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
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
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
- 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
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.
