Senior Software Engineer

About the role

You will join a small senior crew embedded inside a client organisation, usually a bank, telco, health system or energy operator. You will work in their repository, on their CI, in their on-call rotation. The systems are consequential and the constraints are real: regulatory scrutiny, legacy integration, and a business that cannot tolerate a bad release.

This is not staff augmentation. You are expected to shape architecture, push back on scope, and coach the client engineers you sit next to.

About OneCluster

OneCluster is a product and engineering company that embeds inside regulated institutions across Africa: banks, telcos, health systems, logistics operators and energy companies. We were founded in 2026 by practitioners who spent their careers inside those organisations.

We work embedded in our customers’ own teams rather than alongside them. That means their repository, their CI, their on-call rotation, and their constraints: regulatory scrutiny, legacy integration, and a business that cannot absorb a bad release. Every piece of work has a partner on it, in the standup rather than on the proposal.

The measure of our work is that the customer keeps running the practice after we leave. That shapes how we hire: we look for people who can raise the standard of the team around them, not only ship their own work.

The team you join

You will sit with a crew of four to six: engineers, a product person, and a delivery lead, embedded inside the client's own team rather than working alongside it.

What you will do

• Design and build production services in whatever stack the client runs, and become productive in it quickly.
• Work directly with client engineers, reviewing their code and having yours reviewed.
• Own a slice of the system end to end, from data model to deployment and on-call.
• Contribute to the architecture decisions that outlast the engagement.
• Coach through pairing and review rather than through documents.

Minimum qualifications

• Six or more years building and operating production systems.
• Deep command of at least one mainstream backend language, and a record of having picked up others when the work required it.
• Real experience with distributed systems, event-driven architecture or data-intensive services.
• Comfort in regulated or high-consequence environments, or clear appetite for them.
• The judgement to say when something is not working, early and plainly.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with core banking, clinical systems, telco OSS/BSS or grid systems.
• Background in consulting or embedded delivery.
• Public writing, open source contributions or conference speaking.
• Breadth across more than one language or runtime, since no two engagements look alike.

Your first three months

1. Ship something small to production in your first fortnight, so you learn the release path under real conditions.
2. Take ownership of one service or slice of the system by the end of month one.
3. Be in the on-call rotation by month two, with a colleague shadowing the first few shifts.
4. By month three, be the person the client's engineers ask before making a change in your area.

Compensation and benefits

Rates are agreed per engagement and depend on scope and seniority. We discuss numbers openly on the first call, before you spend time on a practical.

• Rates are agreed per engagement and discussed openly on the first call, before you spend time on a practical.
• Remote across Africa, with on-site weeks where the engagement calls for them.
• Work embedded inside regulated institutions, on systems with real consequences, alongside senior engineers who review your work and expect you to review theirs.
• Small crews and direct access to partners, with no layers between you and the decisions.
• Long relationships. We would rather work with the same capable people across engagements than hire for a single project.
• Straight answers. We tell you what we can and cannot offer before you commit, and we do not promise what we cannot deliver.

How we interview

The whole process is normally two to three weeks, and we work around your current job.

1. Application review. A partner reads every application. You hear back either way, usually within two working days.
2. Intro call, 45 minutes. Your background, what you want next, and honest answers about the work, the rate and the constraints.
3. Practical session, 2 hours. A realistic problem close to what the role actually involves, scheduled around you and sized to respect your time. We tell you the shape it takes when we book it.
4. Practical review, 60 minutes. We walk through what you built, why, and what you would change with more time.
5. Partner conversation, 45 minutes. Scope, expectations, terms, and your questions.
6. Decision, normally within two working days of the last conversation.

How to apply

Send an application through the form. A partner reads every one, and you will hear back either way. If you are unsure whether you qualify, apply anyway and say what you are unsure about.

We will tell you what we can and cannot offer before you commit to anything.

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