Principal​/Lead Engineer

Location: Cape Town (Hout Bay) – Hybrid (2–3 days in office)

Department: Development

Reporting to: CTO

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Shop is a leading cloud-based eCommerce technology company that helps wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers and retailers manage and sell their products online.

Our platform connects ERP/accounting systems such as SAP, SYSPRO and Sage with eCommerce platforms including Woo Commerce, Shopify and Magento, as well as marketplaces such as Takealot and Amazon. We also provide our own B2B trade store, enabling clients to synchronise products, inventory and orders seamlessly across multiple channels.

Our mission is to simplify complex commerce operations and help businesses scale their digital sales channels.

We are looking for an experienced Principal / Lead Engineer to play a central role in shaping the technical direction and delivery of our platform.

This is a hands‑on leadership role suited to someone who enjoys solving complex technical problems, mentoring developers, and taking ownership of the engineering output of a team.

You will act as the technical authority within the team
, helping developers move work forward, unblocking complex problems, and ensuring high-quality code reaches production.

You will work closely with developers to review architecture decisions, guide implementation, and ensure high-quality code moves efficiently from development through review and deployment.

While the role involves some hands‑on development, the primary focus is technical leadership, code review, architectural guidance, and mentoring engineers to improve delivery quality and velocity.

You will collaborate closely with the CEO and product stakeholders to translate product goals into robust technical solutions while helping the team continuously improve engineering practices.

• Provide architectural direction across the platform, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Guide engineering decisions and technical approaches across the development team.
• Review and approve key technical implementations and pull requests.

• Take ownership of the review and deployment pipeline, ensuring code moves smoothly from PR through to production.
• Maintain high standards for code quality, testing, and engineering best practices.
• Identify and resolve bottlenecks in the development and release process.
• Mentor developers through code reviews, design discussions, and technical coaching.
• Help engineers grow their technical skills and improve engineering practices.
• Foster a culture of ownership, learning, and continuous improvement.
• Contribute to system design decisions and long‑term technical strategy.
• Evaluate new technologies, frameworks, and architectural approaches where appropriate.
• Ensure the platform remains scalable, secure, and performant as it grows.
• Work closely with product and leadership to translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Support planning, estimation, and technical scoping for upcoming work.
• Provide technical input into product and platform decisions.

• 8+ years experience in software engineering.
• Proven experience in a technical leadership role such as Tech Lead, Lead Engineer, or Principal Engineer.
• Strong system design and architectural experience in production platforms.
• Deep understanding of software engineering best practices, including testing, code review, and CI/CD.
• Experience mentoring engineers and guiding teams toward better technical solutions.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical concepts clearly.

Nice to Have

Experience working with:

• AWS cloud infrastructure
• PHP backend systems
• MySQL (Amazon RDS)
• Search technologies such as Open Search
• Modern Type Script front‑end frameworks

In the first 6–12 months you will:

• Establish yourself as the trusted technical reviewer across the engineering team.
• Improve the flow of code from development through review and deployment.
• Provide strong architectural guidance on key technical initiatives.
• Help developers improve through mentoring and constructive code reviews.
• Ensure the platform continues to scale reliably as our client base grows.

This is an opportunity to play a key role in shaping the engineering direction of a growing SaaS platform.

You’ll work with a capable development team solving real‑world commerce challenges while having the autonomy to influence architecture, engineering practices, and technical decisions.

We value engineers who take ownership, think independently, and enjoy solving difficult problems collaboratively
.

If you enjoy building robust systems, mentoring developers, and taking responsibility for technical delivery
, we’d love to hear from you.