{"id":3852489,"url":"https://alion.io/job/imizizi-full-stack-developer-chief-expert","title":"Full Stack Developer (Chief Expert)","company":{"id":4496229,"name":"Imizizi","domain":"imizizi.co.za","url":"https://alion.io/company/imizizi","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Pretoria, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"Amazon S3","optional":false},{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"AWS Lambda","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"CloudFormation","optional":false},{"name":"COBOL","optional":false},{"name":"Db2","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"IMS","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"Maven","optional":false},{"name":"OpenShift","optional":false},{"name":"Quarkus","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"Unix","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-05T15:01:06Z","employer_posted_date":null,"last_verified_at":"2026-11-05T15:01:06Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"Reference: JHB001527-SN-2\n\nESSENTIAL SKILLS:\n\nMainframe & Modernisation\n\nDeep understanding of enterprise mainframe architectures and application landscapes.\n\nStrong experience in mainframe-to-cloud modernisation and migration.\n\nStrong working knowledge of IBM DB2 and IMS.\n\nUnderstanding of COBOL, PL/I, Java and J2EE environments.\n\nExperience analysing legacy applications, dependencies, interfaces, data flows and integration points.\n\nAbility to define modernisation strategies including refactoring, replatforming, decoupling and application redesign.\n\nExperience designing repeatable migration patterns suitable for a migration factory approach.\n\nCloud & Architecture\n\nStrong AWS cloud architecture experience.\n\nExperience defining target architectures, reference architectures, architectural principles and solution patterns.\n\nStrong understanding of cloud-native and distributed application architectures.\n\nExperience with AWS Blu Age or equivalent automated mainframe transformation approaches.\n\nKnowledge of AI-enabled software engineering and its application within legacy modernisation.\n\nStrong understanding of service-oriented, modular and decoupled architectures.\n\nExperience designing for scalability, availability, resilience, security and operational supportability.\n\nIntegration & Data\n\nStrong enterprise system integration architecture experience.\n\nAPI design and OpenAPI principles.\n\nEvent-driven architecture.\n\nKafka and Pub/Sub integration patterns.\n\nMainframe-to-cloud data migration and synchronisation.\n\nChange Data Capture concepts and technologies.\n\nExperience integrating modernised applications with legacy and cloud platforms.\n\nEngineering & Automation\n\nStrong understanding of modern software engineering and DevOps practices.\n\nJava and modern application development principles.\n\nCI/CD and automated delivery concepts.\n\nInfrastructure as Code principles.\n\nExperience with Terraform and/or AWS CloudFormation.\n\nGit and Maven.\n\nContainer technologies including Docker, Kubernetes and/or OpenShift.\n\nLinux/Unix environments and shell scripting.\n\nAutomated testing, system integration testing and parallel-run approaches.\n\nChief Expert / Architecture Leadership\n\nAbility to establish technical direction across a complex modernisation programme.\n\nAbility to translate modernisation strategy into executable architecture and engineering standards.\n\nAbility to make and govern complex architectural decisions across multiple applications and delivery teams.\n\nAbility to develop reusable architectural patterns rather than application-specific solutions.\n\nStrong technical leadership and engineering mentoring capability.\n\nAbility to evaluate emerging technologies through proofs of concept and translate outcomes into production architecture.\n\nAbility to communicate complex technical decisions to senior management, Product Owners and engineering teams.\n\nStrong stakeholder management and ability to drive technical alignment across multiple organisations\n\nADVANTAGEOUS SKILLS:\n\nExperience with AWS Transform for mainframe / AWS Re:Imagine.\n\nPractical experience with AWS Blu Age.\n\nExperience applying AI-assisted or AI-native software engineering techniques to application modernisation.\n\nExperience with automated source-code analysis, business-rule extraction and specification generation.\n\nExperience establishing or scaling a mainframe migration factory.\n\nExperience modernising large enterprise application portfolios.\n\nExperience running multiple modernisation approaches in parallel.\n\nPractical experience transitioning from legacy architectures towards microservices and cloud-native architectures.\n\nServerless architecture and AWS Lambda.\n\nAWS services such as S3 and Glue.\n\nExperience with Payara and/or Quarkus.\n\nExperience working with IBM IIB or comparable enterprise integration technologies.\n\nTest-driven development and automated unit/integration testing.\n\nExperience working in large-scale Agile delivery environments.\n\nExperience working with globally distributed engineering teams and external technology partners.\n\nExperience coaching architects and senior engineers.\n\nGerman language capability advantageous.\n\nExperience working within regulated or highly governed enterprise IT environments.\n\nDuties & Responsibilities\nRESPONSIBILITIES:\n\nTechnical Strategy & Architecture\n\nOwn and evolve the technical architecture for the Mainframe Migration Service.\n\nDefine the target architecture for mainframe-to-cloud modernisation.\n\nEstablish architecture principles, standards, patterns and guardrails for migration teams.\n\nDefine reusable reference architectures that can be applied across multiple migration initiatives.\n\nEnsure architectural consistency across legacy, integration, cloud and modern application landscapes.\n\nGuide technical decisions regarding the appropriate modernisation approach for different application\n\ncharacteristics.\n\nEnsure architecture supports long-term maintainability and does not simply recreate legacy complexity in the cloud.\n\nModernisation Capability\n\nLead the technical establishment and industrialisation of the AWS Re:Imagine / AWS Transform modernisation capability.\n\nEnsure architectural alignment between the emerging Re:Imagine capability and the established AWS Blu Age migration approach.\n\nDefine how multiple modernisation paths can operate within a common migration service.\n\nEvaluate new modernisation technologies and approaches through structured POCs.\n\nConvert successful POC outcomes into governed, repeatable production patterns.\n\nIdentify architectural constraints, technical risks and dependencies early in the migration lifecycle.\n\nMigration Architecture\n\nDefine application and data migration architecture.\n\nEstablish approaches for legacy application analysis, decomposition and decoupling.\n\nDefine cloud landing-zone and application deployment architecture appropriate to migrated workloads.\n\nDefine patterns for migration of DB2 and IMS-based applications.\n\nDefine integration and coexistence patterns between mainframe and modernised applications.\n\nDefine data synchronisation and Change Data Capture patterns where parallel operation is required.\n\nSupport migration testing, system integration, parallel running and production implementation activities.\n\nEngineering Enablement\n\nEstablish reusable engineering patterns supporting faster migration delivery.\n\nDrive automation across build, test, deployment and infrastructure provisioning.\n\nDefine technical quality standards and architecture acceptance criteria.\n\nGuide engineering teams on cloud-native architecture and modern software engineering practices.\n\nReduce application-by-application reinvention by establishing standard solutions that can be reused across the migration portfolio.\n\nMentor architects and engineers and facilitate technical knowledge transfer.\n\nEnsure knowledge is institutionalised within the organisation rather than concentrated within individual suppliers or resources.\n\nTechnical Governance\n\nLead significant technical and architectural decisions affecting the migration service.\n\nConduct architecture and system design reviews and identify required improvements.\n\nEnsure solutions remain aligned with enterprise architecture, security and integration requirements.\n\nEstablish architectural decision records and technical standards where appropriate.\n\nIdentify technical debt and architectural risks before they impact migration delivery.\n\nBalance architectural governance with the need for delivery speed.\n\nStakeholder & Delivery Alignment\n\nWork closely with the Product Owner and Delivery Manager to translate strategy into executable technical roadmaps.\n\nProvide technical options and recommendations for future technology decisions.\n\nTranslate business and migration requirements into implementable architecture.\n\nCollaborate with application teams, architecture, infrastructure, cloud, security and integration stakeholders.\n\nCollaborate with external suppliers and technology partners during POCs and implementation activities.\n\nPresent architectural decisions, risks, trade-offs and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.\n\nSupport migration planning, technical estimation and dependency identification.\n\nProvide technical guidance to enable the migration capability to scale across multiple delivery teams.\n\nQUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE:\n\nRelevant university degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related discipline.\n\nAlternatively, demonstrable equivalent senior-level enterprise architecture and software engineering experience.\n\nRelevant cloud and architecture certifications are advantageous.\n\n10+ years' relevant professional experience in enterprise IT, software engineering or technology architecture.\n\nThis aligns with the minimum experience requirement in the existing specification.\n\nSignificant experience working as a Solution Architect, Technical Architect, Enterprise Architect or equivalent senior technical role.\n\nProven experience architecting complex enterprise solutions.\n\nProven experience in mainframe modernisation and mainframe-to-cloud migration.\n\nPractical experience working with legacy mainframe technologies such as DB2, IMS, COBOL and PL/I.\n\nStrong practical experience with AWS or comparable hyperscale cloud environments.\n\nProven experience defining target architectures and reference architectures.\n\nExperience taking architecture from concept or POC through to production implementation.\n\nExperience with enterprise system integration and complex application dependencies.\n\nExperience with modern software engineering, automation and DevOps practices.\n\nExperience providing technical leadership across multiple teams and disciplines.\n\nDemonstrated experience mentoring and developing engineers and architects.\n\nExperience influencing technical direction across organisational boundaries.\n\nExperience translating complex technical strategy into executable delivery.\n\nExperience communicating architecture and technology decisions to senior stakeholders.\n\nExperience working with external suppliers and technology partners.\n\nExperience working across geographically distributed teams.\n\nAbility to work independently and take accountability for complex technical topics.\n\nStrong written, verbal and presentation capability.\n\nWillingness and ability to travel internationally where required, consistent with the existing role specification.\n\nSubmit your CV to:  and Subject line Role 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