Cape Town City Centre: Principal Engineer in Software

Our client is seeking a visionary Principal Engineer in Software to take on a role defined by its high level of autonomy, influence, and complexity. This is not a back-seat role; you will be initiating and leading critical activities, designing entire systems, and acting as a trusted advisor to both our clients and our internal teams. You will be the technical cornerstone of our major projects. Your responsibilities will encompass the full product development lifecyclefrom initial client engagement and scoping through to architecture, execution, and delivery. You will analyze, design, plan, and evaluate work to meet time, cost, and quality targets, ensuring that we deliver exceptional value and innovation. Key Responsibilities: Technical Leadership & Architecture: Lead solution and system architecture design sessions. Design and architect complex, scalable systems, considering performance, security, and future growth. Stakeholder Engagement & Strategy: Act as a strategic advisor to clients, leading scoping discussions, explaining risks and trade-offs, and fostering trusting, collaborative relationships. Mentorship & Community Growth: Mentor engineering staff, provide on-the-job training, resolve conflicts, and drive the development of our engineering community. You will be directly responsible for growing the Engineers around you. Problem Solving: Tackle our hardest technical problems, troubleshoot critical issues, and propose effective solutions. You will be our go-to expert for innovation. Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement initiatives, identify bottlenecks, and implement process optimizations to foster a culture of innovation and learning. Qualifications and Experience: A proven track record as a Principal, Lead, or Staff Engineer with extensive experience in the full product development lifecycle. Deep expertise in architecting and delivering complex, large-scale systems. Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to innovate and abstract details into larger patterns. Outstanding communication skills, capable of conveying technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and acting as a trusted client advisor. A genuine passion for mentoring, coaching, and elevating the entire engineering discipline. Experience with a broad range of technologies. Our stack is polyglot, and proficiency in a combination of the following is highly desirable: Languages: TypeScript, Node.js, C#, Python, Go, Java, and Scala Frontend: React.js and other mainstream JS frameworks Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, and Redis Infrastructure: Kafka, RabbitMQ, and Elasticsearch Apply now!