Junior / Associate Software Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 9, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 9, 2026.
Who are we?
Sanlam Life and Savings (SLS) is one of Sanlam’s core business clusters, bringing together life insurance, retirement, savings and investment capabilities to help clients build and protect their financial futures.
SLS Technology is at the heart of this ambition. We are modernising our technology landscape, strengthening our engineering capability and building product-aligned teams that take end-to-end accountability for the technology they create, from design and build through to running, enhancing and continuously improving it.
Job Description
SLS Technology is looking for a curious and ambitious Junior Software Engineer to join our Life Annuities Technology team. This is an opportunity to build your engineering career by working alongside experienced engineers on real technology that matters. You will design, develop, test and improve production software while gaining practical experience in modern software engineering, cloud technologies, integration, automation and the operation of resilient technology platforms.
You will be supported by experienced Software Engineers and a Tech Lead, but from the start you will be encouraged to contribute ideas, solve problems and take ownership of your work. Build it. Own it. Learn from it. Make it better. We are looking for someone with strong fundamentals, curiosity and a genuine passion for engineering rather than someone who already knows everything.
What will you do?
Build Real Software
- Design, develop, test and maintain software as part of a cross-functional product team.
- Write clean, readable and testable code with support from experienced engineers.
- Build and enhance features, APIs, services and integrations.
- Use AI coding assistants and agentic development tools effectively across coding, testing, debugging, documentation and problem-solving.
- Participate in code reviews and learn how to give and receive constructive engineering feedback.
- Write automated tests and contribute to technical documentation.
- Develop an understanding of secure, scalable and maintainable software design.
Learn Modern Engineering
- Build hands-on capability in modern programming languages, frameworks and engineering tools.
- Gain exposure to cloud-native engineering, APIs, integration, distributed systems and modern software architectures.
- Work with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, monitoring and observability.
- Learn how software moves from idea to development and into production.
- Develop the judgement to critically review, test and improve AI-generated code rather than assuming it is correct.
- Gain exposure to building AI-enabled applications and agentic solutions.
Own What You Build
- Take responsibility for the quality and reliability of your work.
- Help investigate defects and production issues.
- Learn structured debugging and root-cause analysis.
- Use monitoring and feedback to understand how your software behaves in production.
- Continuously improve existing code rather than only building new features
Grow with the Team
- Pair with and learn from experienced engineers.
- Actively seek feedback and use it to accelerate your development.
- Participate in engineering discussions and ask thoughtful questions.
- Contribute ideas and different perspectives.
- Share what you learn with others.
- Build your technical judgement over time through real-world engineering experience.
What you will bring
- A relevant degree or diploma in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent practical capability.
- Typically 0 to 3 years of relevant software engineering experience.
- A foundational understanding of software development and programming concepts.
- Exposure to one or more programming languages such as Java, Python, .NET/C# or JavaScript/TypeScript.
- Basic understanding of databases, APIs and software development practices.
- Exposure to Git/source control and automated testing would be advantageous.
- Exposure to cloud, DevOps or CI/CD concepts would be advantageous.
- Personal projects, open-source contributions, internships or meaningful university software projects are welcomed as evidence of engineering potential.
What will make you successful?
- Curiosity: You want to understand how things work and why.
- Problem Solving: You enjoy breaking complex problems into manageable pieces.
- Learning Agility: You learn quickly, experiment and are comfortable asking for help.
- Ownership: You care about the quality of what you build and follow through when something goes wrong.
- Collaboration: You enjoy solving problems with other engineers, Product and business colleagues.
- Engineering Craft: You want to become an excellent software engineer, not simply someone who writes code.
- Customer Focus: You remain interested in the human and business problem your technology is intended to solve.
Turnaround time
The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken tocomplete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.
Closing date 30 November 2026.
The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensuring a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.