Head Of Engineering - Merchant Division at Lesaka Technologies

Job Description

• We are looking for an experienced Head of Engineering to lead engineering across our Merchant (Acquiring) Division. This is a senior leadership role for someone who understands how to build and run technology in a high-volume, always-on payments environment, and who is excited by the opportunity to help shape the future of merchant and acquiring solutions in South Africa.
• You will be responsible for leading engineering across the division, ensuring our platforms are secure, resilient, scalable and built to support merchant growth. The role covers engineering leadership, application development, platform performance, architecture, delivery, technology strategy and the responsible adoption of AI and emerging technologies.
• This is an opportunity to work at the centre of a fast-moving fintech environment where engineering has a direct impact on merchant experience, transaction performance, customer trust and business growth.

What you’ll be doing

You will:

• Lead all engineering teams and engineering outcomes in the Merchant (Acquiring) Division
• Shape the engineering operating model, standards and delivery practices
• Define and guide architecture and platform strategy
• Oversee engineering across merchant-facing products, internal systems, APIs and supporting services
• Drive platform availability, transaction performance, resilience and security
• Partner with Product, Operations, Customer Experience, Risk, Security and other key stakeholders
• Build and grow strong engineering leaders and technical teams
• Support platform modernisation while balancing the realities of existing systems
• Identify opportunities to apply AI and emerging technology responsibly and effectively

What we’re looking for

• We’re looking for a leader with strong engineering depth and proven experience in payments, fintech, banking or another regulated environment.

You should have:

• A relevant degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or similar
• 15+ years of progressive engineering experience
• At least 7 years in senior leadership roles managing teams and leaders
• Experience leading engineering in high-scale, transactional, customer-facing platforms
• Strong understanding of modern architecture, cloud and engineering delivery practices
• Hands-on technical roots in software engineering or architecture
• Experience working in environments with strong regulatory, compliance and security requirements

Experience that will stand out

We will be especially interested in candidates with experience in:

• Payments and acquiring
• Card schemes, ISO 8583, EMV and POS ecosystems
• Switching, settlement and merchant services
• Cloud transformation and platform modernisation
• PCI DSS, data protection and regulated platform operations
• South African financial services or fintech environments

What will make you successful

You are likely to thrive in this role if you:

• Can lead at strategic level while staying close to engineering realities
• Have the judgement to balance delivery, modernisation and platform stability
• Know how to build strong teams and grow leadership capability
• Are comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment with high accountability
• Understand that great engineering starts with understanding the merchant and customer experience

Closing Date 29 May 2026