Engineering Manager at Virgin Active South Africa

Your Purpose…

• As we transform into a Social Wellness Club, we’re redefining how we approach technology by building globally scalable solutions. A key part of this transformation is consolidating our core member engagement platform (our Mobile App and related services) under a central team. This team will own a unified codebase, enabling faster, more consistent feature rollouts across multiple countries.
• We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the architecture, design, and development of our mobile app and backend integration services. You’ll be both a technical leader and a mentor, guiding engineers to deliver high-quality, reliable software. Working closely with Product Managers and key business stakeholders, you’ll drive end-to-end technical delivery and ensure that every release aligns with our broader product and business goals.

Your Duties and Responsibilities...

Leadership & Management

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of software engineers through coaching, feedback, and performance management.
• Drive technical excellence through best practices, code reviews, and architectural guidance.
• Foster a healthy, inclusive engineering culture based on trust, transparency, and collaboration.
• Partner with recruiting to identify and hire exceptional talent.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, set professional growth goals, and facilitate career development.

Technical Execution

• Own the delivery of technical initiatives from planning through deployment.
• Collaborate with Product Managers and Designers to align technical priorities with business goals.
• Ensure high standards of code quality, system reliability, and security.
• Review designs and contribute to architectural decisions for scalability and maintainability.
• Oversee sprint planning, backlog grooming, and delivery timelines.

Operational Excellence

• Implement engineering processes to improve efficiency and quality (CI/CD, testing, monitoring, etc.).
• Drive post-mortems and continuous improvement after incidents or releases.
• Balance speed of delivery with technical debt management.
• Manage resourcing, timelines, and trade-offs across multiple projects.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with stakeholders across Product, Design, Data, and Operations to define and execute roadmaps.
• Communicate engineering progress, risks, and priorities to leadership and other teams.
• Advocate for engineering input in product planning and strategic discussions.

We can't live without... (Minimum Requirements)

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent professional experience in software engineering and team leadership.
• 8+ years of software development experience, including 3+ years in management or technical leadership.
• Strong technical background in mobile app development (native or cross-platform).
• Proven experience with cloud platforms (preferably Azure).
• Deep understanding of application architecture, system design, and performance optimization.
• Track record integrating mobile apps with backend systems, third-party services, and internal APIs.
• Experience designing and managing RESTful services and mobile-friendly APIs.
• Experience working with and managing outsourced or distributed teams.
• Excellent problem-solving, debugging, and communication skills.
• Experience scaling teams and systems.
• Experience in Kotlin Multiplatform
• Background in Agile/Scrum development methodologies.
• Prior experience managing remote or hybrid teams.

We’d like you to have… (Attributes)

• Adaptability (must be able to adapt to a fast paced, changing environment)
• Be curious (must be willing to succeed, seek opportunities to learn and grow)
• Have a winning mentality (must be willing to go over and above to achieve success)
• Must be motivated to achieve success.
• A commitment to making a difference in people’s lives.
• A Growth mindset
• The ability to work independently.
• Trustworthiness (must always act in doing the right thing)
• A drive to create moments of magic for our members.
• The ability to make decisions and take ownership and responsibility for the decision.
• Action orientation

We’d love you to have… (additional skills)

• Wellness knowledge, to engage and inspire others to take a holistic approach to wellness.
• The ability to be agile.
• The ability to be collaborative.
• High Interpersonal skills (EQ)

Closing Date 09 February 2026