Technical Back-End Lead – Java (SaaS, ML/AI, Scale-Up)
Johannesburg, South Africa
IKUE
Ikue is the world’s first purpose-built CDP for telcos to help you deliver world-class customer experiences and drive growth.Let's build the future together!
Ikue is a technology scale-up with a clear purpose and vision.
We know that customer data is at the heart of hyper personalisation and are
looking for the brightest, most inspiring engineers to deliver our product which
enables data to drive every decision, every communication, and every
customer interaction.
We are building a diverse team, all unified by a desire to innovate. Creativity is at the core of Ikue and is something we are looking to further strengthen in 2025! There are no typical profiles, each and every team member shares our vision and wants to be part of its success.
Are you a seasoned Java back-end engineer with a passion for leadership, innovation, and cutting-edge technology? Do you thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments where your ideas have a real impact?
We're a rapidly growing SaaS scale-up building a next-generation data and analytics platform powered by machine learning and AI. Our mission is to make complex data accessible, actionable, and intelligent for businesses of all sizes. Now, we’re looking for a Technical Back End Lead to guide our talented back-end engineers and help shape the future of our platform.
🔧 As the Technical Back End Lead at Ikue you will be:
- Leading and mentoring a team of high-performing Java back-end engineers
- Driving architecture decisions and hands-on development for scalable, high-performance services
- Collaborating cross-functionally with Product, Front-End, Data Science & DevOps teams
- Championing best practices in software engineering, CI/CD, and testing
- Helping scale and evolve our SaaS platform to meet growing user and data demands
- Working closely with ML/AI teams to integrate intelligent features and services
🛠️ Our Tech Stack:
- Agile, test-driven development Microservices architecture for config-based distributed data processing
- Orchestration using AWS API Gateway, Event Bridge, SQS, Lambda and Step Functions
- Java 17+, Spring (Boot/Batch), Docker, ECS for core services
- Docker, ECS, SageMaker for analytical services
- GitHub (CI/CD), Terraform and Cloud Formation (IAC)
👀 What We’re Looking For:
- 10+ years of hands-on Java back-end development experience
- 2+ years in a technical leadership or team lead role
- Proven experience building and scaling distributed systems or SaaS platforms
- Strong understanding of cloud-native architecture (AWS preferred)
- Excellent communication and leadership skills
- Passion for mentoring, continuous improvement, and staying ahead of tech trends
- Bonus: Experience working with ML/AI-enabled systems or data platform
💡 Why Join Us?
- Play a pivotal role in a fast-scaling product with huge market potential
- Work with a smart, passionate, and collaborative team
- Real autonomy, ownership, and input on technical direction
- Flexible hybrid working (remote-first culture)
You will be rewarded with:
- A highly competitive salary plus benefits and participation in our Employee Share option scheme that rewards people who are motivated and perform well!
- The chance to attend our yearly 3-day company trip to a secret summer destination all covered by us!
- A starter kit which includes a Macbook Pro and the must-have Ikue outfit including a tote bag, t-shirt, sweater and hoodie.
- Frequent team events, celebrations, weekly incentives and Pizza Friday
Requirements:
You are a confident self-starter, committed to delivering technically excellent
code, and looks for innovative approaches to challenges
We value your personality and passion! For us, personality and passion come
before education. Your difference is your strength, and you will always be
supported and looked after by your Ikue family. You will take responsibility for
your own work, and a choice to work in the office or remotely.
If this sounds like you, then you know what to do
We look forward to receiving your application. Good luck from your future
colleagues
By supercharging the ability to leverage data and advanced analytics in marketing
messages, your work will be truly impactful from the very start.
* Salary range is an estimate based on our AI, ML, Data Science Salary Index 💰
Tags: Agile APIs Architecture AWS CI/CD DevOps Distributed Systems Docker ECS Engineering GitHub Java Lambda Machine Learning Microservices SageMaker Step Functions TDD Terraform Testing
Perks/benefits: Career development Competitive pay Flex hours Salary bonus Startup environment Team events
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