Senior Full-Stack Engineer

Overview

Build and operate Landela's products end-to-end, make strong technical decisions, and help a small engineering team deliver reliable software with clear ownership. Location, eligibility, and work model Landela Ltd · Nairobi, Kenya · Full-time · Remote-first Applicants must be based in Kenya and already have valid authorization to work in Kenya. Landela is hybrid by default: two office days and three remote days in a five-day week. Any role-specific additional remote flexibility is stated in the job description. Overview Landela is an early-stage technology company building and operating digital products and services. We are looking for a Senior Full-Stack Engineer who can take meaningful ownership across product development, architecture, infrastructure, integrations, and production operations. This is a hands-on individual-contributor role. You will write production code, make technical decisions, operate what you build, and help other engineers improve. Seniority in this role means owning problems beyond individual tickets and being able to provide direction when requirements or technical paths are not already defined. Why this role matters In a small engineering team, a senior engineer has a direct effect on how quickly the company can build without creating unnecessary technical debt or operational risk. We need someone who can make pragmatic trade-offs, identify the parts of a system that deserve careful engineering, avoid over-engineering the parts that do not, and help establish technical practices that remain useful as the team grows. Responsibilities • Own significant product areas or technical initiatives from problem definition and system design through implementation, deployment, monitoring, support, and improvement. • Design and build production software across frontend, backend, APIs, data models, integrations, and supporting services. • Make and document technical decisions around system boundaries, APIs, data flows, reliability, security, scalability, and maintainability. • Contribute directly to cloud infrastructure, deployment workflows, environments, CI/CD, observability, and other operational systems needed to run Landela's products reliably. • Investigate production incidents and difficult technical problems, identify root causes, and improve systems so the same problems are less likely to recur. • Build and maintain integrations with external APIs, identity providers, payment providers, partners, and other third-party systems with appropriate validation, failure handling, and monitoring. • Raise engineering quality through code review, testing practices, technical documentation, security fundamentals, and maintainable implementation without adding unnecessary process. • Mentor other engineers through design discussions, code reviews, pairing, debugging, and direct technical feedback, helping them take ownership of increasingly complex work. • Break ambiguous or complex problems into sensible increments, identify technical risks early, and keep delivery moving without waiting for perfect information. • Contribute to technical hiring and help maintain a clear engineering bar as the team grows. Requirements Experience & qualifications • At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience, including substantial experience building, deploying, and operating production web applications. • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field. • Strong TypeScript and JavaScript experience, with production experience using a modern frontend framework such as React and building backend services and APIs. • Demonstrated ownership of meaningful systems or technical initiatives end-to-end, including technical design, implementation, deployment, production support, and subsequent improvement. • Strong understanding of relational databases, API design, web application architecture, testing, security fundamentals, Git workflows, CI/CD, and production observability. • Hands-on cloud experience and the ability to work across application and infrastructure concerns without depending entirely on a separate platform or DevOps team. • Experience diagnosing real production failures, reasoning about technical trade-offs, and improving systems based on operational evidence. • Demonstrated experience reviewing technical designs and code, mentoring engineers, and improving the technical quality or effectiveness of a software engineering team. • Strong technical judgement and communication, including the ability to explain decisions clearly, challenge weak approaches constructively, and work independently in a distributed team. Nice to have • Production experience with Node.js, Next.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, and Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, AWS CDK, or similar tooling. • Experience with authentication, authorisation, payments, fintech, marketplaces, travel systems, or integration-heavy products. • Experience working as a senior individual contributor in an early-stage company where engineers owned both application development and production operations. What success looks like • Important technical areas have clear ownership and can move from ambiguous requirements to reliable production systems without constant supervision. • Technical decisions are pragmatic, documented where necessary, and appropriate for the company's current stage and likely near-term needs. • The team ships frequently while maintaining sensible standards for reliability, security, testing, and maintainability. • Production problems are diagnosed effectively, recurring failure modes are reduced, and operational visibility improves over time. • Code reviews and technical discussions improve quality without becoming delivery bottlenecks. • Other engineers become more independent in system design, implementation, debugging, and production ownership because of strong technical guidance. • Critical technical knowledge and decision-making are shared across the engineering team rather than concentrated in one person. What this role is • A senior hands-on individual-contributor role • Broad ownership across application architecture and production systems • Technical leadership through judgement, implementation, mentoring, and example • A role with meaningful influence over how Landela builds and operates software How this role works • You will write production code and also be expected to think beyond the immediate implementation. • You will contribute to infrastructure and operational concerns where they are part of delivering and running the systems you build. • You will provide technical direction and mentoring without formal people-management responsibility. • You will work closely with company leadership and other engineers, but senior engineers are expected to independently own technical decisions within their areas. Working style Landela operates with a small engineering team and minimal layers. Engineers are expected to take ownership, communicate clearly, review each other's work, document important technical decisions, and raise delivery or technical risks early. This is a remote-first role anchored in Nairobi. Most engineering work can be done remotely, with occasional in-person team sessions or working meetings when useful. Strong asynchronous communication, dependable availability, and independent execution are important. How to apply Use the application form below and describe a production system, service, or substantial feature that you personally owned. Explain what you were responsible for, one important technical trade-off you made, how the system was deployed and operated, and a production problem you encountered after release and how you resolved it. Go to application form: #careers-apply