Head Of Software Engineering (JHB Hybrid) at Datafin Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT:

• A provider of tailored Financial Solutions seeks a highly experienced hands-on technical leader with full SDLC ownership and a DevOps focus to fill the role of its next Head of Software Engineering.
• You will manage a team while remaining technically engaged: reviewing code, setting standards, and personally driving the build-out of automation and Engineering practices.
• This is a genuine opportunity to shape how they build software: you will bring structure, consistency, and a strong DevOps culture to a .NET / C# environment, building on solid foundations and taking the Engineering practices to the next level.
• You will require 9+ years in Software Development, with a demonstrable progression into technical leadership with a proven, hands-on track record of building SDLC processes from an immature baseline into a mature, repeatable practice.
• You will also need deep, current expertise in the .NET / C# ecosystem & a strong DevOps background: CI/CD pipeline design, release automation, and configuration management.

DUTIES:

SDLC Ownership & Process –

• Own the full lifecycle from requirements and planning through development, QA, release, and ongoing application support.
• Establish and strengthen repeatable, well-documented SDLC processes, bringing greater consistency and rigor across the lifecycle.
• Provide clear, consistent reporting across the entire SDLC. Visibility into delivery, quality, and support metrics is a priority for this role, and stakeholders should be able to understand progress and health at every stage.
• Drive delivery using Agile/Scrum, partnering with the scrum master to keep ceremonies effective and outcome focused.

DevOps, CI/CD & Release –

• Design, build, and continuously improve CI/CD pipelines to automate build, integration, and deployment.
• Mature release management into predictable, low-risk deployments with rollback capability and clear change control.
• Introduce infrastructure-as-code, environment standardization, and configuration management across dev, test, and production.
• Champion a DevOps culture of shared ownership, automation-first thinking, and tight feedback loops between development, test, and operations.
• Should we undertake a cloud migration, lead and own it end to end. Prior cloud experience is therefore highly beneficial.

Quality & Test Strategy –

• Own and implement the Unit Testing practice, embedding it as a core part of how the team builds software.
• Define a comprehensive test strategy spanning Unit, Integration, Regression, and Automated Testing.
• Lead the two Test Engineers and embed quality gates into the pipeline rather than treating QA as a final step.
• Drive measurable improvements in defect detection, test coverage, and release quality.

Application Support & Reliability –

• Own production reliability for both legacy and modern applications, including incident response and root-cause analysis.
• Establish monitoring, alerting, and support processes that reduce downtime and mean-time-to-resolution.
• Partner with the implementation specialist to ensure smooth rollouts and a strong handover into support.

Leadership, People & Culture –

• Team culture is central to business. The Head of Software Engineering is expected to protect and sustain the high standard of culture the team has today, and to ensure it is never compromised as the team grows and changes.
• Work closely with the existing Senior Team Lead, mentoring and developing them and supporting their continued growth as an Engineering leader.
• Manage, mentor, and grow the wider team, setting technical standards, code review practices, and a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
• Work with business stakeholders to align delivery with priorities across both internal and customer-facing systems.

REQUIREMENTS:

• 9+ Years in Software Development, with a demonstrable progression into technical leadership.
• Proven, hands-on track record of building SDLC processes from an immature baseline into a mature, repeatable practice.
• Deep, current expertise in the .NET / C# ecosystem, across both legacy and modern codebases.
• Strong DevOps background: CI/CD pipeline design, release automation, and configuration management.
• Demonstrated experience defining and implementing test strategy, including unit testing and test automation.
• Experience owning production application support, incident management, and reliability practices.
• A strong, demonstrable people-leadership track record. This is non-negotiable, and includes evidence of building, managing, developing, and retaining Engineering teams.
• A genuine commitment to team culture and the ability to nurture and protect a healthy, high-performing environment.
• Comfort remaining hands-on: reviewing code, prototyping automation, and leading by technical example.

Advantageous –

• Cloud experience is highly beneficial, particularly the ability to plan and lead a migration.
• Experience in modernizing legacy systems and introducing containerization where appropriate.
• Exposure to both internal LOB systems and external customer-facing product delivery.
• Relevant Certifications (for example Azure, Azure DevOps, or Kubernetes), valued but not required.
• Familiarity with observability tooling and SRE-style reliability practices.