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Ai First Engineer - Senior to Lead level

  • Remote
    • Gauteng, Gauteng, South Africa
  • DVT Netherlands (DVTN)

Job description

We’re looking for an experienced AI‑First Software Engineer who uses AI as a force multiplier, not a “replacement” for deep engineering expertise. You’ll architect, build, and operate high‑quality production systems across backend, web, and mobile layers. This role requires strong command of Java/Spring microservices, open‑source engineering, cloud delivery, security‑first design, and responsible AI‑assisted development.

What You’ll Do:

  • Own complex systems end‑to‑end: design, build, test, deploy, and operate Java/Spring Boot microservices with clear contracts and SLOs

  • Govern AI‑assisted code: prompt, evaluate, validate, and harden AI‑generated outputs with strong engineering judgement

  • Engineer for resilience using patterns like circuit breakers, retries, rate limiting, and load balancing

  • Apply enterprise integration patterns such as pub/sub, producer‑consumer, message buses, and API gateways

  • Consistently deliver Clean Code, SOLID, and proven Design Patterns across services

  • Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, IaC modules, and secure delivery workflows

  • Drive TDD/BDD with comprehensive test suites (unit, contract, integration, E2E, and stress testing)

  • Implement meaningful observability across metrics, logs, and traces for production debugging and stability

  • Apply strong security practices, including OIDC/JWT‑based auth, secret management, and least‑privilege design

  • Collaborate across web and mobile channels (native Android/iOS or modern Web apps) to ensure full‑stack alignment

  • Build solutions suitable for regulated environments with strong auditability and compliance controls

How You’ll Work:

  • AI‑Augmented, Engineer‑Led: You’ll use AI tools daily to improve speed and quality, while maintaining full ownership of engineering decisions.

  • Hands‑On Technical Leadership: Drive design, architecture, patterns, and best practices while still coding.

  • Collaboration & Clarity: Use PRs, ADRs, design docs, and measurement‑driven engineering to support team-wide excellence.

Technologies You’ll Work With:

Java, Spring Boot/Cloud, Kafka, REST, Keycloak, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform/Bicep, GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, JUnit, Testcontainers, Cucumber, Pact, JMeter/Gatling, SQL & NoSQL stores, and modern web/mobile frameworks.

Job requirements

What You’ll Bring (Minimum Requirements)

  • 6–10+ years of hands‑on software engineering, especially with Java and Spring Boot/Spring Cloud

  • Production experience building distributed microservices using open‑source tooling

  • Strong background with Kafka (or equivalent), Keycloak (or any modern IAM), Docker, and Kubernetes

  • Solid understanding of modern architectures: microservices, event‑driven systems, serverless, and API‑first delivery

  • Deep experience with SQL and NoSQL data modeling and performance optimization

  • Strong CI/CD + DevOps exposure (Terraform/Bicep, Git‑based workflows, secure pipelines)

  • Advanced experience with TDD/BDD and structured automated testing strategies

  • Practical application of observability tools (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK)

  • Ability to critically analyse and validate AI‑generated code and system designs

  • Comfort working across backend-heavy systems with the ability to collaborate on web and mobile channels

Nice to Have

  • Kotlin/Java for Android and/or Swift for iOS development experience

  • Experience with cloud delivery on Azure (CI/CD, container hosting, monitoring) from an operations perspective

  • Background in financial services, banking, payments, or other regulated sectors

  • Security engineering experience (OIDC/JWT, zero‑trust design, threat modeling)

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