Tech Lead

Date: 28 Mar 2025

Location:

Cape Town, Western Cape, ZA

Company: Sanlam Group

Who are we?

Sanlam Fintech is a newly established digital first business within the Sanlam Group on a mission to democratize financial advice and solutions for everyone across the African continent. We exist to pioneer inclusive financial confidence helping people build strong foundations to bridge the gap in generational wealth. Our culture us that of agility and constant deployment, we believe in learning fast, learning cheap and learning forward. Our aim is to provide a work environment where knowledge workers can accelerate the development of their ideas and bring innovation to market, at the same time provide compelling career and development proposition that will enable them to realize their dreams.

Qualification and Experience

A relevant bachelor's degree or diploma
8+ years of software development experience, with 3+ years in a technical leadership role (e.g., Tech Lead, Senior Engineer, or Architect).
Proven track record of designing, building, and scaling distributed systems in cloud environments (AWS/Azure/GCP).
Strong expertise in modern backend technologies (e.g., Java, Python, Node.js, Go) and frontend frameworks (React, Angular, or Vue).
Experience with microservices, event-driven architectures, and API design (REST/gRPC/GraphQL).
Hands-on with databases (SQL/NoSQL) and messaging systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ).
Familiarity with DevOps practices (CI/CD, IaC, Kubernetes, Docker) and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK).
Leadership & Mentorship: Ability to guide, inspire, and grow engineering teams.
Fintech/banking experience (payments, lending, wealth management) is a plus.
Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills

What will you do?

Reporting to the CTO, this role drives technical leadership, mentorship, and innovation within a fintech agile team. Key responsibilities include:

Technical Direction: Align team deliverables with strategic technical decisions, ensuring scalable, high-quality solutions.
Leadership & Mentorship: Foster team growth through coaching, cultivating top-tier engineering talent.
Code Excellence: Deliver robust, maintainable code in a collaborative, cross-functional environment.
Modern Tech Stack: Leverage pragmatic, cutting-edge technologies to build scalable distributed systems.

Ideal for fintech innovators passionate about disrupting finance, this role combines hands-on development with stakeholder management—guiding projects from inception to delivery while optimizing team productivity and communication. Join us in shaping the future of finance through technology.

What will make you successful in this role?

This role requires extensive hands-on experience designing, developing, and testing distributed, high-volume, and highly reliable software. You will need a solid understanding of requirements and excellent communication skills for explaining technical solutions. Business and operational awareness, as well as experience with cloud-based infrastructure, ideally AWS, are also required.

At Sanlam Fintech, we demand a lot from each other, but we also give a lot in return. You'll love:

Engaging with intelligent, driven people in a stimulating virtual environment.
Making a real social impact through your work.
Continuous growth and learning, with abundant support and encouragement.
Courageously navigating through uncharted territory.
Tackling exciting challenges with international teams.
Enjoying flexible work practices that enable you to deliver your best.
Having the autonomy and empowerment to lead.
Being at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.

Knowledge and Skills

IT Strategic Planning

Trend Analysis

Business Knowledge

Relationship management

Resource planning and risk management

Personal Attributes

Organisational savvy - Contributing strategically

Balances stakeholders - Contributing strategically

Develops talent - Contributing strategically

Drives vision and purpose - Contributing strategically

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.

Core Competencies

Being resilient - Contributing strategically

Collaborates - Contributing strategically

Cultivates innovation - Contributing strategically

Customer focus - Contributing strategically

Drives results - Contributing strategically

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.

Our commitment to transformation

The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensuring a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.