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. Senior Software Engineer About the Role We are looking for highly capable Senior Software Engineers to strengthen Zeraki’s engineering capability and help us build scalable, reliable and high-quality technology across our education technology ecosystem. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone with strong technical depth, sound engineering judgment and a high level of ownership. You will work on complex systems, contribute to architectural decisions, solve challenging technical problems and help improve the reliability, performance and scalability of Zeraki’s platforms. You will work primarily within our Java/Spring Boot backend ecosystem, while collaborating closely with Frontend, DevOps, Product and other engineering teams to deliver cohesive, scalable and reliable systems. For engineers who demonstrate the capability and take on formal technical leadership responsibilities, Zeraki will provide a Tech Lead allowance. Requirements 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 Don't Keep Share!: WhatsApp Tweet