Search Software Engineer

Takealot.com, South Africa’s leading online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Software Engineer (backend, preferably with search experience) to join our team. We are a young, dynamic, hyper-growth company looking for smart, creative, hard-working people with integrity to join us!

Think you’ve been challenged before? Think again!

• Scale: Over 4 million happy shoppers shop online on takealot.com. Show them what you can do.
• Learn: We work with the best of the best. Code alongside industry leaders and up-skill in record time.
• Grow: Expand your career in the fast-growing Takealot Group: takealot.com, TFS and Mr D. We like to promote from within: Here’s your chance.

Who’s who in the tech space

This position reports to the respective team's manager.

As a Software Engineer, you will be someone whose expertise directly translates into developing robust software in the e-commerce domain. You will have the opportunity to implement best practices to improve existing software and participate in the development of new features. While we don't promote after-hours work as part of the regular workday, we run a 24/7 business with the need to keep systems up and running. Software Engineers are expected to provide after-hours support on a rotational basis to resolve critical system issues if needed.

The role is focused on maintaining our search stack. We are currently in the process of transitioning from Elasticsearch to Vertex AI Search, so experience with any of those would be a bonus, but not a necessity. Experience with any kind of search technology (Solr, Algolia) is relevant, but even if you don’t have search experience, the most important factor is that you enjoy building scalable back-end systems, and have a strong interest in understanding how search systems are built to scale to that serve millions of customers.

Takealot runs mostly on Python, but experience in any of the mainstream backend languages (Python, Java or Go) is a plus.

• Design and build solutions to assist our business users and improve customer experience
• Architect and design solutions with your team
• Develop code, making major improvements to non-functional areas
• Develop high-quality production code for work of high complexity and scale
• Utilize and improve functional and non-functional testing practices
• Champion, challenge, and iterate on best practices within engineering
• Design solutions for complex problems with difficult decision trade-offs, typically system or domain-wide
• Participate in and collaborate on architecture proposals across engineering
• Support alignment of architecture across the organisation
• Respond to and resolve bugs in production for systems in your division
• Respond to alerts and support incident response within your division
• Investigate and drive the resolution of issues that impact multiple teams
• Support, challenge existing, and define new engineering processes and directives
• Review and contribute fixes and content to internal documentation
• React to technology trends, identifying risks and opportunities for your division's technologies, systems, and domains
• Share knowledge through blog posts, tech talks, and workshops across engineering
• Contribute to discussions and decisions in the division
• Challenge others to always produce work of the highest quality
• REST and RPC API implementation and maintenance (using Python)
• Develop and maintain automation tests
• Liaise with various internal stakeholders to discuss project requirements, progress, etc.

The skills we need

• Solutions-oriented, can-do attitude, and high energy
• Strong analytical and critical thinking, using data to inform decisions
• Ability to dis-aggregate and structure solutions to ambiguous problems
• Solid quantitative skills
• Capability to present ideas succinctly, in writing and verbally
• Versatile and with the appetite to learn by doing

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or an Advanced Diploma in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 5 to 10 years in a software development role
• Developing scalable backend systems
• A thorough understanding of computer science fundamentals, including object-oriented design, data structures, and algorithms
• Writing robust, efficient production code
• Proficient in a strongly typed open source language such as Python, Java, Golang, etc
• RESTful APIs and web services.
• SQL database systems
• Development in a Linux environment

Experience in the following will be advantageous

• Search technologies (Elasticsearch, Vertex AI Search, Solr, Algolia, or any other major third party provider)
• Familiarity with microservices architecture
• Working in an Agile environment
• MySQL, PostgreSQL
• Memcached, Redis
• Message Brokers, Queues, and PubSub systems (e.g., Kafka and RabbitMQ)
• Containerisation (e.g., Docker)
• Orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes)
• GitHub, Travis CI, Jenkins
• AWS, GCP, Azure
• JavaScript, React, jQuery

• The power is in your hands: We offer a market-related Total Remuneration Package that allows full flexibility according to your needs. Go on, be the master of your own destiny.
• No doors: We aren’t fans of stuffy offices or siloed work environments. See someone you like, high-five, collab, and make something great.
• Remote working: Enjoy the flexibility of working from home while having the option for in-office interactions. Takealot.com provides a fully remote setup with the choice to visit the office to relish in those water cooler moments when desired.
• Mentorship programme: We aren’t kidding when we say the people with the best people win. Now’s your chance to be one of the best by learning from the best.
• Naspers Tech Community & Online Learning: Share ideas and grow with global industry leaders who are all just a Slack message away. Love to learn? Up-skill with free access to courses on MyAcademy, Udacity, Coursera, and more.
• Good times: Get to know the other extraordinary minds at takealot.com during regular social events and out-of-office activities (think hikes, think mini golf, think good times).
• Staff discount: Takealotmore subscriptions and millions of products across 28 departments. What more could you ask for?
• Birthday leave: Cake Day all the way. Enjoy your day off - you deserve it.
• Right tools, right job: Mac or Linux, two monitors or one. Whatever your preference, you’ll work on the latest tech, off the latest tech.
• Help when you need it most: Confidential counselling, legal support, and financial guidance, anytime, anywhere.
• Tech stack (for days): ReactJS, Python, Scala, Kotlin, Swift, Google Cloud, Kafka, Redis, Kubernetes, and all things machine learning. If you build it, they will come.
• Free parking: No more 5km fun runs to your desk (unless you want to).

Like what you see?

If you meet the above, you are an Extraordinary Mind. Apply today!!