Tech Lead

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

Job Description

About the Role

Sanlam was established as a life insurance company in South Africa but has since transformed into a diversified financial services group that operates across the African continent, India, Malaysia and selected developed markets, with listings on the Johannesburg, A2X and Namibian stock exchanges. In 2018 the Group celebrated its centenary as well as 20 years since demutualisation and listing in South Africa and Namibia. Sanlam is one of the largest internationally active insurance groups in the world with a presence in 31 countries and has the biggest non-banking financial services footprint on the African continent.

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 effectively 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
• Relevant degree or diploma in Computer Science, IT, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 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.
• Strong expertise in modern backend technologies and frontend frameworks.
• Experience with microservices, event-driven architectures, and API design.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices (CI/CD, IaC, containers) and observability tools.
• Fintech or banking experience (payments, lending, wealth management) is a plus.
• People Leadership: Developing capability in people management, performance reviews, and team development. Ability to guide, inspire, and grow engineering teams.
• Communication Skills: Excellent communication abilities to facilitate team discussions, present to leadership, and influence team and immediate stakeholders. Capable of writing clear technical documentation.
• Problem-solving Abilities: Demonstrated ability to analyse complex technical challenges, identify root causes, and devise effective solutions. Can resolve team conflicts and mediate technical disagreements.
• Delivery Focus: Proven track record of leading teams to deliver reliably whilst balancing quality, velocity, and technical excellence. Experience with project planning and execution.
• Leadership Potential: Shows readiness to expand influence beyond the immediate team, with developing skills in strategic planning, stakeholder management, and handling complex team dynamics.
• We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.
• The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.