Head Of Backend Development at Media24 (Pty) Ltd

Responsibilities:

Backend Development

• Excellent programming skills in PHP (Ruby, .NET and other additional languages a plus)
• A passion for writing maintainable code with a deep understanding of OOP, design patterns, Test/Behaviour-driven Development, and data structures
• Experience building full-stack web applications with frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, and Rails (Angular, Vue, and React a plus)
• Experience with Test/Behaviour-Driven development and writing Unit Test (PHPUnit, Codeception, RSpec, Cucumber etc)
• Experience designing RESTful, Websocket and GraphQL APIs and other service layer components
• Experience with SQL and/or NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, MySQL etc)
• Strong Unix skills (Linux, FreeBSD, and/or macOS preferred) 
• Experience using code versioning tools such as Git and branching models like Gitflow
• Assist with development efforts and crisis management where needed while identifying root cause and identifying preventative measures
• Researches and maintain a high awareness of industry issues and trends, particularly in regard to accessibility, usability, and emerging technologies
• Code reviews of team members' output to ensure it is satisfactory in regards to:

1. Code quality
2. Task efficiency
3. The accuracy of expected deliverable

• Approving pull requests and managing releases

Cloud Development

• Experience with AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure and SaaS technologies
• DevOps experience with using containerization tools such as Docker (or similar) for provisioning and automated deployments (CircleCI, Jenkins, AWS CodeBuild, Travis etc)
• Exposure to architectures supporting applications built using AWS S3, EC2 and CloudFront
• Knowledge of AWS technologies and services such as S3, Cognito, SNS, API Gateway, SES, SQS, DynamoDB
• An understanding of Public/Private/Hybrid Cloud solutions 

Quality Assurance

• Coordinates with Central QA for Load Testing / Code Profiling to meet Quality Performance Metrics
• On a projects' inception, assess and recommend software architecture design in the most proficient and cost-effective manner
• Review and validate Scope of Work & Memorandum of Understanding documents to ensure they are accurate, feasible, and correct in their technological approach as per the documented Swipe processes and standards

People

• Leading by example to promote departmental unity and instil a culture of teamwork 
• Assist and advise team members on coding best practices in a supportive, motivating, and fact-driven way
• Provide leadership to Backend developers  in a fashion that supports the Swipe iX's culture, mission, and values
• Provide strategic leadership to architects, engineers, and technology professionals to promote business-driven thinking and decision making on daily task delivery
• Set up KPIs for team members and evaluated them on a monthly basis
• Grow team members’ individual skills that result in satisfying their KPIs
• Retain and motivate team members by means of bi-annual Health Checks as well as close mentorship to determine pain points, roadblocks, and general job satisfaction
• Track and raise any concerns with team members that perform poorly in regards to

1. Unsatisfactory communication in terms of daily tasks and deliverables
2. Time wastage due to miscommunication or poor investigation/underestimation of tasks
3. Number of development cycles required to satisfy deliverables and complete the task to a satisfactory level
4. Satisfactory Definition of Done on deliverables

Managerial

• Conduct and report to the executive team on the results of team one on ones
• Monitor and report on high-level adherence to the business goals of team members and department performance
• Provide technical vision, direction, clearly communicate business & project goals to ensure the development team is aligned with the company strategy
• Discussing technical solutions with clients and providing innovative new ideas for solutions