Technical Lead

**Purpose of the Job**:
The purpose of the Team Lead is to lead the systems development team and drive systems software development solutions that enable a high-performing IT operations infrastructure within Shoprite IT technical services. This role leverages advanced software development experience and knowledge of highly complex, large-scale systems to provide technical leadership, team coaching, and mentorship to a team of Programmers, ensuring high-quality software development practice and performance in delivering solutions for various technical services requirements (I.e., developing for systems integration, APIs, platform monitoring tools, SaaS, IaaS, etc.), whilst driving efficiency of system software development efforts, improvements and technological advancements for new and existing systems.

Furthermore, this role reports to the Team Manager, providing support with people management, team, and systems planning, and strategic execution, whilst overseeing the team's collaboration in solution design, development and deployment, technical support, escalations, and project engagements with the broader IT teams and relevant business stakeholders.

**Job Objectives**:
**Systems Development and Technical Leadership**:
Plan and manage all activities within the systems development team as leading software solution development efforts and collaboration with Architects to plan, design, develop, test, and maintain solutions.
Manage the collection and documentation of solution/user requirements, development of user stories, estimates and work plans.
Manage the creation of technical specifications and/or support documentation for system support and reference.
Drive the lifecycle of a solution from design through to development, testing, deployment, and training.
Manage the technical design/architecture of various solutions and the full systems development life cycle (SDLC) within area of function.
**Team Leadership**:
Lead, coach and mentor the systems development team to ensure high competence and delivery of individual and team output, removing impediments and ensuring the team is motivated to achieve individual and collective objectives.
Drive overall team maturity and adequate resourcing to efficiently deliver on objectives, identifying and encouraging areas of growth and/or improvement.
Maintain high standards of technical support facilitation by establishing good practice and cohesiveness.
Initiate or participate in the team capacity planning, staff requisition and recruitment processes, including the new team member onboarding and stakeholder introductions.
**Projects, stakeholder and technology partner engagements**:
Plan and manage all deliverables for systems or process improvement projects, including the management of release and change management processes.
Manage projects within the scope of systems development ensuring collaboration with relevant business stakeholders and teams.
Oversee and guide team engagement with internal teams and external vendors in resolution or restoration of services as necessary.
**Reporting**:
Report to management on overall team performance, projects and partner/or stakeholder engagements according to agreed standards and timelines.

**Qualifications**:
Degree/Diploma in IT, Information Systems, Computer Science or related field - (essential).

**Experience**:
+2 years’ experience in a team leadership capacity or similar with solid experience leading and efficiently managing software development solutions from technical design through to deployment of solutions - (essential).
Extensive experience with various (two or more) programming languages I.e., C#, Java, Python, PHP, Perl, NodeJS, etc., and SQL databases - (essential)
Solid experience with solution/systems integration and design, including defining, developing testing and deploying various types of APIs (I.e., WebAPIs, RESTful, SOAP, JSON, etc.) - (essential).
Solid experience with AWS and Azure Cloud Services, Cloud PaaS, Docker, microservices - (essential).
Experience with code repository and deployment tools (bitbucket, Jira, git, etc.), and DevOps pipeline management for CI/CD automation - (essential).
Solid experience with various software delivery and lifecycle methods (DevOps, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, etc.) - (essential).

**Knowledge and Skills**: