivery excellence and alignment with business objectives. The ideal candidate will have over 8 years of engineering experience, possess a strong technical background, and demonstrate effective leadership skills. This position offers the opportunity to influence healthcare positively through strategic engineering practices and collaboration with internal partners.

Qualifications

• 8+ years’ experience in engineering, including solid leadership or management roles.
• Experience aligning engineering roadmaps with business outcomes.
• Proven success managing resources and budgets within a technology environment.

Responsibilities

• Align engineering roadmaps with business and product objectives.
• Partner with Product Managers to prioritize work and balance delivery against quality and technical debt.
• Communicate delivery status, risks, and trade-offs transparently to stakeholders.
• Coach and mentor Leads, Seniors, and Intermediates to enhance technical and leadership growth.
• Support architectural and technical decision-making with Principal Engineers and Architects.
• Build and manage relationships with key internal partners (Product, Design, Data, Finance).
• Contribute to budget planning, resource allocation, and financial reporting within the engineering function.

Skills

Leadership

Engineering Systems Understanding

Stakeholder Communication

Coaching and Mentoring

Budget Management

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline

Job description

We are X, bigly labs, Dis-Chem’s high-performance innovation hub; a place where bold ideas meet data, design, and radical customer focus to reimagine what healthcare can be.

Our mission is to power the future of healthcare by lowering costs, unlocking new possibilities, and improving access to healthcare for all South Africans. We do this through cutting-edge digital solutions that deliver smarter, more human, and truly patient-focused experiences. Here, your work is not limited to a whiteboard; it becomes real. It drives decisions, shapes experiences, and moves healthcare forward. We are driven by one big question: How do we use data and today’s technology to build breakthroughs to better health?

There’s only one question left: are you ready to make healthcare smarter, and actually mean it?

WHAT YOU'LL DO?

The Engineering Manager leads and develops squads to deliver predictable, high-quality outcomes while building technical and leadership capability across teams. This role exists to ensure delivery excellence, people development, and alignment of engineering execution with strategic business objectives. The Engineering Manager translates strategy into execution through effective leadership, stakeholder partnership, and technical alignment.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR?

• Strong understanding of engineering systems, architecture, and delivery frameworks.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline.
• 8+ years’ experience in engineering, including solid leadership or management roles.
• Experience aligning engineering roadmaps with business outcomes.
• Proven success managing resources and budgets within a technology environment.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING?

• Align engineering roadmaps with business and product objectives.
• Partner with Product Managers to prioritise work and balance delivery against quality and technical debt.
• Communicate delivery status, risks, and trade-offs transparently to stakeholders.
• Coach and mentor Leads, Seniors, and Intermediates to enhance technical and leadership growth.
• Support architectural and technical decision‑making with Principal Engineers and Architects.
• Build and manage relationships with key internal partners (Product, Design, Data, Finance).
• Contribute to budget planning, resource allocation, and financial reporting within the engineering function.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a strategic and technically grounded leader with a strong understanding of engineering systems, architecture, and delivery frameworks. You confidently assess technical risks and resource trade-offs, using software delivery metrics and agile performance indicators to guide decisions and drive continuous improvement. You lead with empathy and clarity, excelling in people management, coaching, and mentorship to grow capable, confident teams. Through thoughtful decision-making and strategic prioritisation, you align technical execution with business goals while empowering others to perform at their best.

Our values show up in how we think, build, and make choices that make an impact. We are building a culture that drives progress; one that fixes friction, chases what changes, and owns the outcome. We design with tomorrow in mind, ask sharper questions, and answer them with care, urgency, and systems that scale.

Think you’ve got energy, curiosity, and guts? Come hold the space, make it matter, and own a breakthrough.