Senior Software Engineering Lead - Technical Direction & Team Management

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING LEAD — SIMPLY FLEET

 Fully remote — but South-Africa based (you must live and work in South Africa, SA time zone). Reports directly to the CEO.

 BUILD THE ENGINE, DON'T JUST STEER IT

 Simply Fleet is a South African fleet management software company growing fast. We help businesses track their vehicles, manage maintenance, control fuel

 costs and stay compliant — all in one place. We have real customers, a real product, and a small team that ships.

 We're looking for our Software Engineering Lead: the person who owns how we build. You'll run a small, capable dev team, stay close enough to the code to

 get your own hands dirty, and make the calls that decide what our software becomes over the next few years.

 This is a fully remote role, but it is South-Africa based — we work on SA time and you'll need to be here, in the country, with the rest of the team.

 This is not a hands-off management seat. It's a builder's role with the keys to the technical direction — for someone who's done enough to back

 themselves, but is still hungry to prove what they can do when they're the one in charge.

 WHAT YOU'LL OWN

 - Lead the dev team. Guide and grow a small team of developers (2–3 to start) — setting the bar, unblocking them, keeping delivery moving. Customer work

 reaches the team through our account managers, so your job is turning that demand into clear priorities and shipped software.

 - Stay technical. Review code, pair on the hard problems, write code yourself when the team needs it. Lead from the front, not from a spreadsheet.

 - Own the architecture and infrastructure. The big technical decisions — how the software is structured, where the platform goes next, how it scales — are

 yours to drive, with the authority to make the call and the responsibility to get it right.

 - Drive how we use AI. Evaluate, adopt and roll out modern AI tooling (Claude and others) across the team and the business — not because you were asked,

 but because you saw where it removes friction and went and did it.

 THIS ROLE IS FOR YOU IF…

 - You're a strong engineer who's led or mentored before and is ready to fully own a team and a technical direction.

 - You're driven to move, shake and build something from the ground up.

 - You think and act like an owner — you spot what needs doing and get on with it.

 - You're genuinely excited about AI and already use it to do your best work.

 - You want a small, fast, no-politics environment where what you build actually ships.

 THIS ROLE IS PROBABLY NOT FOR YOU IF…

 - You're not based in South Africa. This is a fully remote role, but it's South-Africa based — we need you here, on SA time, not relocating or working

 from abroad.

 - You want to manage from above and never touch code again.

 - You're looking for a large, established engineering org with everything already in place.

 - You prefer a stable, predictable, hands-off seat over a scrappy build-it environment.

 - You need a fully-formed roadmap, team and process handed to you on day one.

 WHAT YOU'LL BRING

 - Based in South Africa, able to work SA business hours.

 - Around 5–8 years building software, with some experience leading a small team or mentoring developers.

 - Strong software-architecture fundamentals — systems that are reliable, sensible and built to grow.

 - Comfort being both the leader and the builder in a lean team.

 - Solid modern practices: version control, code review, testing, CI/CD.

 - An active, enthusiastic user of AI tools day-to-day.

 - Startup / early-stage experience is a big advantage.

 WHY JOIN SIMPLY FLEET

 - Real ownership of how we build — team, architecture, direction.

 - A seat at the table. Report directly to the CEO; as the company grows, so does this role — the technical leadership foundation of the business, with

 room to grow into our most senior technical seat.

 - No politics, no bureaucracy — just hard problems and the freedom to solve them properly.

 - A product people actually use, in a sector ripe for better tools.

 - Fully remote (within South Africa), trust-based and async-friendly.

 HOW TO APPLY

 Email your CV and a short note (half a page max) about something you've built that you're proud of — and why — to zane@simplyfleet.co.za. We review on a

 rolling basis. No recruiters or agencies, please.