Lead Software Engineer

At Sabio Group, we're dedicated to fostering an environment where employees thrive. Since 1998, we've built a dynamic culture that is both challenging and fun, driven by a team of ambitious, knowledgeable individuals who are passionate about leading the CX revolution. We're seeking creative, resourceful people to join our fast-growing organisation, where you'll have the opportunity to develop your skills and contribute to a culture of continuous learning.

We work with some of the world’s largest organisations across various industries, delivering exceptional digital customer experiences through our unique blend of expertise, technology, and insight. As one of Europe’s fastest-growing providers of CX transformation solutions, we’re committed to sustainability, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse society we serve. Join us and help shape the future of customer experience.

We are currently looking for a passionate and enthusiastic Lead Software Engineer.

The Lead Software Engineer is the senior technical leader for the AI Practice engineering team in South Africa. The role remains strongly hands-on: writing production code, solving complex engineering problems and providing technical direction across multiple customer projects.

You will lead engineers through delivery, act as the technical escalation point, remove blockers and ensure solutions remain secure, supportable and on track. You will also mentor team members, provide credible estimates and contribute to the AI Practice leadership team on engineering standards, delivery risk, capability and technical priorities

We look for people with the right cultural fit having what it takes to drive our business forward. We also look for people who are keen to develop new knowledge and skills, because our growth is ultimately dependent on yours. You will play an important role in driving change within our business, joining a department that is continually on a journey of change.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day technical leadership for the Software Engineering team in South Africa, setting clear direction while remaining close to delivery.
• Write, review and maintain high-quality production code across frontend, backend and integration layers.
• Lead the technical delivery of complex AI-enabled, voice and contact centre solutions from design through deployment and operational support.
• Apply consistent technical direction across multiple projects, ensuring engineering decisions support scope, quality, security, performance and delivery commitments.
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex technical issues across application code, integrations, cloud services, infrastructure and production environments.
• Remove technical blockers by making timely decisions, coordinating the right expertise and escalating delivery risks early.
• Break down work, assess technical complexity and provide realistic estimates, assumptions and dependencies for project planning.
• Mentor engineers through pairing, coaching, design reviews and constructive code review, helping the team grow without reducing individual accountability.
• Work with delivery leads, architects and customer stakeholders to shape practical technical approaches and communicate progress, risks and trade-offs clearly.
• Promote engineering discipline through automated testing, CI/CD, observability, security controls, documentation and reusable patterns.
• Contribute to the AI Practice leadership team, representing engineering delivery in discussions on standards, resourcing, capability, technical risk and continuous improvement.
• Support production services where required, including structured troubleshooting, root-cause analysis and reliability improvements.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

Essential Skills, Experience & Competencies

• More than five years of commercial software engineering experience, with clear evidence of operating as a seasoned developer who still writes and reviews code.
• Experience leading or providing technical direction to software engineering teams in a delivery environment.
• Strong full-stack engineering capability, covering backend services, APIs, integrations, data persistence and modern web applications.
• Hands-on proficiency in at least one core backend language such as Python, C#/.NET or Java/Spring, plus JavaScript or TypeScript using a modern framework such as React, Angular or Vue.js.
• Experience designing, building and supporting secure, scalable and observable production systems.
• Strong understanding of REST APIs, asynchronous processing, real-time integration patterns and event-driven architectures.
• Practical experience with automated testing, peer review, source control, CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS or Google Cloud Platform, including containerised workloads using Docker and, ideally, Kubernetes.
• Ability to diagnose complex issues across the full solution stack and make sound technical decisions under delivery pressure.
• Ability to estimate engineering work, explain assumptions and identify technical dependencies and risks.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including confidence working directly with customers and senior delivery stakeholders.
• A supportive leadership style with proven experience mentoring engineers and raising engineering standards.

AI, Voice & Contact Centre Experience

• Experience delivering AI-enabled software projects in a commercial environment.
• Practical understanding of generative AI application patterns, including model integration, orchestration, prompt management, evaluation, guardrails, monitoring and responsible use.
• Experience integrating AI services such as Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Services, Amazon Bedrock or equivalent services.
• Experience of voice automation, conversational AI, IVR, speech services or real-time audio applications is strongly preferred.
• Experience working in a contact centre environment, including integration with telephony, customer service platforms or enterprise systems, is strongly preferred.
• Understanding of the operational requirements of customer-facing AI systems, including latency, resilience, observability, security, data privacy and human escalation.

Technical Experience - Desirable

• Python asynchronous frameworks such as FastAPI, Uvicorn, Asyncio, Pydantic and SQLAlchemy.
• C# with .NET 8+, Java with Spring, or equivalent enterprise application frameworks.
• Azure services such as App Service, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Speech, Key Vault, Azure SQL, Storage Accounts, Application Insights and Azure Cache for Redis.
• AWS services, particularly Amazon Connect, Lambda, Bedrock or related contact centre services.
• Terraform, Ansible, Bash, PowerShell and Azure DevOps or equivalent CI/CD tooling.
• Relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server or PostgreSQL, plus caching technologies such as Redis.
• WebSocket-based communication, microservices and high-volume real-time transactional systems.

Success in the Role

• Customer projects have clear technical ownership, realistic estimates and early visibility of risk.
• Complex technical issues are resolved quickly, with blockers removed before they affect delivery commitments.
• Engineering standards are applied consistently across projects without creating unnecessary process or overhead.
• The South Africa engineering team grows in capability, confidence and accountability through practical mentoring and clear direction.
• The role remains hands-on, with visible contribution to code, design quality and production reliability.
• AI Practice leadership receives clear, evidence-based input on engineering capacity, delivery risk and technical priorities.

Why Join Us

• Lead the technical delivery of AI, voice and contact centre solutions for major customer environments.
• Combine hands-on engineering with meaningful leadership responsibility across a growing team and project portfolio.
• Help shape practical engineering standards and capability within Sabio's AI Practice.
• Work in an inclusive environment that values strong delivery, honest communication and continuous learning.

Benefits

This is your chance to join and friendly and passionate team that will motivate you to learn and develop your career in the company.

Benefits may include:

• Remote/Flexible work
• Discovery Medical Aid
• Connectivity Allowance
• 15 days paid holiday a year (this excludes three Sabio days)
• Momentum EAP

The Small Print

Strictly No Agencies; any submission of resumes without prior request from Sabio Group will not be deemed as an introduction and therefore will not warrant an introduction fee. All applicants must have the right to work in the territory to which the role relates. Sabio Group are unable to offer sponsorship on any roles advertised.