Lead Software Developer - Cape Town

Pinewood.AI is looking for an experienced and hands-on Lead Developer to play a key role in building our software development hub, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Reporting directly to our UK team, you will help establish the technical foundations of the new hub while driving collaboration with our Product and Engineering teams in Birmingham.

As a senior member of the team, you will lead a group of developers and senior engineers, shaping technical decisions, guiding delivery, and ensuring the team produces high-quality, scalable solutions for the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence Platform, our enterprise-scale SaaS product used by automotive retailers and OEMs worldwide.

This role is ideal for a strong technical leader who enjoys writing code, supporting the growth of others, and helping set the standard for engineering excellence within a new and growing location.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of developers and senior engineers within the Cape Town hub, providing day-to-day technical direction and support.
• Collaborate closely with UK-based Product and Engineering teams to deliver high-quality features and enhancements for the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence Platform.
• Remain hands-on in coding, design, and architecture, promoting best practices across the full .NET stack.
• Mentor and coach team members, helping them grow their technical capability and encouraging a culture of learning and improvement.
• Ensure the team delivers scalable, secure, and maintainable solutions that meet enterprise SaaS standards.
• Support the Engineering Manager with shaping local engineering processes, CI/CD pipelines, and development practices.
• Participate in architectural discussions, contributing to long-term technical decisions.
• Encourage strong communication and collaboration across the Cape Town and UK engineering teams.
• Diagnose complex issues, review code, and lead the resolution of technical challenges.
• Contribute to building a positive, high-performing team culture within the new hub.

Requirements:

• Proven experience as a Lead Developer, Senior Developer, or Technical Lead within a SaaS or enterprise software environment.
• Strong hands-on expertise in C#, .NET / .NET Core, and SQL / T-SQL.
• Solid understanding of database design, performance optimisation, and query tuning.
• Experience delivering front-end functionality using HTML, JavaScript, and Razor.
• Practical experience working with Azure Cloud Services and Azure DevOps (or equivalent CI/CD tooling).
• Proficiency with Visual Studio or VS Code.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, system design, and agile delivery practices.
• Experience guiding or mentoring developers, with the ability to lead through influence as well as example.
• Excellent communication skills, confident working with distributed teams across regions and time zones.
• Experience in the automotive or enterprise SaaS industries, or with complex, high-availability platforms, is highly desirable.

Desirable Experience:

• Previous experience helping establish or grow a new engineering team or function.
• Background working in a globally distributed development environment.

Why Join us?

This is a unique opportunity to take a leading technical role in the creation of Pinewood.AI’s first international development hub. You will work closely with experienced UK engineering teams, contribute directly to a globally trusted SaaS platform, and help shape the engineering culture and practices within a growing South African team. If you thrive in a hands-on leadership position where you can influence architecture, mentor others, and drive real product impact, we would love to hear from you.

About Us:
Our story began more than 20 years ago, but right from the start, it has been rooted in the specific needs of the automotive industry. As automotive professionals as well as technologists, we wanted to build practical technology solutions that were designed around how automotive businesses work, recognising what makes them different. Pinewood.AI is an unparalleled Automotive Intelligence Platform that enables automotive retail customers (dealerships) and OEMs to drive growth and profitability throughout every aspect of their business.

Pinewood’s cloud-based secure end-to-end ecosystem unlocks the value of every customer. Our vision is to be the full-service technology partner that helps automotive vehicle retailers and OEMs run more efficiently and increase revenue by making better commercial and business decisions more easily.