Software Engineering Team Lead

Entersekt; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading digital payments security firm in South Africa seeks a Software Engineering Team Lead to spearhead product development. You will oversee a diverse team and drive best practices in software architecture, mentoring, and communication. The ideal candidate has over 8 years of experience in software development, excels in technical leadership, and possesses strong problem-solving skills. This role emphasizes innovation and collaboration in a remote-first environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software development experience with general-purpose languages.
• 2+ years in a team lead or senior engineering role.
• Experience in agile environments to deliver iteratively.

Responsibilities

• Oversee a multi-functional team including software engineers and a quality engineer.
• Drive software best practices and architectural design.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to team members.

Skills

Golang or Java

Software architecture

Communication skills

Analytical problem-solving

Agile methodologies

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science/software engineering

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

GitLab

AWS

Job description

Overview

Founded over 16 years ago, Entersekt is a leader in digital banking fraud prevention and payment security, including mobile authentication, mobile app security, and 3-D Secure authentication for issuers, acquirers and payment networks. We offer highly scalable products with a track record of success across multiple continents. Entersekt enables secure digital transactions for leading financial institutions globally. We protect the digital transactions of over 210 million active users and hold 120 active patents in digital security, payments, and user experience.

Entersekt offers customers secure authentication and digital payments experiences that remove unnecessary friction. We have a diverse product portfolio and an aggressive roadmap, with global expansion focused on North America and European markets.

The Ideal Candidate

You are a motivated individual who thrives on positively impacting people’s lives, fostering team growth, and ensuring meticulous system design and implementation. You should be passionate about engineering world-class software systems, make pragmatic decisions, and demonstrate strong technical and people leadership skills.

The Role

As a Software Engineering Team Lead, you will spearhead the development of our products, overseeing a multi-functional team consisting of software engineers, a quality engineer, and a scrum master. Your responsibilities include driving software best practices, architectural design, technical strategy, and people management, with a focus on delivering working software on time, within budget, and to a high standard of quality.

Responsibilities

As a team lead, you will take responsibility for Technical and People leadership.

Technical Leadership

• Combine your understanding of technology with an appreciation of client challenges; you care about what gets built as well as how it is built.
• Collaborate with the Product Manager on product discovery, particularly feasibility aspects.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to team members.
• Lead the implementation of architecture standards and actively contribute to the architecture.
• Contribute production software to the product (hands-on member of the team).
• Plan, prioritize, and manage investigations and analysis of production issues to restore service and remediate root causes.

Coaching & Managing People

• Manage and communicate the on-call roster for the team.
• Lead and manage the interview process for vacant roles; ensure the panel represents the cross-functional role.
• Ensure annual development & training plans for team members; provide budget input for those in your team.
• Ensure meaningful performance assessments and feedback discussions (bi-annual).
• Initiate and drive tough conversations related to performance with support from People Office and leadership.
• Collaborate with Software Domain Leaders to update the Software Engineering career ladder.
• Foster a collaborative, positive culture (including regular team social connections); own the Team Build budget for your team.

Thinking about your typical work week

• Typical allocations: Coding & Testing 40%; Coaching & Managing 20%; Product Discovery & Design 20%; Recruiting 10%; Architecture 10%

Skills and Experience

Successful candidates will generally have:

• 8+ years of software development experience with general-purpose languages (e.g., Golang or Java), with a proven track record delivering complex software projects.
• 2+ years in a team lead or senior engineering role with strong people leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency in software architecture, microservices, and RESTful API design principles.
• DevOps exposure with secure coding practices, version control (e.g., GitLab), and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience in agile environments (Scrum or Kanban) to deliver iteratively.
• Familiarity with container technologies (Kubernetes, Docker, Helm) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), plus infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills to troubleshoot complex issues under pressure.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science/software engineering or related field is preferred; relevant certifications are a plus.

Personality Attributes

• Hungry to make a difference technically and with people.
• Strong communication and collaborative mindset.
• Self-motivated with a drive for continuous learning.
• Innovative thinker who enjoys teamwork.
• Ability to thrive in a remote-first environment and take ownership of tasks.

Equal Opportunity & How to Apply

Entersekt is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve. For South Africa-based roles, preference will be given to candidates from historically disadvantaged groups, in accordance with local Employment Equity objectives.

Apply for this position by following the apply now tab or viewing other roles on the Entersekt Careers page.