​​​​​​Location: South Africa (Johannesburg or Cape Town)
Work model: Hybrid and highly flexible (output-driven).
Salary: R120 000 – R150 000 CTC

Why you’d want to work here

• Outcome-driven flexibility (low bureaucracy, high trust)
• Proper ownership and autonomy — you’ll genuinely shape how engineering runs
• Performance-based bonuses (after probation)
• Startup energy: efficient, low-drama, get-things-done culture
• Big runway for growth (including a clear path towards CTO)

About our client
Our client is building a new kind of mobile operator and fintech platform in South Africa — blending device financing, telco services, and cashflow underwriting into one tightly integrated system. They’re scaling, moving fast, and solving properly interesting problems across fintech, telco integrations, retail distribution, and real-world customer environments.

They’re looking for a Head of Engineering (with the potential to grow into a CTO role) to partner closely with the CTO/founder and progressively take ownership of technical leadership. This is a hands-on leadership role — not a “strategy-only” seat.

What the job involves

• Owning end-to-end engineering delivery across multiple workstreams
• Scaling the engineering team (from a small team towards ~10–25 over time)
• Introducing and formalising dev processes: standards, velocity, accountability, release discipline
• Establishing strong delivery/PMO rhythm: roadmaps, timelines, ownership, unblocking
• Owning architecture and system design across key platforms (payments/billing, credit/underwriting, telco provisioning & SIM lifecycle, device management, retail/in-store tools)
• Staying hands-on when needed: coding, reviewing PRs, guiding implementation, solving hard technical problems
• Coaching, mentoring, and raising the bar across backend, frontend, QA, and infrastructure
• Working closely with product and business stakeholders to translate priorities into clear technical execution
• Reducing dependency on the CTO for day-to-day coding, QA oversight, and technical gatekeeping
• Leading a distributed team (with many engineers currently offshore)

What you need to be considered

• 8+ years in software engineering
• 3+ years in a senior leadership role (Lead / Head of Engineering / CTO / similar)
• Proven experience scaling engineering teams and building high-performance engineering culture
• Strong delivery mindset — you can build process without creating pointless bureaucracy
• Strong backend engineering capability (Python preferred)
• Solid experience with modern architectures (APIs, microservices, event-driven systems)
• Strong fundamentals across Postgres/data, AWS/cloud infrastructure, scalability and performance
• Confidence operating in a fast-moving startup environment — sleeves rolled up, calm under pressure
• Comfortable leading distributed/offshore teams (or ready to learn fast)

Bonus points if you

• Have fintech, payments, telco, or high-throughput consumer platform experience (Yoco/Stitch-style environments are a great reference point)
• Have built systems that bridge “digital + physical” environments (stores, agents, real-world ops)
• Are excited by the trajectory towards CTO and building the full engineering function over time