What will you do?

Job Purpose

The Customer Engagement & Experience (CEX) Engineering Manager is accountable for the end-to-end engineering leadership, delivery, and continuous improvement of the customer engagement value stream across Sanlam Life and Savings (SLS).

This role ensures cohesive delivery across the full customer journey, spanning:

• Digital and contact centre channels (e.g. BlueApp, SanlamOnline, NICE)
• Orchestration and workflow platforms (e.g. KTA)
• CRM platforms (Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Servicing and Claims)
• Downstream policy administration systems (e.g. EPS, FAFA)

The role leads cross-functional engineering teams (development and quality engineering) to deliver scalable, secure, and high-performing systems that support seamless customer and intermediary experiences.

Operating within a product-based delivery model, the role partners with Product Managers across domains to align engineering execution to product priorities, while ensuring integration across systems and adherence to modern engineering practices.

Role Positioning

This role sits within software engineering and delivery, acting as the integrator across teams and disciplines to ensure cohesive execution across the value stream.

The role ensures that:

• Engineering teams operate as a coordinated system, not isolated delivery units
  
• Customer journeys are delivered through integrated, cross-team software solutions
  
• Architecture standards and engineering patterns are consistently applied in delivery

The role does not define architecture, but ensures alignment to SLS and Group architecture and escalates decisions where standardisation is required.

Key Responsibilities

1. Leadership and People Management

• Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary engineering team
• Build a high-performance culture focused on ownership, quality, and continuous improvement
• Provide clear direction on priorities, delivery expectations, and performance
• Support talent acquisition, onboarding, and capability development

      2. Engineering Delivery and Execution

• Accountable for end-to-end engineering delivery across the customer engagement value stream
  
• Align delivery to product priorities in partnership with Product Managers
  
• Partner with Product Owners and Delivery Managers to ensure predictable, outcome-driven delivery
  
• Drive improvements in velocity, quality, and operational stability

      Solution Design and Integration

• Translate requirements into cohesive, end-to-end solution designs
  
• Apply API-led, event-driven, and integration-first patterns
  
• Ensure solutions are delivered as part of a connected system, not isolated components
  
• Align engineering disciplines (frontend, backend, integration, QA, DevOps) for coordinated delivery

      Engineering Alignment

• Ensure end-to-end flow across teams and systems within the value stream
  
• Work with Tech Leads (e.g. CRM) who own domain-level design and technical depth
  
• Collaborate with SGT teams to align decisions to enterprise standards
  
• Drive integration and orchestration across systems to support unified journeys

      3.  Engineering Standards and Practices

• Define and enforce standards for:
  o    API-led and event-driven design
  o    Scalable, secure, and resilient systems
  o    Test automation and quality engineering

• Drive adoption of:

          o    DevSecOps, CI/CD, and SRE practices
          o    Agentic / AI-assisted engineering approaches to improve delivery speed and quality

• Ensure solutions align with SLS and Group architecture guardrails
  
• Ensure architecture is consistently realised in delivery
  
• Escalate decisions requiring SLS or Group standardisation

       4.  Integration and Ecosystem Enablement

• Ensure effective integration across the customer engagement ecosystem (D365, KTA, NICE, digital channels)
  
• Drive unified, orchestrated customer journeys using reusable services
  
• Promote consistent implementation patterns across teams
• Work with SGT and other teams to support the effective use of shared platforms and services
  
• Build internal capability to design, integrate, and evolve solutions

      5.  Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration

• Engage with business, product, and technology stakeholders
  
• Translate business needs into clear engineering direction
  
• Promote a shared domain language across teams
  
• Work with SLS and Group Architecture to align design and execution
  
• Provide feedback based on delivery and integration realities

      6.  Product Operating Model Alignment

• Operate within the product-based delivery model, ensuring alignment between Product, Engineering, and Delivery
• Support effective backlog prioritisation and capacity alignment
• Drive continuous delivery of customer value
• Contribute to squad design and operating model improvements

      7.  Modernisation and Continuous Improvement 

• Support modernisation of servicing and claims capabilities
  
• Reduce legacy dependencies and adopt cloud-based solutions
  
• Continuously improve engineering practices and delivery outcomes

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Platform availability, reliability, and performance
  
• Delivery predictability and cycle time
  
• Quality metrics (defect rates, automation coverage)
  
• Integration effectiveness across systems
  
• Customer and intermediary experience outcomes

What will make you successful in this role?

Minimum Qualifications and Experience

Qualifications 

• Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent

Experience

• Proven experience in engineering leadership roles
• Experience in enterprise application delivery, including:
  o    CRM platforms (e.g. Dynamics 365)
  o    Integration and API-based architectures
  o    Digital channels
• Experience in Agile or product-based delivery environments
• Exposure to DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern engineering practices

Competencies

Technical

• Enterprise architecture and integration patterns
  
• Scalable and secure system design
  
• Modern engineering practices (DevSecOps, CI/CD, SRE)

Leadership

• Team leadership and development
  
• Delivery accountability
  
• Coaching and mentoring

Behavioural

• Collaboration and stakeholder engagement
  
• Strategic thinking with execution focus
  
• Problem-solving and continuous improvement

Build a successful career with us

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.

Turnaround time

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. 

Closing Date: 5 June 2026

Our commitment to transformation