Technical Product Owner

Labourlinq Recruitment (Pty) Ltd; Gauteng; Hybrid; ZAR 949,000 - 1,172,000; Full time

Job summary

Labourlinq Recruitment (Pty) Ltd is seeking a Technical Product Owner for Software Engineering Platforms, Developer Productivity & AI in Centurion. This role shapes and leads an enterprise software engineering ecosystem, delivering a modern, scalable engineering environment to boost developer productivity and AI adoption.

The position is a 6-month contract with a hybrid work model (2–3 days on-site per week).

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience across Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, DevOps or related disciplines.
• Proven experience leading engineering platforms or enterprise technology capabilities.
• Experience operating as a Product Owner, Product Manager or Platform Owner.
• Strong understanding of software engineering lifecycle and modern delivery practices.

Responsibilities

• Own the vision, roadmap and backlog for engineering platforms, developer productivity and AI engineering capabilities.
• Shape the strategy for engineering platforms, tooling and developer enablement.
• Drive adoption of DORA metrics, engineering KPIs and value measurement frameworks.
• Establish productivity baselines and measurable improvement targets.
• Lead engineering toolchain strategy, optimisation and rationalisation.
• Evaluate build-versus-buy decisions and develop business cases for platform investments.
• Drive adoption and governance of AI-assisted software engineering capabilities.
• Define how AI engineering utilisation, productivity and ROI are measured, partnering with multiple teams.
• Promote platform-as-a-product thinking and improve adoption of engineering standards.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Product ownership

Stakeholder influence

DevOps collaboration

Roadmap & strategy

Tools

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Job description

Technical Product Owner - Centurion

Salary: R85 000 - R105 000 CTC per month Contract: 6-month contract ONLY Hybrid: 2 to 3 days a week on-site

Our client is looking for a Technical Product Owner - Software Engineering Platforms, Developer Productivity & AI to shape and lead their enterprise software engineering ecosystem. This is a high-impact opportunity focused on creating a modern, scalable and measurable engineering environment that improves developer productivity, accelerates software delivery and enables responsible adoption of AI across software engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the vision, roadmap and backlog for engineering platforms, developer productivity and AI engineering capabilities.
• Shape the strategy for engineering platforms, tooling and developer enablement across the organisation.
• Drive adoption of DORA metrics, engineering KPIs and value measurement frameworks.
• Establish productivity baselines and measurable improvement targets.
• Lead engineering toolchain strategy, optimisation and rationalisation.
• Evaluate build-versus-buy decisions and develop business cases for platform investments.
• Drive adoption and governance of AI-assisted software engineering capabilities.
• Define how AI engineering utilisation, productivity and ROI are measured.Partner with Software Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Cloud, Infrastructure and Security teams.
• Promote platform-as-a-product thinking and improve adoption of engineering standards and capabilities.
• Support strategic technology investment, vendor and platform decisions.
• 8+ years' experience across Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, DevOps, Technology Management or related disciplines.
• Proven experience leading engineering platforms, developer tooling or enterprise technology capabilities.
• Experience operating as a Product Owner, Product Manager or Platform Owner.
• Strong understanding of the software engineering lifecycle and modern engineering delivery practices.
• Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code and engineering automation.
• Understanding of DORA metrics, engineering performance and developer productivity measurement.
• Experience defining technology strategies, roadmaps and investment priorities.
• Ability to work effectively across Engineering, Architecture, Cloud and Platform teams.
• Strong product ownership skills with a focus on measurable outcomes and value realisation.

Nice to Have

• Experience with AI-assisted software development and AI coding platforms.
• Platform Engineering, DevOps, Cloud or AI certifications.
• Product Owner certification such as SAFe POPM, PSPO or CSPO.
• Experience with API management, engineering observability, repository strategies and value stream management.

How You Work

• Strategic and technically credible.
• Outcome- and value-driven.
• Comfortable operating across both executive and engineering audiences.
• Strong stakeholder influencer who can align multiple technology teams.
• Commercially aware and confident making investment and prioritisation decisions.
• Evidence-led, curious and focused on continuous improvement.
• Passionate about improving the developer experience and engineering excellence.

Please note: If you do not hear back from us within 2 weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.