South Africa: Senior Full-Stack Developer & Software Designer (Remote) posted by DataFin Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT

Our client is building an innovative platform to capture and scale human expertise by creating Digital Twins of an organizations most experienced employees. These Digital Twins make critical knowledge accessible across teams, systems, and external communities where appropriate. You will join a mission to fundamentally reshape how expertise is shared and operationalized within enterprises.

Purpose of the Role:

To be a hands-on technical leader who builds and shapes the core platform. You will deliver production-ready software while contributing significantly to the design of scalable, intuitive, and well-architected applications. As part of a cross-functional team, you will influence technical decisions, improve system design, and take ownership across the entire development lifecyclefrom concept and architecture to delivery and iteration. The focus is on building reliable, thoughtfully designed software that solves real user problems and grows with the product.

DUTIES:

Software Design

• Collaborate with Implementation and Sales teams to understand feature requirements and translate them into intuitive, scalable designs.
• Design software architecture that ensures high performance, security, and maintainability.
• Conceptualize and develop wireframes, prototypes, and user flows for complex features.
• Contribute to and extend the shared component library (70+ Radix-based accessible components).

Development

• Build features across Next.js 16 / React 19 applications using the App Router pattern.
• Write high-quality, reusable TypeScript code for dynamic user interfaces.
• Develop and maintain shared packages (database models, utilities, UI components).
• Create RESTful APIs using Next.js API routes with proper authentication middleware.
• Work with and integrate the AI Engine.
• Integrate services with third-party systems (e.g., Sentry, SendGrid, OpenAI).
• Write comprehensive tests using Jest with MongoDB Memory Server.
• Participate in code reviews, troubleshooting, and architectural discussions.
• Work through the complete software development lifecycle, from design to deployment.

DevOps & Infrastructure

• Deploy services to Google Cloud Run via Cloud Build pipelines.
• Manage and optimize Turborepo remote caching for CI/CD.
• Maintain GitHub Actions workflows (CI, security scanning, linting, automated releases).
• Administer MongoDB databases and manage connection pooling.
• Manage deployment environments (production, staging, development).
• Configure DNS and cloud services via Cloudflare.

REQUIREMENTS:

Technical Requirements Essential (Frontend)

• 7+ years of full-stack development experience across various technologies.
• Strong, recent Next.js experience App Router, Server Components, Server Actions (within last 2 years).
• Expert React knowledge hooks, context, concurrent features, modern patterns.
• Advanced TypeScript strict mode, type safety, generics.
• Tailwind CSS utility-first styling, responsive design.
• Component Libraries experience with Radix UI, Headless UI, or similar accessible primitives.

Technical Requirements Competent (Backend & Data)

• MongoDB + Mongoose or similar NoSQL DBs schema design, indexing, aggregation pipelines, ODM patterns.
• RESTful API design proper HTTP methods, status codes, error handling.
• Authentication systems NextAuth/Auth.js, OAuth 2.0, JWT, session management.
• State management Redux Toolkit with Redux-Saga OR React Query/TanStack Query.

Technical Requirements Competent (Infrastructure)

• Google Cloud Platform Cloud Run, Cloud Build, Container Registry (or equivalent).
• Docker containerization, multi-stage builds, optimization.
• CI/CD pipelines GitHub Actions or similar.
• Git branching strategies, PR-based workflows, conventional commits.

Technical Requirements Competent (Architecture)

• Monorepo tooling Turborepo, Nx, Yarn/NPM Workspaces, or Lerna.
• Object-oriented principles and design patterns.
• Software architecture best practices and scalable system design.
• Familiarity with debugging tools and performance profiling.

Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or equivalent programming training/experience.

Nice-to-Have Skills:

These will help you excel but are not required.

AI/ML & Data

• Machine Learning familiarity understanding decision trees, SHAP values, explainable AI concepts.
• Data visualization Nivo, Vega, Vega-Lite, D3.js.
• Data processing Excel/CSV handling (SheetJS, ExcelJS, Papa Parse).

Specialized Frontend

• Node-based visual editors Rete.js, React Flow, or similar.
• 3D graphics Three.js, WebGL.
• Advanced charting complex dashboards, real-time data visualization.

Development Tools

• Storybook component development and documentation.
• Testing libraries React Testing Library, Cypress, Playwright.
• Email templating React Email, MJML.

Additional Skills

• Functional programming concepts (e.g., Prelude-ts).
• Internationalization (i18n) implementation.
• MongoDB shell and GUI tools (Compass, Atlas).
• API testing tools (Postman, Insomnia).
• Linux-based infrastructure experience.
• Python scripting for tooling and automation.
• Any Cloud certification is beneficial.

ATTRIBUTES:

• Excellent verbal and written communication with clear technical articulation.
• Ability to work autonomously and drive features end-to-end.
• Collaborative mindset and openness to feedback.
• Comfortable with ambiguity in a fast-moving environment.
• Proactive problem-solving and ability to propose design alternatives.