Lead Software Engineer

Montran Corporation is the leading global provider of payment and capital market solutions for over 45 years. Our customers represent many of the world’s foremost financial institutions, including over 20 major financial market regulators in Africa.

Montran is seeking a highly experienced Lead Software Engineer to drive the design, development, and delivery of mission-critical financial market infrastructure solutions across Africa. This role leads and mentors a team of engineers, provides technical guidance to regional and global teams, and contributes to architectural decisions for large-scale enterprise systems. The Lead Software Engineer will champion cross-office collaboration, oversee component lifecycles end-to-end, and support client-facing technical engagements. This position requires deep expertise in Java enterprise systems, strong leadership experience, and the ability to work in a fast-paced, high-impact environment serving major financial institutions.

• Lead and grow a team of software engineers in implementation and maintenance of mission-critical systems and projects through training, coaching and mentoring.
• Provide technical leadership to Montran Africa’s product sales and service support teams that service existing and prospective Clients.
• Champion cross-office collaborations with Montran’s global teams in technical matters and assist regional sales technically oriented enquiries originated by Montran’s global Service Managers.
• Facilitate appropriate in-house training of our Africa Team and ensure in-time contributions in all collaborative projects with Montran’s global teams.
• Lead technical discussions and contribute to architectural decisions across components and integrations, in implementation projects.
• Model business processes and translate them into clear, domain-driven software structures.
• Own the lifecycle of assigned components – from design and implementation to deployment, monitoring, and support.
• Perform code reviews, enforce engineering standards, and mentor less experienced developers.
• Collaborate with QA, DevOps, delivery and product teams to ensure quality, reliability, and smooth delivery.
• Contribute to process improvement, automation, and modernization initiatives regionally and beyond.
• Act as the Regional Executive Director’s principal technical adviser to provide expertise in client interactions and corporate advisory and reporting.
• Work closely with the Regional Executive Director in our Africa office in Nairobi to create, foster and reinforce a dynamic, disciplined, supportive and family-friendly work environment both in-office and cross-office collaborations.

• Excellent command of Java SE/EE, with strong understanding of distributed processing, data consistency, distributed transactions, horizontal and vertical scalability. 
• Deep experience building and maintaining modular, scalable enterprise systems using JEE and Spring Boot or similar frameworks.
• Demonstrably strong grasp of software architecture patterns (layered architecture, service-based architecture, event-driven systems, domain-driven design).
• Considerable experience with SQL and relational database design (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL).
• Easy familiarity with messaging, APIs, and integration frameworks (JMS, Kafka, REST).
• Proficiency in unit testing, integration testing, and test automation.
• Provable experience with SCM, build and deployment tools (Git, Gradle, Maven, Docker, CI/CD pipelines).
• Demonstrable experience of working in Linux-based environments.
• A clear, precise communicator in English: able to confidently explain and articulate technical and business matters. 
• Comfortable and committed to working full-time at a physical office location to guarantee daily oversight of other technical staff with occasional late working hours to service client emergencies and other urgent needs.
• Available and able to travel regionally and internationally on request.

• Expert Java SE/EE skills with strong experience in scalable, distributed enterprise systems.
• Solid software architecture knowledge (including DDD, layered and service-based architectures).
• Hands-on experience with Spring Boot, enterprise frameworks, and large codebases.
• Strong SQL and relational database skills (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL).
• Experience with integrations and messaging tools (JMS, Kafka, REST).
• Proficiency in testing, including unit and integration testing.
• Strong DevOps tools experience: Git, Maven/Gradle, Docker, CI/CD.
• Comfort working in Linux environments.
• Proven leadership experience managing software engineering teams.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate with global teams.
• Availability for full-time onsite work, occasional late hours, and regional/international travel.

Application deadline: December 10, 2025