**ABOUT US**
HyperionDev is the largest provider of software development education in
Southern Africa, and one of the largest globally. Counted among the top
education technology startups in EMEA with headquarters in Cape Town and
London, we support learners from over 40 countries in changing into fulfilling
tech careers. We are dedicated to closing the global tech skills gap and we
achieve this by integrating tech education with human mentorship and expert
code review, lowering the cost of accessing tech careers.
In 2017 we won first prize in Facebook's Innovation Challenge, with Facebook
selecting us as the most socially impactful startup operating in Africa and
financially backing us, alongside Google. In 2020-21, we closed one of the
largest Series A fundraises in South Africa with nearly 1500 investors backing
us in the biggest crowdfunding round in history for an Africa-linked startup.
We were originally launched from the University of Cambridge, and our
leadership team consists of world-leading talent from companies such as
Google, 2U, and GetSmarter. We are looking for team members who are ambitious,
motivated and have a track record of over-achieving and exceeding targets.
Join us at a time when we are reinventing tech education and how technology
can drive higher quality education at scale for markets that have some of the
most underperforming tertiary institutions and schools globally.
**ABOUT THE ROLE **
As the **Lead Software Engineer** you will be responsible for initiating and
executing on all aspects of our bespoke software platforms, including but not
limited to:
* Our student portal
* Our mentor portals
* Our placements portal
* Our website and payment gateways
* Our sign up flows
* Our data analysis platforms
Our tech stack consists primarily of Python, Django, AWS (EC2, RDS, S3,
Lambda, SQS, SNS, CloudWatch, Route53), PostgreSQL, and Ubuntu. We don’t
require a perfect match with our tech stack, so a solid background in similar
languages like Java, and frameworks like Spring, will transfer easily into our
environment. It’s more about understanding the fundamentals of the web and
databases, than specific tech stacks.
To make a success of this position you will need to be a creative problem
solver, have advanced technical skills, be adaptive, have high standards and
the ability to communicate effectively with multiple stakeholders - technical
and non-technical.
Depending on applicant preference, this job can be fully remote.
**RESPONSIBILITIES**
* Design and write high quality code for our website and platforms using Python and Django
* Collaborate with other members of the team to execute engineering projects, plan sprint cycles, undertake technical troubleshooting, and reduce technical debt
* Coach and mentor junior developers on the team
* Work closely with Product to help in planning, designing and creating an implementation roadmap of platform features which will be used by tens of thousands of people around the world
* Refactor and improve legacy code as areas of requirements volatility are found and bug hotspots are uncovered
* Communicate with technical people through clean code and documentation, and with non-technical people by translating their requirements into implementable milestones and smaller goals
**REQUIREMENTS**
_Minimum_
* 5+ years of experience in hands-on software development
* Experience with Python, Django, Postgres and AWS, or similar stacks like Java/Spring
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills
* An interest in the future of developer education, assessments, tooling and placements
_Preferred_
* 2+ years of experience leading a software development team specifically at a fast growing tech startup
* Prior tech startup experience in a high-growth and ambitious environment
* Experience in scaling a rapidly growing a development team
* Interest and experience in machine learning and natural language processing
* Interest in recent pedagogical advances in computing and online education
**BENEFITS**
_Generous annual leave and medical benefits:_ We provide up to 20 annual
leave days as part of our leave policy, as well as health insurance or medical
aid benefits for our staff.
_Join the heart of tech in Africa, the US, and Europe: _You'll work with the
best of the best and rub shoulders with the world leaders in edtech, developer
education, and developer assessments. Join one of the most ambitious and
highest performing tech companies in the space, with a founding team that
draws their former experience from companies such as Google, Amazon,
GetSmarter/2U, & Yoco.
_Life-changing work:_ Solve real problems that make education and tech careers
accessible to those who need it most: you're allowed to brag about it.
**OUR VALUES**
We're a people-forward company with a purpose that underlines everything we
do. We're obsessed with the potential in people and challenge them to do their
best work. We embrace a culture of growth and learning to deliver on our
vision and ours is a relentless quest for improvement.
