We are recruiting on behalf of a growing international digital product and technology studio that partners with ambitious companies and startup teams to build modern, high-quality digital products and platforms.
The team works across product, design and engineering and operates in a collaborative, remote-first environment. Their work includes complex digital platforms, SaaS products and increasingly AI-enabled applications and tools .
They are looking for a Senior Software Developer who is technically strong, commercially minded and comfortable taking ownership across the development lifecycle.
This is not a narrowly defined backend role. The successful candidate will be a strong Java engineer with genuine full-stack capability , able to contribute across architecture, backend development, frontend implementation, cloud deployment and technical problem-solving.
The Role
You will work closely with product, design and engineering teams to build and evolve digital products from concept through to production.
The role requires someone who can operate independently, make sensible technical decisions and work effectively in environments where requirements may evolve quickly.
You should be equally comfortable building software, solving ambiguous problems, collaborating with non-technical stakeholders and taking responsibility for the quality of the final product .
Key Responsibilities
- Design, build and maintain scalable backend applications using Java and Spring Boot .
- Contribute across the full software development lifecycle, from early technical discovery through to deployment and production support.
- Design and implement clean, maintainable and scalable software solutions.
- Build and maintain APIs, services and application integrations.
- Containerise and manage applications using Docker .
- Support cloud-based deployments, primarily within Microsoft Azure environments.
- Collaborate with product managers and designers to translate product requirements into technical solutions.
- Contribute to feature definition, technical feasibility discussions and product architecture.
- Integrate AI capabilities, models and APIs into digital products where appropriate.
- Investigate performance issues, production problems and technical bottlenecks.
- Conduct code reviews and contribute to engineering best practices.
- Maintain high standards of code quality, testing and technical documentation.
- Identify opportunities to improve architecture, development processes and engineering tooling.
- Contribute to technical roadmap and architectural decisions.
What We’re Looking For
You are likely to perform well in this environment if you:
- Have deep hands-on expertise in Java and strong experience with Spring Boot .
- Are comfortable working across backend and frontend development.
- Can work effectively with Angular and modern web technologies.
- Think beyond individual tickets and understand the broader product and business problem.
- Are able to take a feature or technical problem from concept through to production.
- Are resourceful and able to solve problems without needing highly prescriptive requirements.
- Have strong engineering judgement and know when to optimise for speed, scalability, maintainability or simplicity.
- Enjoy working in smaller, fast-moving product teams.
- Are comfortable with ambiguity and changing priorities.
- Ask good questions and proactively identify risks, gaps and opportunities.
- Communicate clearly with engineers, designers, product teams and business stakeholders.
- Take ownership rather than waiting for detailed instruction.
- Care deeply about the quality and maintainability of the systems you build.
Requirements
- 5+ years of professional software development experience , with substantial hands-on backend development experience.
- Strong commercial experience with Java .
- Strong experience with Spring Boot .
- Experience developing modern web applications.
- Working knowledge of Angular or another modern single-page application framework.
- Strong understanding of:
- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- REST APIs
- Object-oriented development
- Software architecture
- Clean code principles
- Experience using Git within professional development environments.
- Practical experience with Docker and containerised applications.
- Experience with standard Java development tooling such as Maven and IntelliJ .
- Understanding of scalable application architecture and modern software engineering practices.
- Experience working with development and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence or equivalent.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Fluent professional English.
- Formal training or a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related technical discipline , or demonstrably equivalent professional experience.
- Must be eligible to work in South Africa .
Advantageous Experience
Additional value would include experience with:
- Microsoft Azure or another major cloud platform.
- SaaS products or enterprise software platforms.
- AI-enabled products.
- Integrating LLMs, AI models or AI APIs into production applications.
- Webflow or similar web development/design platforms.
- CI/CD pipelines and automated deployments.
- Cloud-native application architecture.
- Startup, scale-up or product studio environments.
- Working directly with product teams from early concept through to delivery.
Cape Town-based candidates are particularly welcome , as the team values occasional in-person collaboration, although the role operates remotely.