Intermediate Software Engineer (Backend) at Santam Insurance

THE ROLE

• We are searching for a Software Engineer with solid Python experience to improve and maintain the Backend components of our AWS-native insurance platform. The Backend
• team builds and maintains the business layer, databases, and APIs that power our mobileapp, administration portal and partner integrations. Your ultimate goal is to deliver
• Backend improvements that support our ambition to be SA’s leading fully digital insurer.
• You enjoy moving fluidly between developing new software, debugging and fixing bugs,analysing and improving existing code, and collaborating with other team members.
• You will work on a modern software platform which is natively architected for the cloud and delivered using modern DevOps practices.
• You embrace the collaborative philosophy of the team and contribute to building a high-trust environment that allows each member to excel.
• You will report to the Backend Tech Lead and work daily with a squad that includes product managers, designers, engineers and testers. You will collaborate with the rest of the
• Engineering team (Mobile App, Infrastructure, QA) and with colleagues from other areas of the business (e.g. Finance, Marketing, Client Services etc) to deliver on our technology goals.

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

• Develop new features that extend the Backend capabilities of our insurance policyadministration platform.
•  Contribute to the evolution of our Backend platform in line with best practices,emerging trends and new technologies.
• Contribute towards architectural design and decision-making across Backendcomponents.
• Participate in maintenance activities such as paying down technical debt,rearchitecting old design decisions, and improving performance and resilience.
•  Monitor the key performance indicators of the Backend components and drive theirvisibility.
• Collaborate with the Product team to ensure clear, realistic, and pragmaticdevelopment roadmaps.
• Ensure that monitoring across Backend components is adequate, visible andattended to.
• Support the incident management process to ensure that errors are logged andacted on, with consideration for defined SLAs.
• Support the evolution of the team’s engineering practices in terms of documentation, test-driven development, continuous integration and automated deployment.
• Collaborate with the Infrastructure team to ensure Backend components are always available and performant, and that CI/CD is fit-for-purpose and reliable.
• Participate in recruitment activities (e.g. interviews, events) to attract and secure high-quality Engineering talent who are aligned with the company values.
•  Improve our team by sharing your experience and knowledge, improving our documentation, and documenting your design decisions and rationale.

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

• 4+ years of software development experience.
• Strong prior experience in Python, i.e. a level of Python mastery (knows the ecosystem, knows the libraries). You’ll be expected to be code-productive in minimal time.
• Strong Django knowledge and experience.
• Strong SQL knowledge and experience.
• Recent experience developing production systems on Amazon Web Services (AWS) with direct experience with core AWS services e.g. ECS, RDS (Postgres), S3, Lambda,
• API Gateway, SQS, SNS etc.
• Experience creating and running containerised applications (e.g. with Docker).
• Relevant tertiary qualification (e.g. IT, computer science, information systems etc.) or equivalent industry experience.
• Exceptional communication (verbal and written) and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in Insurance or Financial Services is advantageous.
• Experience in a start-up environment is advantageous.

ENVIRONMENT AND BENEFITS

• Remote-first
• Start-up environment within a leading insurance corporate
•  Market-related compensation
• State-of-the-art hardware to work on (e.g. Macbook Pro)
• Training resources
• Flexible working hours
• Access to co-share offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town that allow us to
• connect in person and ideate around a whiteboard
• Generous leave to balance your work and life
• Group benefits (life insurance, disability insurance etc.)