Background

Zeraki is all about using technology to solve some of the toughest challenges encountered in providing quality education in Africa. Our cutting edge solutions, provide insights that enable informed decision making, provide access to quality instruction and take the stress out of everyday administrative tasks.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer who will also serve as a Tech Lead for a cross-functional engineering team (Frontend, Backend, and DevOps).

This is not just a senior IC role—it is a leadership role grounded in strong technical execution. You will be responsible for delivering complex systems end-to-end, setting engineering standards, and elevating the performance of the entire team.

You will work primarily within a Java/Spring Boot backend ecosystem, while also collaborating closely with frontend engineers (Angular) and DevOps to ensure cohesive, scalable, and reliable systems.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & System Design

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure, and maintainable backend systems using Java and Spring Boot
• Own architectural decisions across services, ensuring clear contracts between backend, frontend (Angular), and infrastructure
• Translate ambiguous product requirements into well-defined technical designs and execution plans
• Drive system design discussions, identifying trade-offs in scalability, performance, and maintainability
• Ensure alignment between frontend and backend through well-structured APIs and data contracts

Backend Engineering & Execution

• Write high-quality, production-grade code for mission-critical systems
• Build and maintain RESTful APIs and backend services
• Optimize system performance, reliability, and scalability
• Proactively identify and address technical debt and bottlenecks
• Establish and enforce best practices in code quality and testing

Team Productivity & Enablement

• Act as a force multiplier through code reviews and technical leadership
• Unblock engineers quickly when they face challenges
• Balance personal contribution with team enablement

Ownership & Delivery

• Take full ownership of multi-sprint projects
• Coordinate execution across engineers
• Drive incident response and post-mortems
• Proactively identify and resolve risks

Cross-Stack Collaboration

• Work closely with Angular frontend engineers
• Partner with DevOps on deployment pipelines
• Ensure end-to-end system reliability

Business & Product Alignment

• Align engineering decisions with product goals
• Collaborate with Product Managers
• Balance technical excellence with delivery timelines

Mentorship & Team Development

• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers
• Contribute to hiring and onboarding
• Foster a culture of ownership and learning

Performance Expectations

• Deliver complex multi-sprint projects reliably
• Improve team velocity and code quality
• Maintain high system uptime
• Drive system performance improvements
• Mentor engineers effectively

What We’re Looking For

Experience & Technical Skills

• 5+ years in backend engineering
• Strong expertise in Java and Spring Boot
• Experience with distributed systems
• Strong System and API design skills
• Database experience (SQL/NoSQL)
• Familiarity with cloud services and CI/CD configurations
• Working knowledge of Angular frontend concepts

Leadership & Mindset

• Strong ownership mentality
• Proven leadership ability
• Excellent communication skills
• Pragmatic decision-maker
• Passion for mentorship

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure, and maintainable backend systems using Java and Spring Boot
• Own architectural decisions across services, ensuring clear contracts between backend, frontend (Angular), and infrastructure
• Translate ambiguous product requirements into well-defined technical designs and execution plans
• Drive system design discussions, identifying trade-offs in scalability, performance, and maintainability
• Ensure alignment between frontend and backend through well-structured APIs and data contracts
• Write high-quality, production-grade code for mission-critical systems
• Build and maintain RESTful APIs and backend services
• Optimize system performance, reliability, and scalability
• Proactively identify and address technical debt and bottlenecks
• Establish and enforce best practices in code quality and testing
• Act as a force multiplier through code reviews and technical leadership
• Unblock engineers quickly when they face challenges
• Balance personal contribution with team enablement
• Take full ownership of multi-sprint projects
• Coordinate execution across engineers
• Drive incident response and post-mortems
• Proactively identify and resolve risks
• Work closely with Angular frontend engineers
• Partner with DevOps on deployment pipelines
• Ensure end-to-end system reliability
• Align engineering decisions with product goals
• Collaborate with Product Managers
• Balance technical excellence with delivery timelines
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers
• Contribute to hiring and onboarding
• Foster a culture of ownership and learning

• Java
• Spring Boot
• Distributed systems
• System design
• API design
• SQL
• NoSQL
• Cloud services
• CI/CD
• Angular
• Leadership
• Communication
• Mentorship

• 5+ years in backend engineering
• Strong expertise in Java and Spring Boot
• Experience with distributed systems
• Strong System and API design skills
• Database experience (SQL/NoSQL)
• Familiarity with cloud services and CI/CD configurations
• Working knowledge of Angular frontend concepts
• Strong ownership mentality
• Proven leadership ability
• Excellent communication skills
• Pragmatic decision-maker
• Passion for mentorship