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Sr Software Engineer (Backend Focus)

Somewhere

Fully Remote
📍 Remote
🇿🇦 SA Friendly: 1.0/1.0

🇿🇦 Hirezar Summary for South African Applicants

This fully remote full time position at Somewhere is open to applicants from South Africa. The estimated monthly salary is R74,000 – R111,000 ZAR. This role is suited for senior-level professionals. As a remote position, you can work from anywhere in South Africa — whether you're based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, or a smaller town.

Job Description

Software Engineer (Backend Focus)

Location:Fully RemoteTime Zone Requirement:Must meaningfully overlap with U.S. Pacific, Mountain, Central, or Eastern time zonesTeam:EngineeringReports To:Head of Engineering

About the Company

We are a venture-backed B2B SaaS company building a new category ofAI-driven analytics and coaching softwarefor sales and post-sales teams.

Our platform goes beyond traditional dashboards by uncoveringhidden work, revealing trueCost to Serve, and connecting effort directly to outcomes — enabling modern organizations to operate more efficiently and scale with clarity.

Founded in 2022 and backed by institutional funding, we are a small, fast-moving team buildinghigh-impact analytics and AI-powered infrastructurefor modern businesses.

About the Role

We’re hiring aBackend-Focused Software Engineerto join our core engineering team.

This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy designing backend systems, building reliable integrations, working with data-heavy workflows, and owning features from concept to production.

While your strength will be backend development, this is not a siloed role. You’ll takeend-to-end ownershipof features — ensuring backend logic connects cleanly to frontend behavior and delivers a complete, production-ready experience.

You’ll help shape the technical foundation of an analytics platform where reliability, scalability, and correctness truly matter.

What You’ll Do

Backend Systems & Architecture
* Design, build, and maintain backend services, APIs, and data models
Design, build, and maintain backend services, APIs, and data models
* Develop scalable systems that support analytics and AI-driven workflows
Develop scalable systems that support analytics and AI-driven workflows
* Ensure data integrity, correctness, and performance across the platform
Ensure data integrity, correctness, and performance across the platform
* Improve reliability, observability, and maintainability of existing systems
Improve reliability, observability, and maintainability of existing systems

Feature Ownership
* Own features end-to-end, from schema design through delivery
Own features end-to-end, from schema design through delivery
* Collaborate with frontend engineers to ensure accurate UX behavior
Collaborate with frontend engineers to ensure accurate UX behavior
* Validate that backend logic surfaces correctly in user-facing workflows
Validate that backend logic surfaces correctly in user-facing workflows

Integrations & Data Pipelines
* Build and maintain integrations with third-party platforms (CRMs, communication tools, internal systems)
Build and maintain integrations with third-party platforms (CRMs, communication tools, internal systems)
* Design resilient ingestion pipelines and background workflows
Design resilient ingestion pipelines and background workflows
* Handle edge cases, failures, and data inconsistencies gracefully
Handle edge cases, failures, and data inconsistencies gracefully

Engineering Collaboration
* Participate in architecture and technical design discussions
Participate in architecture and technical design discussions
* Contribute to roadmap planning and technical tradeoff decisions
Contribute to roadmap planning and technical tradeoff decisions
* Review code and uphold engineering quality standards
Review code and uphold engineering quality standards

Engineering Excellence
* Write clean, testable, production-quality code
Write clean, testable, production-quality code
* Continuously improve performance, scalability, and system health
Continuously improve performance, scalability, and system health
* Operate comfortably in a fast-moving, evolving codebase
Operate comfortably in a fast-moving, evolving codebase

What You Bring

Required Experience
* 4–6 years of professional software engineering experience
4–6 years of professional software engineering experience
* Strong backend experience in production environments
Strong backend experience in production environments
* Proven ability to ship features independently
Proven ability to ship features independently
* Solid understanding of APIs, databases, schema design, and performance tradeoffs
Solid understanding of APIs, databases, schema design, and performance tradeoffs
* Experience working within an existing production codebase
Experience working within an existing production codebase
* Comfort operating in small teams with evolving architecture
Comfort operating in small teams with evolving architecture
* Strong problem-solving skills and ownership mindset
Strong problem-solving skills and ownership mindset

Technical Stack Experience

Experience with some or all of the following:
* Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails
* PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
* TypeScript
TypeScript
* React (for light frontend contribution)
React (for light frontend contribution)

(You do not need to be an expert in every tool — strong backend fundamentals matter most.)

Nice to Have
* Experience working with analytics pipeline

Tips for South African Applicants

Timezone Advantage

South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) overlaps well with European business hours and has a few hours of overlap with US East Coast. Mention your timezone flexibility in your application.

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Salary in Context

At R74,000/month, this role pays well above the average South African remote salary. The USD equivalent ($4,000/mo) benefits from the favourable exchange rate.

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Application Tips

Tailor your CV to international standards — use a clean format, highlight remote work experience, and include your English proficiency. Many SA applicants succeed by emphasising their strong work ethic and cultural adaptability.

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Load Shedding Preparedness

If you're applying for a remote role, having a backup power solution (UPS, inverter, or generator) and mobile data as a backup internet connection shows employers you're prepared for South Africa's infrastructure challenges.

About Somewhere

Somewhere is a company in the Recruitment & Staffing industry that hires remote workers from South Africa. They currently have 614 open positions on Hirezar. View all Somewhere jobs →