DevOps & Technical Governance Manager (Rosebank – Onsite) at Datafin Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT:

• A South African business-led, non-profit collaboration with government is looking for a highly capable DevOps & Technical Governance Manager to help scale and stabilize their engineering environment as they grow.
• This role sits at the intersection of engineering, systems design, and delivery governance. You will be responsible for building the pipelines, standards, and technical guardrails that ensure high-quality, production-ready software, particularly within a fast-moving, AI-assisted development environment.
• You will work closely with existing technical leadership to translate complex systems and business processes into repeatable, scalable engineering practices, enabling teams (including junior developers) to deliver reliably and efficiently.

DUTIES:

CI/CD & Delivery Systems:

• Design, implement, and maintain robust CI/CD pipelines.
• Embed automated testing, security checks, and quality controls into all deployments.
• Ensure all code follows consistent, auditable promotion paths (Dev, Staging, Production).
• Build reusable pipeline templates to standardize delivery across teams.

Technical Standards & Governance:

• Define and enforce engineering standards across the stack (React, PHP, Python, MySQL).
• Ensure standards are implemented through tooling and automation, not just documentation.
• Monitor systems for performance, reliability, and architectural consistency.

AI-Assisted Development Enablement:

• Establish best practices for using AI coding tools in a production environment.
• Introduce safeguards to prevent common issues such as logic errors, unnecessary complexity, and security risks.
• Ensure developers understand and validate the code they ship.

Developer Enablement:

• Support and mentor developers, particularly in structured environments with varying experience levels.
• Provide templates, reference implementations, and practical guidance.
• Improve overall code quality and delivery consistency across the team.

Architecture & Prototyping:

• Develop clean, well-structured prototypes to demonstrate recommended approaches.
• Translate architectural decisions into reusable patterns and templates.
• Act as a technical reference for complex implementation decisions.

Observability & Reliability:

• Implement and maintain monitoring and logging systems (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK).
• Identify performance bottlenecks and reliability risks early.
• Improve system visibility and operational awareness.

Cloud Migration (Azure – Huawei):

• Support the transition from Azure to Huawei Cloud.
• Ensure systems remain stable, scalable, and well-integrated during migration.
• Help define and implement cloud architecture best practices.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Strong experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps)
• Solid full-stack understanding (React, PHP, Python, MySQL)
• Experience working in cloud environments (Azure preferred; Huawei or willingness to learn)
• Familiarity with observability tools and practices
• Experience working in fast-paced engineering teams with varying levels of experience
• Exposure to AI-assisted development tools is advantageous

ATTRIBUTES:

• Strong systems thinking and problem-solving ability
• Ability to introduce structure without slowing delivery
• Comfortable working alongside senior technical stakeholders
• Attention to detail in reviewing code and system behavior
• Ability to mentor and guide developers