| Job Advert Summary |
Join Woolworths in Cape Town as an IT Manager: Technical (Online) Engineering to partner the business unit and lead the Online Engineering capability within a product-aligned technology model, ensuring the delivery of secure, scalable, resilient and high-quality digital solutions that create measurable customer and business value.
The role is accountable for engineering execution across Online Web, Mobile App and API platforms, embedding engineering excellence, quality by design, security by design and customer-centric decision-making into every stage of the software delivery lifecycle. The successful candidate will lead engineering teams aligned to value streams and shared capabilities, ensuring technology decisions translate into positive customer outcomes while enabling the organisation’s transition toward a Composable Commerce architecture. If you are ready to make a measurable impact and grow your career with a respected South African brand, apply now to be part of our innovative IT team. |
| Minimum Requirements |
- Relevant IT degree, Computer Science degree, Engineering degree or equivalent qualification.
- 8 – 10 years relevant experience, including leadership of software engineering teams within large-scale digital, e-commerce or technology environments.
- Proven track record of delivering complex software solutions and digital platforms at enterprise scale.
- Demonstrated experience leading engineering teams within Agile and product-oriented delivery models
- Experience with modern software engineering practices including cloud-native development, APIs, microservices, composable architectures, DevOps and CI/CD
- Demonstrated experience establishing and driving engineering standards, software quality practices and technical governance
- Experience in driving operational transformation, including moving from reactive support models to proactive, design-led reliability
- Experience working with product management, platform engineering, architecture, QA and operational support functions
- Strong stakeholder management experience across business and technology leadership levels
- Maintains advanced knowledge of business operations and organisational metrics and trends.
- Factors in retail models and levers in building an effective IT landscape.
- Allocates time and resources as required when faced with multiple demands and competing priorities
- Confidently addresses groups of people, adapting style as appropriate for different audiences.
- Devises action plans for adapting to change
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| Duties and Responsibilities |
Engineering Leadership & Delivery Excellence
- Lead and develop the Online Engineering function, providing technical leadership across customer-facing and backend digital platforms.
- Establish and maintain engineering practices that promote quality, consistency, scalability, maintainability and speed of delivery.
- Drive delivery across value-stream aligned squads, ensuring effective execution of business priorities and technology roadmaps.
- Ensure engineering teams deliver reliable business capabilities while balancing customer outcomes, technical debt, delivery timelines and operational sustainability.
- Promote a “build it, own it” culture, ensuring engineers remain accountable for the quality and supportability of solutions beyond deployment.
Engineering Capability & Technical Leadership
- Lead specialised engineering teams supporting Front-End (Web, iOS and Android), Back-End and API capabilities aligned to product value streams.
- Build and maintain strong technical leadership through Engineering Leads and Technical Leads embedded within squads.
- Develop engineering capability aligned to emerging architecture patterns including composable commerce, cloud-native platforms, API-driven ecosystems and modern engineering practices.
- Reduce key-person dependencies through capability development, knowledge sharing, succession planning and engineering standards.
Quality, Security & Performance by Design
- Ensure quality, security, observability and performance are engineered into solutions from inception rather than addressed through end-stage controls.
- Partner with QA, Platform, Architecture and Product teams to establish and continuously improve engineering standards and non-functional requirements.
- Embed secure-by-design practices and support compliance requirements, including POPIA and applicable enterprise technology standards.
- Drive continuous improvement in code quality, testing automation, release readiness and platform performance.
Product Model Alignment & Cross-Functional Coordination
- Operate within a value-stream-based Product Model and partner closely with Product Managers, Product Owners and Delivery Leads to achieve customer and business outcomes.
- Collaborate with Architecture to ensure engineering execution aligns with enterprise architecture, engineering principles and capability roadmaps.
- Partner with Programme and Delivery leadership to actively manage dependencies, risks and cross-squad delivery commitments.
- Support initiatives such as Composable Commerce, Payments Modernisation, Order Services, Digital Twin and Omnichannel Enablement through disciplined engineering execution.
Operational Readiness & Reliability
- Ensure solutions are production-ready and designed to meet defined reliability, supportability, security and performance requirements.
- Partner with Support & Operations to improve operational resilience and ensure recurring incidents are addressed through engineering remediation and platform improvements.
- Participate in major incident reviews and ensure corrective actions are translated into engineering backlogs and delivered effectively.
- Drive engineering ownership of technical debt, reliability improvements and platform modernisation initiatives.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Identify and mitigate engineering-related technology risks across areas of responsibility.
- Ensure adherence to enterprise architecture standards, engineering governance, security requirements and software delivery controls.
- Ensure appropriate technical decision-making frameworks, design reviews and engineering governance mechanisms are implemented consistently.
People Leadership & Capability Build
- Lead a diverse, highly capable engineering team and create an environment that attracts, develops and retains top engineering talent.
- Build a culture focused on accountability, learning, innovation, collaboration and continuous improvement.
- Develop future engineering leaders and strengthen technical depth across the organisation.
- Ensure the engineering structure remains aligned to current and future strategic capability requirements.
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