Engineering Lead at Iress

• The Engineering Lead is responsible for leading a team of engineers, combining technical leadership with people management to ensure high-quality software development. The role also includes managing work within the team, fostering innovation, and proactively identifying and mitigating risks to support successful business execution. The Engineering Lead is expected to take ownership not only of issues within their team but also contribute to the success of the broader business segment. This includes collaborating closely with other leads across the organization to drive alignment and ensure the delivery of strong business outcomes. The ideal candidate has a strategic mindset, strong technical expertise, and leadership skills that foster innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• The Future Front-Ends team is responsible for building new front-end propositions using our future technology stack. These propositions can arise from any of the business segments in the Iress South Africa business and may cover multiple domains such as market data, securities lending, trading and investment management. The team is also responsible for maintaining a subset of existing front-ends, which predominantly cover the market data domain.

Some of the awesome things you’ll be involved with: 

• Contribute to business initiatives by aligning technical deliverables with strategic objectives, ensuring timely and effective execution.
• Define and maintain a technical roadmap that supports long-term business goals while balancing immediate delivery priorities.
• Manage work within the team, ensuring proper planning, estimation, and timely delivery of technical solutions.
• Take ownership of technical and operational challenges related to the broader system in which their team operates, applying a systems-thinking approach to identify root causes and drive holistic solutions.
• Drive innovation by identifying and implementing new technologies, tools, and methodologies that enhance software development efficiency, product performance, and business value.
• Proactively identify, escalate, and mitigate risks to ensure the successful delivery of business objectives, minimizing technical debt and operational disruptions.
• Foster a collaborative and high-performance team culture, promoting knowledge sharing and learning.

Leadership responsibilities 

• Recruit, interview, and select suitable candidates for the team.
• Onboard and integrate new team members effectively.
• Set, monitor, and evaluate team objectives and key performance indicators.
• Manage performance, ensuring clear accountability and development opportunities.
• Provide mentorship and career growth support to team members.
• Create an engaging and inclusive environment, ensuring high motivation and productivity.

What you will bring: 

Qualifications and Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum of seven years of experience in software development, with at least three years in a leadership role.
• Strong background in software architecture, system design, and development best practices.
• Experience with scalable and high-performance software solutions.
• Understanding of software development methodologies, quality assurance, and testing principles.
• Familiarity with financial services industry requirements is a plus.

Professional Skills and Competencies

• Technical Strategy & Planning: Defines and aligns technical roadmaps with business goals.
• Software Design: Designs systems with high levels of impact and complexity.
• Programming/Software Development: Develops and implements high-quality software solutions.
• Information Security: Ensures secure software development practices, adheres to security best practices, and mitigates vulnerabilities in systems and applications.
• Quality Assurance: Ensures development and testing best practices are met.
• Problem Management: Identifies and mitigates technical risks.
• Stakeholder Relationship Management: Communicates effectively with business and technical stakeholders.
• People Management: Leads, coaches, and develops a high-performing engineering team.

People Leadership Competencies 

• Coaches and mentors engineers to enhance their skills and career progression.
• Establishes strong connections within the team and fosters collaboration.
• Supports innovation by empowering engineers to propose and implement solutions.
• Makes strategic decisions efficiently and holds team members accountable.
• Creates and communicates a clear technical strategy aligned with business objectives.
• Navigates change and uncertainty, guiding the team through evolving priorities. 

Technology Stack

• Modern full stack web technologies e.g. React, node.js, graphQL, PostgreSQL
• Front-end frameworks: interop.io, or consideration of FDC3 specification
• Older web applications: ASP.NET, C#, SQL Server
• Older desktop applications: C++
• CI/CD: Github, Buildkite, Artifactory
• Hosting: Docker, Terraform, AWS and Iress Data Centres