Principal Agentic Software Engineer, AI-Driven Banking Transformation in Johannesburg
FACT · Johannesburg, Gauteng
Overview
FACT is looking for an exceptional Principal Agentic Software Engineer to join a major digital banking transformation in Johannesburg. This is a full time, fixed term role where you will direct AI development agents, make key architecture decisions, and deliver secure, production ready software. If you have 8+ years of engineering experience, strong full stack and mobile skills, and hands on experience with tools like GitHub Copilot or Claude, this is a rare chance to help shape the future of enterprise software delivery in South African banking.
About the role
Join FACT as a Principal Agentic Software Engineer on a major digital banking transformation programme in Johannesburg. This full time, fixed term role is ideal for a senior engineer who wants to work at the intersection of AI and enterprise software delivery.
You will operate as the senior human in the loop, directing AI development agents, reviewing their outputs, making architecture decisions, and ensuring every solution is secure, performant, maintainable and production ready. You will work across frontend, backend, mobile, APIs, cloud native components and data, using frameworks such as React Native, Flutter, .NET MAUI, Swift, Kotlin or Ionic as needed.
Day to day you can expect to:
- Direct AI agents using user stories, Figma designs, business rules and engineering standards
- Refine AI Skills, markdown instruction files, prompts and workflows to improve delivery velocity
- Design and build full stack, end to end solutions
- Validate architecture and code generated by AI agents
- Coach engineers in Agentic Engineering practices and raise the technical bar
- Own quality engineering, including security, performance, reliability, accessibility and observability
- Continuously improve the Agentic Engineering system based on code review and delivery feedback
Important application note: This is a fixed term, full time position based in Johannesburg. Be sure to highlight your hands on experience with AI assisted development tools and your ability to lead engineering quality in an AI driven environment.
Requirements
- Typically 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with demonstrable Principal level capability
- Proven experience designing and delivering complex, enterprise grade software products
- Strong full stack engineering capability across frontend, backend, APIs, cloud services and data
- Strong understanding of distributed systems, API driven architectures and modern application architecture
- Strong commercial experience with modern cross platform mobile engineering
- Experience with React Native and/or Flutter is strongly preferred
- Experience with .NET MAUI, Swift, Kotlin or Ionic is advantageous
- Hands on experience using AI assisted software development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude or equivalent enterprise platforms
- Experience directing AI agents to perform meaningful software engineering tasks across the delivery lifecycle
- Experience creating or refining AI Skills, prompt libraries, markdown instruction files, coding agents or reusable engineering workflows
- Strong understanding of how context, instructions, examples, constraints and feedback loops influence agent quality
- Ability to recognise AI failure modes including incorrect assumptions, insecure implementations, architectural inconsistency and superficially plausible code
- Fluent enough in software architecture, secure software development, SOLID principles, performance engineering, design patterns, automated testing / TDD, domain driven design, CI/CD, API design, DevSecOps, distributed systems, observability, cloud native engineering, accessibility, code quality and technical debt management to guide and challenge AI agents effectively
- Banking or broader financial services experience is advantageous
- Experience working with enterprise design systems and reusable UI component libraries is advantageous
- Experience translating Figma designs and product requirements into production software is advantageous
- Experience in product led, agile or large scale digital transformation programmes is advantageous
- Experience mentoring senior engineers and influencing architecture across multiple teams is advantageous
- Experience establishing engineering standards, governance and reusable developer enablement capabilities is advantageous
Responsibilities
- Deliver enterprise grade software using advanced AI assisted and agentic engineering practices
- Direct AI development agents using complete product inputs such as user stories, Figma designs, business rules, design system components and engineering standards
- Continuously refine AI Skills, markdown instruction files, prompts, workflows and engineering guardrails
- Create reusable AI enabled engineering capabilities that reduce repetitive work and improve future delivery cycles
- Evaluate AI generated outputs critically rather than accepting them at face value
- Design, build and maintain modern frontend experiences, mobile applications, backend services, APIs, integration services, cloud native components and persistence layers
- Work across frameworks and languages rather than being constrained by a single technology ecosystem
- Act as a senior technical authority within AI assisted delivery
- Validate architecture and implementation choices made or proposed by AI agents
- Ensure solutions remain scalable, maintainable, secure, observable and performant
- Review AI generated code with the same or greater rigour applied to human written software
- Identify architectural drift, technical debt and hidden quality risks early
- Coach engineers in modern Agentic Engineering practices and raise the technical bar across the team
- Own the engineering quality of AI generated solutions including security, performance, reliability, maintainability, accessibility, observability, automated testing, scalability, CI/CD, DevSecOps and technical debt management
- Use code review and delivery feedback to improve Skills and instruction files with every iteration
- Translate engineering standards, coding conventions, security requirements and recurring review feedback into reusable agent guidance
- Measure where AI is effective, where human intervention is required and where workflows can be improved
- Help define the operating model, governance and engineering practices required to scale Agentic Engineering across the programme
- Contribute to making this way of working the future standard for software engineers
Job details
- Organisation
- FACT
- Location
- Johannesburg, Gauteng
- Job type
- Full time
- Experience level
- Senior (8+ years)
- Category
- IT & Software Development
- Application Method
- Apply manually
Success Guide
This is a rare opportunity to work at the forefront of AI driven software engineering in South African banking. For a Principal level role like this, your CV should clearly show your 8+ years of engineering experience and give concrete examples of how you have used AI tools like GitHub Copilot or Claude to deliver enterprise software.
In your application, highlight your experience directing AI agents, refining prompts or instruction files, and making architecture decisions. Also show your ability to work across frameworks, especially React Native or Flutter, and any banking or financial services background. During interviews, be ready to discuss how you review AI generated code, identify failure modes, and maintain engineering quality. This is a fixed term role with a major transformation programme, so demonstrate your ability to lead, coach and drive technical standards in a fast changing environment.
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